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 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.
