Committee narrows down three sites for proposed new Senior Center

Nov. 7, 2018 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

The Senior Center Building Feasibility Committee met on Nov. 1 to discuss the three building sites that they’ve deemed options for a new senior center: Memorial Elementary School, 60 Post Office Park and Springfield St. behind the Wilbraham Town Hall.
Reminder Publishing photo by Payton North

WILBRAHAM – Wilbraham seniors and residents alike attended the Nov. 1 Wilbraham Senior Center Feasibility Building Committee Meeting, where the Committee updated the town on the three prospective locations they are looking at to host the towns new senior center.

Nearly 40 residents piled into the meeting room at the current Wilbraham Senior Center location at 45 Post Office Park. This space is from the Scantic Valley YMCA.

The Committee explained that since the committee was formed in 2014, they’ve gone through 19 options of where in town a new senior center could be located. They’ve narrowed it down to three: in a renovated Memorial Elementary School, a new construction built on the property behind the Town Hall on Springfield Street, or a leased new building at 60 Post Office Park.

The Committee explained that there are two criteria that they need to examine for each option: the location, and the money.

Memorial Elementary School

Director of Elder Affairs Paula Dubord shared with the committee her findings at Memorial Elementary School, which originally closed its doors in 2010. The school once housed Wilbraham’s second through sixth grade students, and was built in 1950. Starting in 2011, Memorial School was leased by the Springfield Diocese for more than $360,000 per year to house Cathedral High School students following the devastating tornado. Cathedral has since merged with Holyoke Catholic High School and relocated to the Holyoke Catholic School in Chicopee. In February of 2017, the Hampden Wilbraham Regional School District School Committee announced that they would no longer lease Memorial School from the town of Wilbraham. The building has sat vacant since.

Dubord shared that Memorial School is 48,895 square feet, including a 1,000 square foot stage, a 22,000 square foot kitchen and a 4,800 square foot gym. She added, that they’re looking for a space for seniors to be roughly 15,000 square feet. Dubord continued, stating the building has asbestos in the floor tiles and ceiling, there is inefficient lighting and no air conditioning.

She explained that renovation would be necessary to bring the building up to code. The building is not ADA compliant, Dubord said, and the entrance worked well for a school but not for a senior center. Memorial School would need a sprinkler system to be installed throughout the building.

According to Dubord, there are two heating systems in the building. One is “extremely old,” and the second system covers only half of the front classrooms. Dubord presented a figure of $2 million to fix the heating system alone.

There are two roofs on Memorial, she shared, stating the first is 15 to 20 years old and is approaching replacement. The second is on the gym, and shingles need to be replaced.

The windows of Memorial school have been replaced once in the last 68 years, however Dubord stated they are inefficient.

Finally, she shared that the driveway is quite damaged, and would need a draining system.

In 2014 the Senior Center Feasibility Committee had hired Catlin & Petrovick Architects of Keene, NH, as John Catlin has designed over 50 senior centers. Of the Memorial School location, Catlin predicted it would cost $14 million to $15 million to renovate the entire space up to code. Dubord added that a new building is projected to cost $6 million to $8 million.

Springfield Street

One of the original properties that the Senior Center Feasibility Building Committee had looked at was to the left of the Town Hall. They found that location was not feasible, as it was a wetland area. However, they hadn’t looked at the 2.75-acre plot of land located behind the Town Hall, which is now one of their three top options to place the new senior center.

This property is town owned, so the town would not need to purchase the land to build. Of the property, Dubord explained to the Committee that it’s in a good location near the center of town, and has access to the Town Halls generator. The land has access to water and sewer. Lance Trevallion stated they’ve discussed that there is a pipe for sewer that can be accessed at this location and would be pumped to Stony Hill School. This cost would benefit the town, they added.

There are wetlands on one side of the property, however. The committee noted that the wetlands must be delineated and they will need an environmental scientist to visit the site.

There would be a new driveway in and out to the Springfield St. location, separate from the Town Hall. Again, the committee stated that the cost to build a new building would be between $6 million and $8 million.

At the Nov. 5 Select Board meeting, the Committee met with the Board to discuss their findings. Bob Russell stated that Trevallion had informed the Board that there are no wetland issues at the site behind the Town Hall.

60 Post Office Park

The third option would be a new construction located at 60 Post Office Park. Local real estate agent and developer Glen Garvey of Garvey Group Inc. brought this option to the Committee. Currently the 60 Post Office Park property is a field that grows corn. Dubord shared that she’s sat in many meetings with both Garvey and the architect to discuss this option. Garvey has offered to the committee to lease a new building in that space to the Town. This would not be a lease to own option. The lease would be for the space; according to the board, would be roughly $290,430 annually.

