I too support taking a second look at renovating the beautiful architectural buildings in our town which are in dire need of upgrade and maintenance —the Mall, Stone Church, Pierce House, Bemis, Old Town Hall, our Library. Lincoln Roads are due for some repaving too.
Best, Melinda Sent from my iPhone Melinda Bruno-Smith On May 10, 2023, at 4:38 PM, Sara Mattes <[email protected]> wrote: The charge to the CCBC, at the Spc.Town Meeting, was to consider alternative locations for a variety of programs, uses and functions. Hartwell was to remain the principle site for NEW construction, but that other sites were to be included for some uses, in order to reduce the amount of new construction needed. So, it is the current CCBC that is charged with seeking alternative spaces, be it at the Mall or St. Annes or the Stone Church, or Bemis, or Pierce House. It is not for an Ad Hoc committee to duplicate these endeavors. As previously mentioned, our existing town-owned buildings will require ongoing maintenance, and, in fact, some improvements. Perhaps this is an opportunity to jump start some of those projects - certainly cheaper, in the long run than creating more building sq. footage to maintain, and creating more/expanded parking lots and paved surfaces. Perhaps we should investigate how the remodeled Town Offices were able to create an HVAC system that provides habitable spaces in the lower level and apply those lessons to Bemis Hall. And what would it take to advance the creation of the handicapped accessible bathroom on the first floor of the Pierce House, which already has a kitchen upgrade in the works? Perhaps we could look at the programs currently offered at other institutions around town and see how we might coordinate-Codman Farm has a new commercial kitchen and offers cooking classes, DeCordova offers some art programs. What else might be out there? Do we need to reinvent the wheel and compete with these organizations that might appreciate our support? And why the call for a large new space, with a stage and a grand piano when that already exists...at Bemis Hall? And what programs are available to us in other neighboring towns? We were told we needed to open our COA programs to other towns-“reciprocity” was it? Doesn’t that work both ways? What programs are open to us, through reciprocity, in other neighboring communities-communities with large facilities and even larger budgets? Yes, we need to build better spaces for after-school programs, LEAP, summer camp, Park & Rec. and even some new spaces for COA. But, let us be more creative and maximize the use of spaces that already exist. Let us make sure that our eyes are not bigger than our (fiscal) stomachs. Regards, Sara ------ Sara Mattes On May 10, 2023, at 4:09 PM, Ruth Ann Hendrickson <[email protected]> wrote: 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. -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
-- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
