'Squatters' Use Campaign Signs to Sleep at Eastman School

UPDATED: Police say they've been at the Eastman grounds several times during the last few months. 

During the last two weeks, the vacant Eastman Elementary School has had some unexpected visitors.

No, not buyers, interested in purchasing the building from the Concord School District for potential development. But “squatters.”

Matt Cashman, the director of facilities and planning for the district, confirmed that there have been reports of people camping on the grounds of the school. According to Cashman, two “young people” had recently put together a makeshift tent out of political signs up against the side of the building of the vacant school.

“I have received some phone calls about it,” he said. “Even though it is closed, we do check on it. I sent people out and they did notice that two people were scrambling away from the school.”

The Concord Police Department was called in to inspect the building, take pictures, and assess the safety of the building. Cashman also asked for increased police presence at the building.

“It’s still our investment, we want to protect it,” he said.

According to Lt. Timothy O'Malley, the commander of the Criminal Investigations Unit at the department, police have received a number of calls about people being seen on the property. Officers, he said, "checked the building repeatedly" during the past several months. Last week, the two men who were seen at the school claimed to be hitchhikers. 

"They were moved along," O'Malley noted, adding that later in the morning, officers went back and found handmade signs indicating they were hitchhikers. 

Since that time, O'Malley said, officers that work in East Concord have been conducting regular patrols of the school. 

Cashman said there was no evidence of anyone entering the building, which is in lockdown and alarmed. There is outside lighting illuminating the grounds that has probably helped neighbors in the area see the people squatting on the grounds.

“I’ve encouraged them to contact me, any time of the day, and we’ll immediately take appropriate measures to fix the situation. I haven’t heard anything since.”

As far as selling the school, Cashman said there were “no new leads” of potential development after an assisted living facility proposal was floated as part of the Castagna studies. He said most of the focus by the Concord School Board has been the proposals for the vacant Walker and Rumford schools.

Walker has at least three proposals for the school, including a Concord Group Insurance satellite office, a new television and radio studio for Bill Binnie’s broadcasting entities, and a retirement housing community. Rumford is currently being leased by PSNH and both CATCH Housing and Christ the King Parish have expressed interest in the building.