AUCTION HELD — Jeff Crook, superintendent of Brooke County Schools, read the legal description for the former Wellsburg Middle School building and its riverfront property during a public auction Monday but no bids were submitted. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — A public auction Monday for the former Wellsburg Middle School building was attended by about 20 people, including three registered bidders, but no bids were received.

Jeff Crook, Brooke County superintendent of schools, noted a minimum bid of $250,000 had been set for the property, which includes about 70,828 square feet under and around the three-story building, which was built in 1927.

He advised attendees under state code, such school property must be sold through public auction and any bid was subject to the Brooke County school board’s approval.

Following the event, he confirmed a party had expressed interest in buying it or the school board would not have moved forward with the auction.

Crook said since no bids were received, the building will continue to serve the Bruin Bridge, an alternative school for Brooke County students for whom traditional classroom settings aren’t as effective.

The school board had solicited and accepted, contingent upon the sale, about $161,315 in bids to renovate an area of Brooke High School for the alternative school.

The former middle school has become home in recent years to the Wellsburg Police Department and the Brooke County Family Support Center.

The latter is an arm of the Brooke-Hancock Family Resource Network that offers informational programs and activities for the parents and guardians of young children.

As they entered the building on Monday, a few spectators commented on the role the school played in their lives.

It also had been a high school until it and high schools in Follansbee and Bethany were consolidated as Brooke High School in 1969.

Like Wellsburg Middle School, Follansbee High School was repurposed as a middle school until the two were replaced by Brooke Middle School in 2017.

The merger and others involving the county’s primary schools led to the closing of four schools around that time.

Vowing the vacant buildings wouldn’t become dilapidated eyesores, school officials agreed to sell each at auction.

Follansbee Middle School was purchased by Ewusiak Development, where it has established office space for its operations while leasing other areas for several businesses.

The L.B. Millsop Primary School and Beech Bottom Primary School buildings now are occupied by a daycare center and a private Christian school, respectively.

Also sold at auction, Colliers Primary School is unoccupied.