MEETING MATTERS
BOARD OF SELECTMEN WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18
Compiled by Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Top Story:

Selectmen met with members of each the Council on Aging and the Town Hall Re-Use committees to continue discussions about a new senior center.

The Council on Aging had taken a formal vote to not consider the old town hall as a potential location for a new senior center. The re-use committee had hoped to work with the COA to develop a feasibility study plan that works for that building and other sites.

"We have been to different centers and we put it in one center," Neysa Miller said.

Miller presented Selectmen with a hand-drawn floor plan of a potential senior center. The floor plan includes two large multi-purpose rooms, a couple of small offices, a computer room, a craft room, a lounge area, a kitchen and a large room with for pool tables and a television. There are also sketches of a patio area, a pool and a outdoor game area.

"We might as well think big," Miller said. The selectmen were all pleased to have the floor plan.

"This is perfect," said Selectmen Thomas O'Toole.

Fairbanks set the Sept. 30 as the deadline for issuing the requests for proposals for the property on West Main Street. He thinks the proposal will ask developers for two residential buildings to be placed on the property and reserve a section of the acreage for a town owned and operated senior center.

Fairbanks said a final decision on that has not been made yet.

And for the moment the re-use committee will investigate possible grants to construction to the old town hall and review the structural improvements made to the building in the late-1990s.

Fairbanks wants to hold off any further study on the building until it is determined if the library will relocate there during the renovations to Forbush Memorial Library.

In Other News:

+ LauraLee St. John was interviewed for a position on the Council on Aging. Selectmen nearly approved of her appointment to the board but asked if she would sit in on one of the COA's meetings.

+ Selectman Nick Hay raised the question of why town employees were meeting out of the office as part of committees during the regular business hours of the town offices.

+ Selectmen appointed Phillip Buso as the assistant veterans' agent. Buso already serves as the veterans' agent in Ashburnham, Milbury, Gardner and Hubbardston.