WHATELY — After nearly half a year of waiting, the town has issued a request for proposals (RFP) that will help decide the future of the former Whately Center School.

The RFP seeks a buyer for the 113-year-old building on Chestnut Plain Road, but the sale will not include the famous Quonquont Milk Bottle that greets drivers entering the town’s Historic District. The milk bottle is owned by the Whately Historical Society.

While potential buyers express their interest in the property, the town will explore the future of the 3,000-pound, 18-foot-tall bottle. The structure will either need to be removed from the property or the property boundary will need to be adjusted. The integrity of the structure — constructed using concrete, a wire mesh, stucco and a canvas top — is unknown and the town will consult with a structural engineer before making a decision about moving it.

“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,” said Neal Abraham, president of the Whately Historical Society. “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.

The other challenge with a move is finding a suitable location for the milk bottle. Selectboard Chair Fred Baron said there may be a spot near Town Hall, but officials should keep all options in mind, including the boundary change, if necessary.

“Among many threshold questions, the first one is, is it movable?” Baron said. “I think that spot south of Memorial Park would be a reasonable place for it.”

Regardless of the future location of the milk bottle, Baron said the town should not hold up the RFP process on that basis, especially because any delay would have the process extend into the holiday season, which could result in fewer responses.

If the town is able to find a buyer through the RFP process, it 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.

The town 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 did the RFP not receive a single response.

The RFP to purchase the former Whately Center School was issued on Nov. 8 and the town will host a site visit on Nov. 20. The deadline for responses is 2 p.m. on Dec. 13. Interested developers can obtain a copy of the RFP by contacting Town Administrator Brian Domina at townadmin@whately.org or by visiting the Town Offices at 4 Sandy Lane.

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