By John Carr
The proposed community center at Hartwell is an attempt to move even more school expenses outside of the school budget. The so-called “community center” is largely a Parks and Recreation facility with the stated goal of serving schools. It mixes facilities explicitly meant for the school with facilities that, underused, can be annexed by the school. The voters put a cap on school costs in 2018 and the town should respect us by respecting it.
If we’re talking about a “community” center, why are we putting it where there is no community around it? If the (former) Council on Aging wants space for the aging, why put it where no aging people live? We might as well rent some office space just over the town line in Waltham. Once you have to get in the car anyway it’s not much more effort to go to another town.
One site considered by the 2015 community center report is not in the middle of nowhere: the commuter rail parking lot. The report tried to steer voters away from this location by bundling an underground parking garage to make it more expensive.
Everything changed in 2020. Commuter rail as a transport mode died of Covid. The town-owned parking lot is nearly empty. We can put a building on half of it and nobody will be inconvenienced. We don’t need to replace any lost parking spaces, much less build an expensive underground facility.
As well as now being the cheapest of the six options studied, the Lincoln Station site also has the advantage of being
- Near shops, so people can combine shopping or dining with community center activities
- Near Codman farm
- Near aging people that the Council on Aging is meant to serve
As a more ambitious project we could include affordable apartments to help meet our housing goals. This part could be paid for by CPA funds.
If the town votes for further study, it should limit the options to Lincoln Station and put a hard cap on the cost estimate. And if the cheerleaders for a school annex argue that Lincoln Station is not an option because Saturn is retrograde or some such, then the town should just say “no” to the whole white elephant.
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