Finance official criticizes senior center plan

ROCKPORT — A Finance Committee official said the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and several other town committees are "disinclined" to support the proposed amendment to a fall Town Meeting article that would have the town acquire the Granite Savings Bank building for use as a senior center rather than for "general municipal purposes."

Last week, senior center advocate Christopher Lewis, a former selectman candidate and current Open Space and Recreation Planning Committee chairman, submitted a six-page presentation for the Finance Committee calling for the change in the Town Meeting article. In the report, Lewis outlined the reasons why he believed the bank building, adjacent to Town Hall, would best serve the town as a new senior center.

"I have informed the moderator that I intend to amend the motion to substitute for 'general municipal purposes' the word 'seniors,'" Lewis wrote in the report.

On Friday, Lewis e-mailed Finance Committee Vice-Chairman Frank Hassler, reiterating his position on the bank building.

"I think the plans for the Community House are ill-conceived, rely on unrealistic assumptions and are designed for an audience that does not want to be present in the building with costs that are over the top," Lewis stated in the e-mail, alluding to the Board of Selectmen's and Building Study Committee's informal proposal that seniors could share space in the Community House. "The plan should be consigned to the rubbish bin of history."

Hassler responded to Lewis via e-mail less than three hours later.

"Your facts are in error," Hassler started, "Regardless of your personal views on the merits or lack of them for the Community House project, it is not intended for the COA (Council on Aging) audience. It is intended for the 'community' of current users and any others who might find shared use acceptable. The Board of Selectmen is not your only opposition. The Building Study Committee, the Capital Improvement Planning Committee and the Finance Committee all are disinclined to support your single-minded proposals for the bank property."

Finance Committee Chairman Jim Gardner said yesterday his committee has not voted on a formal recommendation on the current version of the bank building warrant article, he said he expects the vote to be taken at the committee's meeting tomorrow night.

"If the amended language goes in as exclusive use for a senior center, it seems that it could easily fail at the ballot, in which case the town would be unable to purchase it," Gardner said yesterday. "It seems much more likely to pass on the ballot for general municipal use with the idea the town would continue to look at the many uses for the building, including as a senior center."

Despite claims from Selectman Armand Aparo that the town could use funds garnered from the sale of the Carnegie Library or the Haven Avenue lots to offset the cost of a new senior center, Hassler told Lewis, "any proposal to discount the project cost with funds from the sale of the Carnegie Library or the Haven Avenue lots is a hidden tax increase that will impact most the vulnerable seniors on limited, fixed incomes and may make it impossible for them to continue to live here. Is that what you want?"

Gardner said because the town is operating with structural deficit with the ability to raise revenue only 2.5 percent per year while costs go up more than that — mostly due to labor costs such as step and merit raises for teachers — it would be unwise to use funds from the sale of the Carnegie and Have Avenue lot properties for the senior center.

"In order to meet those labor obligations, we constantly have to trim other parts of the budget," Gardner said. "To think we can use these monies for the Granite Savings Bank just means we're deeper in the hole with the structural deficit and will have to make that up with taxes."

Multiple groups including the Board of Selectmen, Building Study Committee and Capital Improvement Planning Committee have all recently discussed how Town Hall needs additional office space. Despite repeated denials from some selectmen, Lewis believes at least some selectmen are interested in using the bank to alleviate the overcrowded Town Hall.

"It came out, only at the last BOS (Board of Selectmen) meeting, that the intention of the BOS is to use the Granite Savings Bank building as a new Town Hall," Lewis wrote in the report. "The BOS has not presented the public with any figures in regard to renovation or operating costs so I cannot see how the Finance Committee can endorse such a proposal."

The Finance Committee has yet to issue its recommendation on the bank article.

Hassler sees the bank building as a viable shelter for town workers displaced during possible renovations to the current Town Hall building.

"Having the bank building as temporary space to accommodate town workers displaced during the renovation will save the town significant money, speed the renovation process, and help justify the purchase of the bank property," Hassler wrote in his e-mail to Lewis. "Use of the facility after the renovation of Town Hall will leave all of the options open for discussion."

According to Lewis and Selectman Ellen Canavan, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, organized a meeting with Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki to be held today at 2 p.m. Zubricki wrote and applied for a federally-funded, state-issued Community Development Block Grant, which covered a majority of the costs associated with construction of the town's new senior center.

According to state officials, Community Development Block Grants are only available to those communities which set aside a building solely for use as a senior center.

Tarr invited Council on Aging Chairman Roger Lesch, as well as anyone else interested, to attend.

"If the town loses the chance to buy the bank property, and it well might, it won't be because the BOS opposes your approach," Hassler said in closing to Lewis. "There is still time to gather all the parties to this potential train wreck around the table and work out some solution we can all support, but the time is rapidly fleeting."

Planning Board Chairman Samuel Coulbourn would seem to support Hassler's roundtable discussion proposal. The potential use of the bank building, and whether the town should acquire it, will get a full public airing before any acquisition proposal goes to Town Meeting next Monday thanks to the Planning Board, which has scheduled an open forum on the potential future of the building tomorrow night at 7:30 in conference room A of Town Hall.

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.

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