WILBRAHAM – The Senior Center Feasibility Committee unanimously voted to scratch its preferred site off its list on July 13 after a recent discovery.  

The committee recently learned that approximately 60 percent of the acreage on the property at 758V Main St. contained wetlands, rendering it unbuildable.

Senior Center Feasibility Committee Chair Dennis Lopata said a formal report of the site would have amounted to about $1,000. The committee’s decision was based on an informal walkthrough and flagging of the property.

“Are we just spending on the inevitable, which is just to have it in a formal report?” he asked the committee prior to the vote.

The Friends of the Wilbraham Seniors offered to purchase the 7.26-acre site in September 2015 for $139,000. The group raised more than $150,000 during the past six years through fundraising efforts.

“If it’s not buildable, it’s not buildable,” Robert Page, president of the Friends, said during the meeting, adding the Friends would not purchase the property.

He added the Friends put down a deposit of approximately $5,000 to purchase the land.

It is uncertain whether the Friends would be able to recoup the funds.

The committee decided to begin exploring additional sites including the Mile Tree Elementary School ball field, Stony Hill Elementary School, and Memorial Elementary School.

Assistant Town Administrator for Budget and Finance Thomas Sullivan said the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) is waiting for its next superintendent Albert Ganem Jr. to begin working in the district.

Director of Elder Affairs Paula Dubord suggested asking the Board of Selectmen to inquire about the school properties for a potential renovated senior center.

“No school has been offered to us,” she noted. “As a committee, we formally ask the selectmen to approach the School Committee to at least help us in that direction.”

The committee unanimously agreed to submit a letter to the Board of Selectmen regarding the board inquiring on the use of the three sites.

Lopata said the current average cost for renovating is about $100 per square foot and Stony Hill could cost at least $3 million in order to bring the school up to code with building regulations. Architect John Catlin provided the rough estimate.

“I think he’s basing it, not on a walkthrough of the building, but just in general,” Lopata explained.

Sullivan noted the estimate does not include the cost of hiring an owner’s project manager, which amounts to about 10 percent of a project.

Dubord said all of the school buildings would be more space than what the senior center would need.

The site would need to be located on three to four acres of land minimally, need to be 14,000 to 17,000 square feet and would require about 110 parking spaces.

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