If there is one firm takeaway from last week’s opening of bids for Youngsville High School’s future use, it is that the building isn’t likely to be empty for long.

That’s good news given the difficulty in creating new uses for buildings that used to house schools. No one wanted to see an empty building in Youngsville for years.

Now that we’ve seen there is interest in the building, we hope the Warren County Commissioners are as open as possible before making its decision on the best project. Not much was said about the proposals during Wednesday’s commissioners meeting. That’s understandable since the submission deadline closed only a couple of hours before the commissioners meeting began. But that shouldn’t remain the case as decision time grows closer.

The public has had a lot of interest in the future of Youngsville High School, and we have no doubt that there will be a lot of opinions regarding the best future use of the building. In our view it would behoove the commissioners to be open as the selection process continues.

Transparency is a common complaint from those who attend local government meetings. New members of the Warren County School Board have expressed concerns about the county’s lease of the Youngsville High School building, while Youngsville officials expressed their own doubts about the future of the building during school closure discussions.

Simply selecting a proposal with no public discussion of the proposals that aren’t chosen doesn’t build community consensus for the future. Involving the public, or at least making important details of the proposals available publicly, will drive a community discussion about the future of the building and hopefully assuage the concerns that have been raised over the past several months.