The COA for the town of Harvard, MA is moving into a new site within the next 2 weeks. I believe their experience offers some very useful perspectives for our journey in Lincoln.
I am attaching an article with all of the information, but here is a summary: - Harvard has a population of ~7K, so 40% higher than Lincoln’s - The Harvard COA used to be housed in 19th century Hildreth House. - Hildreth House was not meeting the needs of the COA, so the town started the process 13 years ago (in 2010) with a municipal building study for the update and expansion of Hildreth House. - After the initial safety and code compliance work was completed, a $4.5M renovation and expansion project was put to town vote. It did not pass as it was considered too expensive. - COA then changed course to investigate the purchase and renovation of an existing building in town. - The town received two responses to its property request and they chose a 5,400 sq. ft. former medical building, with lots of parking and conveniently located near the Post Office and town amenities like Foxglove, Bowers Brook, Harvard Green, and the McCurdy Track. - The town purchased the building for $1.4M, and the renovation and other fees brought the *total* cost to $2.86M - Hildreth House will now be used for the town land boards, since Town Hall is running out of space - In addition to COA specific programming, the new building was designed to enable community use for events as well as serve as a warming/cooling station or shelter during extreme weather events. Food for thought: Harvard, with 40% more residents than Lincoln, spent ~$2.9M on a 5,400 sqft COA building that also allows community use for events, while still being responsible with historical buildings and addressing empty office space in town. If the Harvard COA changed course after many years of work, when it became clear the project was too expensive, why can't Lincoln do the same instead of tying ourselves to what was decided in 2015?
Harvard Senior Center Newspaper Article.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document
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