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Six years after it closed to public school students, the future of the old Blacksburg Middle School might soon be decided.

If Blacksburg Town Council approves up to $75,000 for its share of expenses, an international design competition to solicit redevelopment plans for the downtown property could begin later this month.

Members of the Old Blacksburg Middle School Transition Committee -- an ad hoc committee tasked with composing a redevelopment plan -- have been working for months with local architect Donna Dunay on the competition idea. A winning design could be chosen sometime in May under the most optimistic timeline.

Competitors will be required to follow certain guidelines for the project to be agreed upon by county and town officials.

A contest similar to that proposed for the old school was held in 1992 to solicit designs for the Blacksburg branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library. Many ideas from that contest have been implemented, not only in the library but also in other Blacksburg government facilities.

The council will have to hold a public hearing and vote to appropriate funds for the new competition. That hearing is yet to be scheduled. The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has already adopted a resolution supporting the competition and pledging financial support. Fees for the competition could go as high as $150,000, to be split equally between the council and the supervisors.

Meanwhile, Councilman Tom Sherman has been assigned to the transition committee as the council's liaison. Paul Lancaster, the council's former liaison, was voted out of office in May. Lancaster, who currently serves as chairman, will remain on the committee. Having a council member involved is important "to make sure whatever we do, council supports it," he said.

Sherman has a long history of work on various committees looking at uses for the old school, and he said Thursday that he supports the design competition.

"It seems to me we have to have some kind of action that will help us come to some solution," Sherman said. The design competition will allow "creative people ... to look at all of these issues and come up with some designs that can be applied to that site that will be broadly appealing."

Other members of the transition committee are Blacksburg resident Kathryn Albright, county resident Gary McCoy, Montgomery Supervisor Gary Creed and County Administrator Clay Goodman.

Doing anything with the old school will require the cooperation of three government bodies: the council, the supervisors and the county school board. The school board owns the property and must agree to turn it over to the supervisors before it can be sold or leased. But the council controls the zoning of the property, which could affect its value.

Many in Blacksburg want the old school, which sits prominently on 20 acres near the downtown commercial district, preserved as a community or civic center. But most county officials and many county residents want to sell or lease the property, potentially for millions of dollars to build new schools.