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Date: 12/12/2023
BELCHERTOWN — Members from the Belchertown Family Center met with the Select Board at its Nov. 20 meeting to voice their concerns with the planned demolition of the building at 51 State St.
At its Oct. 2 meeting, the Select Board approved the use of $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to demolish the building that served as the Belchertown Family Center.
Family Center Chair Natasha Martin said, “The community seems to be devastated by this. Our community is devastated by the loss of our ability to function. We don’t have a place to run programs, we had to shut down the community closet. We had 50 to 75 people in and out of the building to clear out that community closet. It is clearly needed in this community.”
The community closest was an initiative that allowed families to access free toys, books, gear and supplies.
“In an environment where the cost of living has increased by 8% over the last year, our families are in more need now than ever before. The closure of the Family Center has created a hole in this community,” Martin added.
Multiple members from the Family Center Committee came to the Nov. 20 meeting to express that they felt they were excluded from the demolition discussion, talk about the importance of the center and argue that the price to fix the building was inflated.
Because the topic was not on the agenda and listed under the town administrator report, Select Board Chair Ed Boscher limited the number of speakers to three “in the interest of time.”
“I see some people online, I see some people in the audience but in the interest of time I would like to limit it to three people to talk on the topic. It’s not part of the Select Board’s agenda, it’s part of the town administrator report so I request that we do not deliberate, this is not a time to ask questions, this is simply a listening session,” he said.
Martin said, “We are here today because we feel like we have not had the opportunity to be heard on the destruction of our building. We provide as much services as we possibly can to families in town. It’s the building that the family center operates out of, so it has left us without a home.”
At a recent meeting, Town Administrator Steve Williams reported it would either cost approximately $450,000 to fix the problems with the existing building, or $1.4 million to build an entirely new building.
Repairs included a roof replacement, boiler replacement, bathroom renovations, HVAC repairs, window and door replacement, exterior siding and flooring repairs.
Former Family Center Committee member Sean Donovan discussed the prices seemed to be too high.
He said, “Nobody can disagree that some repairs are necessary but what was proposed instead of fixing the roof and the basics, there is a whole laundry list of siding, new doors, a bunch of stuff that added all up to $450,000. I think that is a vastly inflated number based upon not enough bids, just using one architect and him just making up a number and giving it to the town.”
The Family Center Committee presented a proposal requesting $250,000 to repair the roof and HVAC systems at 51 State St., using $50,000 in ARPA funds reserved for the demolition.
They also stated in the proposal for the Select Board’s continued commitment to providing the custodial services and pest mitigation and management necessary to maintain the space.
Martin added, “The mission of the Belchertown Family Center is to support families and children in the first five years of life as this is the period when most learning and development takes place.”
After the Select Board and Family Center agreed to indefinitely close the building in July due to problems with the building, Martin said the committee started working with the Recreation Department.
Martin said, “The Family Center Committee was navigating a path to partnership with the Recreation Department to manage scheduling for the building for the purpose of providing shared office space for rental to community partners, multi-purpose meeting space for use by variety of community organizations as well as potential gallery space.”
Select Board member Lesa Lessard Pearson proposed hearing from three more speakers and limiting them to two minutes each and Donovan urged the board to add it to a future agenda.
Select Board member Jen Turner voted against the original plan to demolish the building because she feared nothing would be done with the space and wanted to discuss the topic further on Nov. 20.
Boscher said, “This topic has been talked about for at least six months, it’s public record and there are no new thoughts. These are things we have talked about in the past. We are moving forward.”
The Select Board moved on to another topic and Town Administrator Steve Williams said the tentative plan is for the building to be demolished in December.
Martin said, “The Family Center Committee is still working to identify ways to bring our community together, despite the loss of our building. We’ll be sharing updates here about what comes next for the center and how you can help.”