Five years or so ago, the assigned committees did an EXHAUSTIVE search
for potential sites for a new Community Center including multiple open
charettes to discuss locations. The overwhelming choice of the large
group of participants was to have the Center at Hartwell. The motion at
town meeting was worded to develop options for a Center near Hartwell.
That is the CCBC's charge. They are not charged with considering new
locations.
If a large group of people want to propose a different location, please
form yourselves into an ad hoc committee and do the work to flesh out
your ideas. You can get a head start by looking at the previous studies
that considered other locations. Then ask the Selects if you can present
your findings at the fall State of the Town Meeting. It is easy to say
there are spaces at the Mall. It is much harder to be specific - which
spaces and what needs could be accommodated there.
I look forward the hearing your proposals. New ideas are always worth
consideration.
Ruth Ann Hendrickson
(She, her)
On 5/10/2023 3:43 PM, Peter Buchthal wrote:
We have started a robust discussion on LincolnTalk about the new
community center. It appears that after spending a short amount of
time looking at the other available properties in the town, the
committee has decided to only focus resources going forward on
building a new facility on the Hartwell campus.
*Underused town resources require maintenance*
We are a small town with many underused town resources. Some of our
town buildings are in need of overdue maintenance. Shouldn’t all town
buildings be ADA and handicap accessible?
Bemis needs a refresh and it will require ongoing maintenance even if
we build a community center. Shouldn’t we figure out how much this
future underused building will cost the town to keep it in good
shape? Or are people suggesting the plan is to take it down at some
point?
The Pierce House has so much deferred maintenance that it may become
unsafe in the near future. The interior reminds me of Miss
Havisham’s home from Great Expectations. Without a Pip or Estella to
maintain it, we have allowed this generous gift from the Pierce family
to fall into major disrepair. As a key town property, we need to
properly maintain the Pierce House and the grounds. Why not create a
better use of the building than a Wedding Factory?
The world also appears to be going more and more digital. Could some
of the space of the town library be re-purposed for other town needs?
At a minimum, the town needs to properly plan for Bemis and Pierce
House maintenance (ADA compliance). As a homeowner, I know nothing
gets maintained or fixed by itself. Would these spaces meet some,
many or most of the needs of COA with some investment?
**
*Time to take a LEAP?*
The current LEAP facilities are in dire need of an upgrade. Our brand
new school is way too large for our needs; we should investigate
options for adding new community usage within it. For most Lincoln
residents who are not familiar with the layout, Lincoln School
Interior Final Plan
<https://lincolnsbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lincoln-School_1-23-2019-Interior_FINAL.pdf> is
the final interior plan from the school building committee website.
The school’s 165K square feet should be able to host 1,000 students
(based upon Mass State Building Standards)It is very important to note
that the school was designed for 650+ students and currently has only
550 (PK-8). Enrollment has consistently been going down and we don’t
expect a reversal in trend where we would all of sudden have a need
for an additional 100 students. We have significantly more classrooms
than number of sections. I propose we take a careful look at how our
school’s 165K sqft are being used and repurpose some of it to be part
of a new LEAP. Leap is 100% after school and could take advantage of
all of the bathroom, playgrounds, hvac and other facilities in the
school at minimal cost. Some will argue that we cannot use school
facilities because projects/materials, etc will be disturbed but there
are empty/underutilized spaces given the school was built for a much
higher enrollment. If Leap needs even more space, then let’s add
space to the school as I believe having after Leap in the school just
makes more sense. Adding new space would be materially cheaper than
hosting it in a new community center or updating Hartwell B.
Reconfiguring some of the existing classroom/hub layout would even be
cheaper than any other building option for Leap.
*Does a stage belong in the new community center?*
Many of you all don’t know this, but the old Smith Gym used to have a
stage at the end of the gym. In the new school, the old stage was
redesigned as the K-4 Music Room. From the CCBC presentations, one of
the users of a new stage at the Community Center would be the Smith
School Musical productions. I think it would be much less costly to
find a new home for the current Music Room and recreate the Smith
Stage in the Smith Gym where it belongs. That will make it more
convenient for kids both during school and after school to participate
in theatre productions.
*“Nice to haves” vs “Must haves”*
It appears to me that both COA and Parks and Recs are struggling to
justify their space needs. We see programs that are earmarked to be
relocated to the new Community Center without historical details of
how many people participated in the offering on average (and maximum)
in the past year or two. Maybe we can use the “fix-it”/arts and crafts
room for more than just arts and crafts and use it more hours of the day.
For instance, does Parks and Rec really need a conference room to host
the summer camp staff? I am of the understanding that the summer camp
uses the school for bathrooms and inclement weather. Surely, can’t we
all agree that having a staff office in the current school during the
summer time makes more sense than in the community center?
Another interesting point, vaccine clinics are labeled as “cannot
stay” at the First Parish Church and therefore *must *be relocated to
the new community center. I have been to vaccine clinics at the school
gym and they have worked flawlessly. I am not sure if First Parish
vaccine clinics are different than the ones held at the school, but
could they not all continue to be held at the school? Are we
suggesting, by labeling these as “cannot stay” that unless we build a
community center, we will have to stop vaccine clinics? Does this
apply to all the other activities in the “cannot stay” section?
*Other thoughts*
Wayland, a much larger town than ours is building a new senior center
that is much smaller than the proposed plans. Wayland expects to host
200 people at a time in their community center for both COA and Parks
and Rec programs in this much smaller building – do we really expect
the need for more space in Lincoln? There is a disconnect somewhere
that needs to be explained. Let’s not make the same mistake we did
with our disproportionately big school and build a 23K+ sqft community
center without really understanding what usage it will get.
Having a community center on the Hartwell campus would mean a large
increase in traffic. Do we really want all these additional drivers
navigating around pre-school Magic Garden children running into the
road/parking lot? I assume our school liability insurance would go up
as a result. Has anyone investigated this?
I want to be clear, I think we need to invest in the COA. Let’s see
if we can make it wonderful while being responsible with our resources
and meeting our long standing commitment to our beautiful buildings.
Peter Buchthal
71 Weston Rd.
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