The group planning a future community center has narrowed down its choices to two schemes that will be presented at the Special Town Meeting on June 9, probably followed by a non-binding “sense of the town” vote on which one residents prefer.
At its meeting last week, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee decided to eliminate Scheme 2 (“L on main campus green”), but members were evenly split over which of the other two ideas they preferred. The two remaining concepts both locate the parking on the east side of the Hartwell site and leave some open space on the west side for a playground between the building and Ballfield Road.
Scheme 1 calls for removing two of the existing pods and replacing them with a community center that’s all new construction. The third pod would be renovated and used for LEAP, and a fourth small building would be used for school maintenance. Scheme 3 incorporates two of the existing pods and adds connecting space between them; as with Scheme 1, the remaining pod would be used for LEAP. Both call for at least part of the building to be two floors. In Scheme 3, the second-floor part would cover only a portion of the ground floor, which would havea larger open area.
Scheme 1 exterior (central secondary green)
Scheme 1 interior (central secondary green)
Scheme 3 exterior (infill of pods)
Scheme 3 interior (infill of pods)
Scheme 2 exterior (L on main campus green), no longer under consideration
Scheme 2 exterior (L on main campus green), no longer under consideration
The CCPPDC’s work will conclude after the June Town Meeting, with a future group expected to supervise detailed design and final cost estimates. The June meeting will not include a community center funding vote because the campus can’t accommodate both construction projects at the same time. Even if it could, the CCPPDC determined that the town wouldn’t see any cost savings, primarily because the projects are of such different scope that contractors would not bid on both as a package, as well as the need for installing expensive temporary classrooms.
Nonetheless, it will cost more to build a community center later rather than sooner. “Just as the cost to build a new school has skyrocketed between the first school project in 2012 until now, building costs will likely increase between now and 2023, when we are likely to break ground on a community center,” CCPPDC Vice Chair Margit Griffith said. “In today’s terms, the designs have a price tag of about $13–15 million, which looks like it will go to $20 million if building costs increase at the same rate. There are a few models that suggest things are slowing a bit—time will out.”
On the other hand, by 2023, the town will have paid off some of its debt and property values will rise in the interim, meaning the town will have “headroom” under its borrowing limit. Debt payments will be smaller in early years of repayment than if the entire sum for a school and community center was borrowed at once.
Some residents are worried that delaying the community center is politically risky because it could be seen as “pushing it off” and disappointing seniors and others who are more interested in using that facility than a renovated school. Asked why those people should first approve an expensive school project, Griffith said, “Because it’s the right thing to do. From a value-for-dollar perspective, we can pay a hell of a lot to put an Ace bandage and keep limping along on our bad knee (the current school), or foot the bill for the knee replacement that will last for a generation or more. From a ‘Lincoln way’ perspective, we value education and this town. Now is the time to put our money where our mouths are. From a personal interest perspective, property values in towns all around us are eclipsing ours—they have new schools, we don’t.”
The CCPPDC will incorporate feedback at the June 9 Town Meeting into its final report. That feedback may take the form of a standing “sense of the town” vote or with sticky notes as at earlier public forums. The committee has three more meetings scheduled before that.
