WHATELY — With two purchase proposals submitted for the former Whately Center School, the Select Board has convened a review committee to provide a recommendation on which one to accept.

After years of trying to determine the future of the nearly 114-year-old building on Chestnut Plain Road, Whately has received two purchase proposals that would transform the building into a residential space, according to Town Administrator Brian Domina.

The review committee will be composed of Select Board member Joyce Palmer-Fortune, Historical Commission Chair Donna Wiley and the chairs of the Planning Board, Finance Committee and Center School Visioning Committee, Brant Cheikes, Paul Antaya and Jenny Morrison; or a designee of their choosing.

“This isn’t going to take a lot of time; there’s two proposals,” Palmer-Fortune said at a recent board meeting.

“And it may be done in one meeting if we do our homework.”

Domina said the committee will review the proposals based on the criteria laid out in the Center School’s request for proposals, score them and then provide a recommendation to the Select Board on which one to accept.

Regardless of which purchase option is recommended, the Whately Historical Society will retain control of the famous Quonquont Milk Bottle that greets drivers entering Whately’s Historic District. Other exterior aspects of the building will be under a historical preservation condition set by the town.

The town and Historical Society are in the process of determining whether to remove the 6,800-pound bottle, which is made out of concrete, wire mesh, stucco and a canvas top, or adjust the property boundary. Town officials were unclear on the official weight of the bottle until recently, when Whately Historical Society President Neal Abraham discovered the estimated weight.

“We don’t know if the milk bottle is stable enough to move. … Having it where it is, in a prominent, elevated location, serves that purpose of identifying the start of the Historic District,” Abraham said in November. “We don’t presently have an interest in moving it, and [the small cutout of property] or a slightly larger carveout would be adequate to our needs.”

A move of the milk bottle wouldn’t be unprecedented. The structure was moved in October 1995 from its previous home on Routes 5 and 10 by members of the National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air Force Base with an all-terrain forklift. The National Guard, according to Greenfield Recorder archives, offered to move the structure after learning Whately did not have the resources to move it.

If sold, Whately will be one step closer to ending a process dating back to November 2019, when the town convened the Center School Visioning Committee to research possible future uses of the former Whately Center School. In a March 2020 report issued by the committee, it included several options, including demolition to make room for a town park or a rebuild, renovating it, selling it or renting it to a developer — which was the committee’s ultimate recommendation.

Whately issued a separate RFP to lease the building at the end of 2022 with conditions that the renter would redevelop the building at a reduced rent, but the RFP did not receive a single response. The sale RFP was issued in early November and closed Dec. 13.

The review committee is expected to meet in early 2024.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.