Agreed.
Barbara Low Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> ________________________________ From: Lincoln <lincoln-boun...@lincolntalk.org> on behalf of Ruth Ann Hendrickson <raand...@earthlink.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 8:57:30 PM To: Listserv, Listserv <lincoln@lincolntalk.org> Subject: Re: [LincolnTalk] Last Night's Community Center Forum I urge people not to put this project off. The escalation in building costs in the last few years has been breathtaking. If we put it off, we won't be able to afford it at all. The plan is not yet final. The Committee will hear and act on your ideas. Give them a chance. I am strongly in favor of separating out the costs for upgrading the Leap building. The charge to the Community Center Committee did not include the $3,000,000 needed to do this work. Reducing the size of the Community Center because we have to include this unforeseen project is not fair. I can see that doing the work on the Leap building at the same time as the Community Center will save the town a lot of cost, but I think that the Leap Project should be presented separately by the School Committee and voted separately. Ruth Ann Hendrickson (She, her) On 9/13/2023 7:39 AM, Lynn DeLisi, M.D. via Lincoln wrote: Wednesday September 13, 2023 Dear LT, I am posting my personal views, not as a member of the Town Planning Board, but as one resident of this unique town. I want to thank the Community Center Building Committee and the Architects for their hard work for our Town over the last several months. However, after listening to the Community Center Building Committee’s Forum last evening, it has become very clear to me that the Town’s vision to improve facilities for the COA cannot be accomplished on the school site as “selected” by residents of the Town a few years ago. We hired excellent architects who have listened to the committee and the public now for several months and have come up with 3+ major plans, recommending the middle priced one that is at 75% the original very expensive estimate given to us last year. The lowest price option was shown to be inadequate for COA activities and would be only as one person said “moving the COA from one deficient site to another”. It was also clear that remaining on the school site means we “must”, according to the committee leadership, include in our community center renovating or rebuilding space for the after school program called “LEAP”, despite many residents giving input that this program is the school’s responsibility and not that of a Community Center. In addition there are safety issues related to traffic patterns, increased cars and children walking or on bikes to get to and from school and activities. Furthermore, it was clear from the lack of discussion on the topic last night, that there was no SERIOUS consideration by the committee of other sites throughout Town that could be appropriate for a community center, particularly COA functions. While Bemis Hall and the Pierce House have been visited, no details about what it would take to renovate them have been presented, nor has anyone taken the time to investigate whether the Town could use other buildings or space, historic or otherwise, along Lincoln Rd or nearby and renovate any of them for a community center that at least houses the COA. Mainly, the committee remains on the school campus because it is the best place for Parks and Rec to be and many people want to mix generations in a “Community Center for All”. I would like to propose that a new Town Committee be formed of concerned residents, who would still like to see the Town have a safe and up-to-date improved space for a COA, to conduct activities, but do not want taxes raised any further, and be a committee that SERIOUSLY examines existing sites that could be renovated, even if it means the cost of purchasing them for the Town. I would be happy to serve on such a committee. In the mean time until this committee does its work, we should put the Building Committee and architects on hold and not have a special Town Meeting to vote on the School site options in December. When Town’s residents selected the school site as the “best” for a community center, they did not know what we know now. Lynn DeLisi 125 South Great Rd
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