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Date: 4/4/2022
PALMER - Since 2013, Converse Middle School, located at 24 Converse St., has stood vacant. Now, residents of Palmer are making their voices heard by sharing ways in which they would like to see the building be reused.
Ryan McNutt, town manager of Palmer, said this building has been unfilled since the district consolidated students between Old Mill Pond Elementary for grades kindergarten through 5 and Palmer High School serves grades 6 through 12, with an enrollment of approximately 600 students.
As the town owns the Converse building, McNutt said they asked the public what they would like to see this structure be utilized for.
On Feb. 28, the Town Council hosted a meeting that served as a “visioning session,” said McNutt. Largely full of public comment, he said the Town Council primarily listened.
“The public spoke strongly in favor of relocating the Senior Center there… branched to a more community space,” said McNutt.
He noted that the public wants the buildings use to remain with the town and continue serving the community.
“The challenge is how do we do that?” questioned McNutt. “A lot of communities that create these [public spaces] seek partnership,” he said.
McNutt estimated that revamping the space and making those partnerships, at the end of the day, would cost roughly tens of millions of dollars.
As of now, he said there is no concrete timeline for the future reuse of the Converse building.
McNutt noted, “It’s important for the public to know that any reuse of the building, whether it’s private or public, the indoor basketball gym and outdoor field [Legion Field], would be excluded in any project. The court and field would be retained and owned by the town.”
Moving forward, he said it’s unlikely that they’ll host another meeting about this topic, as he believes the public shared all of their potential ideas.
Now the project and plans for the future of reuse of the Converse building lies in the hands of the Palmer town officials.