WHATELY — Having received two responses to a request for proposals for the sale of the Whately Center School, members of the Center School Visioning Committee are asking for more time to come up with an idea to retain the historic building.

Jenny Morrison, chair of the Center School Visioning Committee, which released a 2020 report detailing potential future uses of the roughly 114-year-old building on Chestnut Plain Road, asked the town to reach out to the two developers to request two more weeks before making a final decision on the property.

“The Visioning Committee is prepared to undertake several tasks to try and create an alternative disposition for the Center School, rather than go ahead with the recommended RFP,” Morrison said, adding that seven of the 10 Visioning Committee members are on board with the plan. “The question is, will you give us time to do that?”

An ad hoc committee that was created to review the two proposals unanimously recommended the town sell the property to Robert Obear, who is also renovating the Blue School at 219 Christian Lane. Still, Select Board and ad hoc committee member Joyce Palmer-Fortune noted that members agreed “neither of the applications are perfect.”

Obear offered to buy the building for $1,000 — the same price the Frontier Regional School District sold the Blue School to him for — and renovate it into a single-family home. Any renovations made to the exterior of the building will have to follow the historical preservation restriction the town has attached to the RFP.

Regardless of the future owner of the building, the Whately Historical Society will retain control of the famous Quonquont Milk Bottle that serves as the entryway to Whately’s Historic District.

Morrison noted neither RFP response met the requests of Whately residents that were included in the Visioning Committee’s report, which Palmer-Fortune agreed with, but the Select Board member said the building requires extensive investments for it to be used.

“We were not convinced the town was prepared to invest the kind of money that would be required to keep that building safe and authentic,” Palmer-Fortune said. “I really don’t want the town to lose that piece of land, but the other choice is to let that building decay.”

Instead, Morrison and members of the Visioning Committee proposed a series of actions that could potentially keep the building in the town’s possession, while also revitalizing it and renting it out as professional space. Steps include getting quotes for roof repairs, seeking Community Preservation Act funds and launching a capital campaign to raise money.

“If what you’re asking for is a guarantee of funding, I can’t make that happen,” Morrison said. “I can generate other steps as have been outlined that the Visioning Committee is willing to stand behind, but there’s no point in doing that unless the Select Board is willing to give us the time.”

While showing some initial skepticism, Select Board members said they could ask the two companies that responded to the RFP if they could wait a couple more weeks before the town makes a decision.

“Jenny, I would be in favor of giving you two weeks to put some flesh on the bones of this idea, but we can’t go much beyond that. … We can’t let this hang out there forever,” said Select Board Chair Fred Baron, adding that the board would like to see a “ballpark figure” of costs.

“I was extremely dissatisfied by both the offers for the building and the property, given what it’s valued at, and given what they want to do with it,” Select Board member Julie Waggoner added. The building and land is assessed at $516,100, according to the assessors’ map. “I would recommend we give the Visioning Committee a little more time to pull something together.”