Town gets ready to vote on the future of a community center

After hearing yet more public input on the proposed community center, the Select Board wrestled with the wording of the proposed motion for the November 30 Special Town Meeting amid more discussion of the lower-cost options and even keeping two town departments in their current locations.

Public sentiment on the community center idea has swerved back and forth in recent weeks. Many residents and officials, backed up by numerous studies of space and programming, have noted the need for a facility to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging and Human Services, since their current locations (the Hartwell pods and Bemis Hall, respectively) are in dire need of repair and modernization. Work on the community center idea was suspended during the school building project, with the understanding that the town would put it on a fast track soon after that work was done.

But other Lincolnites, stunned by the ballooning cost of the two design ideas (each now about $25 million) put forth in 2018 and the tax impact of the school project, have urged a “no” vote on the measure to spend $325,000 for project management, design, and engineering consultants to create detailed plans and budgets. 

Originally, the intent was to use the $325,000 to simply flesh out the two concepts developed by Mary Ann Thomson Architects, but with the concerns about price, the current motion now calls for “developing a range of community center design choices and budgets for the Hartwell complex.” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer suggested early in the board’s November 28 meeting that a lowest-cost option might consist of updating Bemis and the pods, a middle option might include some additional updates, and the costliest option would be fleshing out the two 2018 concepts “with all of the needs and most of the wants.”

However, previous studies have shown that Bemis’s layout, overall size, and parking availability mean that it cannot be made to function safely and effectively as a headquarters for the growing COA&HS — and most agree that the PRD needs to be located on the school campus. Other possible community center sites in town were considered, but cost analyses and voter sentiment at previous meetings showed that the Hartwell site made the most sense as a joint space for both departments.

If the $325,000 is approved, the Community Center Building Committee will direct architects to “develop additional, lower-cost options beyond the two chosen by the town in 2018 and refine all plans with a sharp eye for costs,” CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said at the Select Board meeting where she and others rehearsed their Town Meeting presentations.

An outline of the community center planning and needs was already presented at the first State of the Town Meeting on November 14 (see slides here). However, after hearing the misgivings expressed that night, the committee now plans on Wednesday to “dive one layer deeper at each stage and explain how conclusions were built on one another in an inductive and iterative fashion,” Chester said.

In an attempt to be as flexible as possible, the original motion recommended by the CCBC did not include a stipulation that a community center should be located at Hartwell. But Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer worried that such a motion “muddies the waters a little bit,” since all the earlier discussions had focused on that site as the best choice. Board member Jennifer Glass also expressed doubt that the $325,000 would cover the cost of developing lower-cost options at Hartwell while also looking at other sites in town.

“You can’t say [the vote] is definitely about a community center but that it might not be at Hartwell,” board member Jim Hutchinson said. 

The board concluded that even a lowest-cost option must involve a dual-use building to house both departments at Hartwell rather than simply renovating the pods and Bemis. “The low-cost option is not a community center” if the COA&HS is still headquartered in Bemis, even if that building could be sufficiently improved, he added. 

“If the will of town is Hartwell-centric, the low end might be a pod infill concept [while] pulling the scope back,” perhaps through more extensive reconstruction of the pods which might or might not be linked together, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said. “We could look at the [2018] Thompson concepts with detailed spreadsheets that go over program space room by room and create two columns for ‘need’ and ‘like’.”

“I think there are lots of places where a good architect can come up with a reduction in the scope and size of the building,” such as by eliminating an atrium or making offices smaller, CCBC member Alison Taunton-Rigby said. 

Margaret Olson recommended emphasizing that the 2018 concepts were “at an early stage and contained a great deal of what everyone wanted… A lot of people have asked for a lot of things and I think some of it needs to come out, though I’m not sure what. There’s concern that this has gotten too expensive and we haven’t paid attention to what we really need.”

The Select Board (which was required to vote on a motion to present at Town Meeting) was worried enough about changing the wording of the CCBC’s motion that they asked for input from any committee members who were still watching the meeting on Zoom. Susan Taylor responded that she thought the committee left out Hartwell-specific language because “they were afraid they’d get double ‘no’s because people would think they’re voting on the final design [at Hartwell] even though you keep telling them you’re not.” 

Chester had already left Town Hall after making her representation in person, but she logged on again from home. “After hearing tonight about why we’re focusing on Hartwell, it’s reasonable for us to put Hartwell into the motion,” she said.

If the November 30 measure is voted down, “both organizations still desperately need updated and safe space,” Chester said. Even a minimal renovation of Bemis and the pods will cost millions of dollars, “and everything will be more and more expensive the longer we delay.”

The Town Meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Donaldson Auditorium. Residents must attend in person to comment and vote, but they may watch the proceedings from home via this Zoom link (passcode: 947551).