Westport will go ahead with a feasibility study on what to do with the town's old high school at 19 Main Road, following a unanimous vote of approval by voters at Tuesday evening's Town Meeting.

The school has been closed for three years and is unoccupied apart from hosting Westport Community Schools administration offices.

Warrant article 26 authorizes the select board to spend up to $200,000 on the study and compensate a project manager who will oversee the work. The article gives the town permission to study the building's possible municipal, educational, school administration and housing uses — a floor motion to remove housing as a possible use failed prior to the main vote.

The property was assessed last year at approximately $11 million, and the town's long term building re-use committee has come out largely in favor of keeping it and moving all municipal offices and the Council on Aging there. Doing so, several have said, would save the town millions on the upkeep and other costs necessary to keep town hall and the town hall annex open.

The study approved Tuesday evening would not be the first. One completed last year suggested that while it could cost $29 million to restore and reconfigure the building for municipal use, it would cost nearly as much — $24 million — to renovate the current town hall, annex and Council on Aging buildings, which will then need ongoing and expensive maintenance. Several board members believe the money would be better spent moving town offices to the old high school, as the town hall, annex and COA properties are old, cramped and inadequate for the town's future needs.

On Tuesday, an audience member asked why the town is spending more on a study when one has already been completed.

"That (last study) was a first pass at what to do," select board member Shana Shufelt replied. "In order to move the project forward, we need more detailed information. Because what we got from that previous feasibility study was not enough to come to the voters. So if the project is going to proceed, we need more information ... so that we could put together a reasonable proposal to the voters for a long term bonding project."

As for the project manager, she said, one is crucial because the long term building reuse committee, as hard-working as it is, is a volunteer body and simply does not have the resources or time to oversee such a large study in a timely fashion.

"It will get done much faster"  if a dedicated manager oversees the work, she said. "For me, this is not necessarily about 'Yes, we're reusing the school,' but more like 'Hey voters, if you want to reuse the school, this is a more realistic estimate."

Brian Valcourt, a former select board member who chairs the building committee, said Tuesday evening that a full-fledged study is the next step in his hope, to retain the building for municipal uses.

"This committee felt like it would be in the town's best interest, and most economically responsible, to not divest ourselves of this hugely valuable asset and we recommended to the select board that instead of divesting ourselves of this asset, that we look into investing into this asset in order to relocate all of the town offices in one building and also house the Council on Aging, school administration and several other departments."