Academy is a large building—three floors and 16 classrooms that add up to a total of 53,000 square feet—so how will all that space be used in a community center model? After a few public input sessions and a new questionnaire, the Ad-Hoc Academy School Community Center Design Committee is starting to get a clearer idea of what exactly people want to see in that building.

The committee is charged with working in consultation with Colliers International, a local project management firm, to create a design proposal for a community center, create a cost estimate, hold public input or workshop sessions for the public, and recommend next steps for the design proposal to the Board of Selectmen by Monday, April 8.

To date, the committee has been approached by the Beach & Recreation Department to discuss having the department transfer offices to Academy and assume responsibility for the building if it were to become a community center. In addition, the Economic Development Commission, the town planner, the schools, Madison Youth & Family Services, the Arts Barn, Madison Senior Services, the Madison Art Society, the Madison Chamber of Commerce, and the Scranton Library have all approached the committee to discuss various space needs that could be solved with an Academy community center.

Last week, residents were also asked to participate in another questionnaire, this one focused just on what folks might like to see in a community center here in town. The survey asked residents to rank how important, on a scale of zero to four, they found various potential uses. Just shy of 800 people completed the survey.

The results show the top five uses, in order, are social space, arts space, music space, theater space, and maintaining gym/auditorium space in the building. Some of the least popular uses—less than 50 percent support—include boards and commission meeting space and retail vendor space.

“In general what we have tried to do as a committee is take the data and the information we have gathered, both from presenting groups, our committee, and members of the public and from the questionnaire and funnel all of that information to Colliers and the architect,” said committee Chair Bill Stableford.

Colliers and the architect needed a sense of likely uses in the building to help narrow in on exact cost estimates. Stableford said the results of the questionnaire and Colliers translation of those results will be discussed at the next public hearing, set for Thursday, March 21.

“Thursday night will really be a rather significant information session,” he said. “To date I would say the idea or the imagination of what a community center might be has kind of been in the realm of the mythological and now we are at the point where we can translate it into a conceptual reality and people can see in black and white in what manner the Academy School could actually be utilized.”

The architect will also present a preliminary design proposal for both the exterior (not the ball fields) and interior of Academy School based on desired uses. Stableford said the committee has made it clear to the architect and Colliers that the design has to fit a certain budget.

“We have instructed Colliers that it’s mandatory we keep the cost at or below $14 million,” he said. “We have to keep this within the acceptability range of the public perception, which is that $14 million number. If we design a $22 million community center, it is not going to fly. That is the party line we are taking and working on.”

The Academy Dilemma in Brief

The Academy School building has been vacant for more than a decade and multiple administrations have struggled to find a popular solution for the building and its lot.

The parcel is 5.1 acres in the historic district and in the R-2 Residential Zone, which allows for single-family residential, municipal, educational, recreational, and religious uses. The building itself is 53,000 square feet with three floors, 16 classrooms, a gym, theater, kitchen, cafeteria, and music rooms. The building is also on the National Register of Historic places, which means there is a risk of litigation if the building is demolished.

Over the past decade, the town has formed numerous committees to try to determine what to make of the building.

The next public hearing is Thursday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Polson Middle School. Check the town website www.madisonct.org for committee meeting dates and times. Results of the questionnaire are expected to be published on the town website sometime this week.