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Date: 4/11/2023
HADLEY — With Town Meeting slated for Thursday, May 4, the Hadley Select Board met on April 5 to discuss the articles for Town Meeting.
One of the larger talking points in the warrant review was the feasibility for the Russell School. Reminder Publishing previously reported that the building was decommissioned as a public school in 1996, while maintenance was still performed on the building through the early 2000s, but the building has fallen into disrepair as the town decides what is next for the building.
Both articles 18 and 19 on the warrant pertain to the building with Article 18 being a request to appropriate $30,000 from free cash or Community Preservation Act funds, if approved, for the Select Board to use to engage a firm to do a feasibility study on the school. Article 19 is the full request for the stabilization of the building, which requests $46,550 from the Community Preservation Act set-aside fund and $1,189,450 from the CPA general fund for a total of $1,236,000.
Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan explained that Article 18 was being proposed after residents were questioning what was next after stabilizing the building. With this article the town would instead do the feasibility study before doing any stabilization to the building.
“The feasibility part is very important, they felt that the building was stable well past the fall and that the feasibility study would help make sure that we had really good information. The feasibility study is going to help provide those answers,” she said.
Some of those answers include if the town would take ownership of the building, what it would cost to continue to maintain that building, the possibility of a public and private partnership to generate revenue for the town.
“I want this project to be successful and this article is saying that the Select Board is requesting that there be $30,000 set aside for the feasibility study – I don’t know that it would be that much – we would go out to bid for that feasibility study to make sure it gets done first before the stabilization,” Brennan said.
Brennan added that the feasibility study may even include the stabilization that is planned for the building.
“When there’s a renovation or however it’s decided to move forward, what’s best for the town is that a stabilization may be a part of that renovation project and to do the stabilization first and then do the feasibility and decide that stabilization could have been a part of the renovation,” she said.
Brennan added that a goal of the article was to keep the public informed.
“I’m trying to do what’s best for the town and help this project be successful based on what the consultants have said and also my experience working with feasibility studies and getting the important information out to the public,” she said.
Board Chair Jane Nevinsmith said she was in favor of the feasibility study.
“What it really will do is say if we’re going to work with the school, this is how much money it is going to cost us and these are potentials for where we may or may not be able to get matching funds, and ultimately it is going to cost the town this much, which then can be translated onto your tax bill x dollars per year for the next 20 years in a borrowing deal,” she said. “I think it’s important to have that kind of information to give to the voters instead of just saying we need to stabilize it now so we may or may not go forward with it in the future.”
Board member Randall Izer said now was the time for a feasibility study as the building has often been overlooked in the past.
“We need to do this study, get our answers and then take it to Town Meeting and let the people decide what they want to do with the building and be done with it once and for all,” he said.
Brennan clarified that both articles 18 and 19 could be approved but regardless the feasibility study would occur before any work is done. She also noted that she was working with the CPA Committee to make sure the two articles would work together if both are approved.
Russell School Building Committee member Dan Regish said the larger appropriation for Article 19 also includes a feasibility study.
“We fully expect to have some information about that as time goes on. Once someone is chosen to drop the plans for the work that is needed, we expect them to come up with further plans because stabilization has to do with the use of the building in the future,” he said.
Regish added that the plan is to get the building stabilized ahead of a potential DPW building project, which could cost the town millions of dollars. Both Regish and building committee Chair Courtney Meyer encouraged the Select Board to include language that the roof be repaired in either article because that is a current concern with the building.
The board will make the final vote on the Town Meeting warrant at its April 19 meeting, before a planned open session going over the warrant with the public on Thursday, April 27.
During the meeting, the board also approved the entertainment license for Maple Valley Creamery.
The Hadley Select Board next meets on April 19.