This building would be about 16,135 square feet. The building would be a two–story space, however the bottom floor would be the senior center. The top floor, the Committee explained, would be dedicated to affordable housing with approximately six apartments. The concept of the apartments would be “a senior village space” for individuals who would like to downsize while still living in Wilbraham. Additionally, the space would be so large that the senior center wouldn’t need the entire bottom floor, and there would be space at the back of the building for senior–related services.

The proposed space would have a multi purpose room, a fitness space and multiple bathrooms. Dubord stated that there is a room large enough for voting so elections could take place at the Senior Center instead of the schools. Additionally, she noted that rooms could be rented for $100 to $250 an hour to outsiders, giving the senior center an opportunity to generate income.

As the meeting continued, the Committee shared that this space would be three times larger than the space they’re currently occupying. As the group discussed amongst themselves and the attendees listened in, they shared that if the town chose this option it would take roughly one year to complete the project, stating, “it’s ready to build.”

Committee member Carolyn Brennan shared a concern, questioning what would happen if Garvey changed his mind 10 years down the road, as the town would have a 10 year lease, and no longer wanted to have a senior center in Post Office Park. Dubord responded that this building would truly be outfitted to be a senior center and it’s “not really for anything else.”

The cost to build this structure technically isn’t the town’s responsibility Dubord stated, as the town would merely be paying rent and not for the cost of the structure. With that said, this would be adding roughly $200,000 to the town’s annual budget, Dubord told the committee, as the town currently pays about $70,000 annually for their space, and would be getting $50,000 back in taxes each year with the build of this structure.

Discussion

While Assistant Town Administrator for Budget and Finance Treasurer/Collector Thomas Sullivan was not able to attend the meeting, the Committee explained that Sullivan had told the group that building their own center was preferable to leasing.

“We’ve had our auditors report, it’s been published and we’re in about as good as shape, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years, that I’ve ever seen in terms of our cash position, our stabilization and so on and so forth,” a member of the committee stated. “Much to the credit of our finance committee, our capital planning committee’s marvelous job, and, the townspeople who’ve made smart choices with debt exclusions rather than override. With all that being said, we’re at the recommended levels for all those numbers that the state looks at, and if you look at Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, we have as high of a bond rating as you can get for a little town. It’s not the highest, but we’re not eligible for the highest because of the nature of our municipality.”

The Committee continued to discuss their three options, stating that the Springfield St. option behind the Town Hall seems to work, however they cannot make a decision on it yet as the wetlands needed to be delineated and there would need to be an environmental scientist on the premises to determine if it was buildable. With that said, as previously stated, following the Nov. 1 meeting at the Senior Center, the Committee attended the Nov. 5 Select Board meeting and shared that there are no wetlands located in the area that the new senior center would be built behind on behind the Town Hall.

While originally the group intended to vote on which property would be the best option to present to the town, the Committee decided against voting for one property over another, as they were not aware of the financial implications at this time.

Brennan stated this is the most encouraged she’s felt about the progress of the Committee.

A committee member added that he feels strongly that the town should own the future building as opposed to leasing. He related the situation to owning versus leasing a car, and that after five years when he’s done paying off his car, he can then enjoy a few years without having to pay. If the town were to lease, he noted they would be subject to lease prices, which could increase.

The Senior Center Feasibility Committee agreed that they wanted to do 20–year financial projections for both the Springfield St. location and the Post Office Park location. The group then agreed that they wanted to vote out the Memorial School option, noting that the property has been deemed surplus property and can be sold. They shared that the property has been appraised for just under $1 million, and though the property is 31 acres only 7 of the acres are buildable.

The committee opened up the meeting to discussion from the public with several residents expressing questions and concerns regarding the project.

A resident asked if it would be possible to only use and renovate a portion of Memorial School, to which the committee responded the entire structure of the building would have to be renovated and sprinklers would have to be placed in the entire building.

Regarding traffic, a resident questioned if there would be any concern for increased traffic on Boston Road if the Post Office Park location was selected. The committee responded that they hadn’t talked about any traffic studies, however there are traffic lights at both entrances to Post Office Park.

Another resident stated that she’s heard talk around town about there being a new middle school building being built and wants to be sure that the senior center is next in line. The Committee dispelled this rumor, stating that the rumors lacked accuracy and there is no discussion between the School Committee and the Town for a new middle school, and added that the student population is dropping.

When a resident asked how long it would take to take this to Town Meeting, the Committee explained that warrant articles are produced in mid–March for the May Town Meeting. When the Senior Center Feasibility Committee decides that the Springfield Street option or the Post Office Park location is the best option for the Town, the Town will have the vote to build when it is taken to Town Meeting.

The Committee closed the meeting with the decision to table the discussion until Tom Sullivan was available to provide more financial information to aid the Committee in their decision-making.

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