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Main Street site identified as top choice for new Wilbraham senior center

Date: 10/8/2015

WILBRAHAM – The Senior Center Feasibility Committee recently re-evaluated its list of potential sites and 758V Main St., located behind Christ the King Lutheran Church, now ranks above Fountain Park as the top choice to build a new senior center.

Council on Aging Director Paula Dubord said one of main factors that influenced the committee’s re-examination was the Friends of the Wilbraham Seniors commitment to purchase the 7.26-acre site for $139,900.

“Now that the Friends have entered into a purchase and sale option on the property, basically offering to give it to the town at no cost, that makes a huge difference to us,” she explained.

Dubord said public opinion regarding Fountain Park wasn’t taken into the scores, but it has been overwhelmingly negative.

“What we had heard was mostly negative. We really did not hear many positive responses to us moving there. I had heard that people did support a new senior center, just not at Fountain Park; that they believed that Fountain Park – what it was intended to be used as was an open park without any new buildings placed on it.”

The 758V Main St. property is also highly visible and would have easy access to most utility connections due to the nearby church, Dubord said. However, the property does not have a sewer hook-up, which would need to be installed.

“It would be sewer or we would have to build using a septic [system],” she explained.

She added that she doesn’t know how much installing sewer would cost at this time.

The Senior Center Feasibility Committee previously met with the Wilbraham Nature and Cultural Preserve Board of Directors on Sept. 15 regarding building a senior center at Fountain Park. The meeting yielded few answers to questions such as whether the senior center project was a good fit for the Natural and Cultural Preserve Board’s vision of creating a large community center with the existing barn expanded to include a 200-seat theater room and a stage.

Another main point of discussion during the Sept. 15 meeting was a legislative change to the Fountain Park deed, which required legislative change in order for buildings to be constructed at the park. In addition, a Town Meeting vote would have been required for the issue to be brought to the state.

The legislative change, which could have taken several years to be approved, was another reason why the committee chose to rank 758V Main St. above Fountain Park, Dubord said.

“Those are all unknowns to us and we’ve already been at this for five years and having to go through that battle for an unforeseen amount of time really set us back some more,” she added.

Senior Center Feasibility Committee Chair Dennis Lopata said the next step for the committee to walk the 758V Main St. site again with Architect John Catlin of Catlin and Petrovick and create preliminary drawings of the proposed new senior center.

At that point, the committee would have to determine a timeline to go before residents at Town Meeting for funding, he noted.

However, before that could happen the town might need to accept the property with a separate Town Meeting vote, Lopata said. The committee is currently consulting guidance from Town Administrator Nick Breault and Assistant Town Administrator Thomas Sullivan regarding direction on this issue.

Dubord noted that an article will not be appearing on the Special Town Meeting warrant regarding this issue, but might appear on the Annual Town Meeting in May.