Selectmen hear details of potential grant for VMS building
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Shelly Hatch of the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission answered Ashburnham selectmen's questions on the grant the town will apply for if voters approve a one-time override of Proposition 2 1/2 to fund plans for a senior center.

Voters at the annual town meeting supported sending a request for $80,000 to the ballot box to see if voters there would support the money to create design documents to turn the VMS Building into a senior center.

The tax impact of 12 cents per $1,000 of valuation would last only one year. The impact is just over $30 on the average home.

The $80,000 would allow the town to apply for a federal grant of $1 million through Housing and Urban Development. The grant would fund only part of the renovation of the building. This means the renovation would be done in phases, according to Council on Aging members.

The building, which is a former school, now houses the Senior Center as well as the Fire and Police departments - that will be moving into a new building in August or September.

Selectman Jonathan Dennhey expressed concerns that the time between June and February would not be enough to get this part of the project done correctly.

"Given our experience with our last two building projects, I wonder if six months is too aggressive a schedule," he said.

Hatch said there would be time to hold public forums about what should be included in the building as well as do the design documents required for the grant. She said the need to hold public forums would be written into the requirements for an architect bidding on the project.

Hatch said the grant requires the building be used as a senior center for five years after the money is spent.

"I like to have the mixed-community use," said Mary Lee Muessel, the Council on Aging director. "I'd rather have it called anything but 'senior center.'"

She said eliminating the senior center portion of the title, even though it would remain a senior center, could attract more users.

Dennehy said he thought it was important to put some long-term planning into the use of the building and said that it might need to house some town offices in the future, as well as the senior center.

"There is not space for future office growth (in the Town Hall)," Dennehy said.

Selectman Christopher Gagnon said he thought that in 10 to 15 years the VMS Building would be filled with community meeting space and an active senior center and there would be no room for office growth in that building.

Hatch also said that you can not request another CDBG grant for at least five years for the building but that other grants or funding sources could be used to supplement the CDBG grant.

"The more I learn abut this, the better it gets," said Gagnon.

In other business:

• Selectman Margaret Whitney expressed concern with the fact that the trees and bushes that used to decorate the front of Town Hall were removed. Interim Town Administrator Paul Boushell said the trees were removed because they were diseased.

Ashburnham resident Pixie Brennan expressed concerns that the then-upcoming tree removal was not a larger part of the update from Town Hall Renovation Committee Chairman David Sargant last week.

• Selectmen asked Focus Committee Chairman Bob Fitchell to do some market analysis on the top choices for sites for a new Highway Department location. The Selectmen won't talk about any specific parcel in public.

• Selectmen approved the transfer of a liquor license from HP Enterprises (which does business as Mr. Mike's) to Alliance Energy LLC, which now owns the South Ashburnham gas station and convenience store.

• Gagnon plans to request to meet with the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee at one of their upcoming meetings. He wants to discuss with them the physical changes that were made to the two classrooms that the town has rented for the last year. He is hoping that they can either get a reduction on the rent they have paid, or at least make the School Committee aware of the changes and the investment that was made in to the building.