By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 August 2020 at 11:39 am

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – The Holley village offices and main meeting room are now located in the second floor of the former Holley High School auditorium. The village started to move over the village offices from 72 Public Square about three weeks ago.

Home Leasing has turned the building, which was vacant for more than two decades, into 41 apartments and the offices for the village.

The main meeting room includes about 70 seats from the old auditorium that were refurbished. There are also about 40 seats up in the balcony but they are for display and aren’t available to the public.

Holley Mayor Kevin Lynch gives a tour of the site on Friday. The village offices look out on South Main Street and Route 31. Lynch is a member of Holley’s Class of 1975, which was the last class to graduate in the old high school.

He praised Home Leasing for a stunning transformation of the building, which is prominently located at Holley’s main intersection in the village.

Here is the view from the balcony looking down on the meeting room, which was used for its first Village Board meeting on Aug. 11.

There is still some cosmetic work to be done on the front of the building, including adding new columns.

Mayor Lynch said there is some confusion on the public on how to enter the building to reach the village offices. People should go through the front doors facing the flag pole.

The village was planning to move into the building in March but Covid-19 delayed some of the construction work.

The offices are on the second floor and can be by elevator or by stairs. Home Leasing was able to save and reuse the handrails from the school.

Village Clerk Deborah Schiavone likes the view from the second floor. Residents are very thankful Home Leasing took on the $17 million project, Schiavone said.

“The people who have gone to school here and remember the building are very impressed to see it now,” she said.

This is the entrance to the village offices on Friday. The signs tell people to wear masks and use hand sanitizer.

Here is how the space looked in October, when Home Leasing gave the community a chance to see the construction progress.

This is a hallway in the former school where there are now 41 apartments – one studio, 35 one-bedrooms, and five two-bedroom apartments.

Some of the locker doors were saved and placed along the hallway for ambiance.

Home Leasing has turned the space into a modern office building with a historic flavor.

Home Leasing offered a glimpse of the old auditorium in October, when there was still a lot of work to do to get the space ready for the village employees and public.