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03/16/2021 01:00 PMAn online survey for Westbrook residents designed to gauge interest in a town community center has had more than 280 responses in less than 24 hours, according to First Selectman Noel Bishop’s office. The town is asking residents to participate in the survey by Friday, April 16.
The survey, drafted by GreatBlue Research, Inc., of Glastonbury, which has been retained by the town, asks residents about the types of activities and offerings they would most like to see in a community center, their reasons for living in Westbrook, and whether they would support tax increases to “fund the installation” of a community center, among other questions. It takes approximately five minutes to fill out.
A 10-year History
At a June 2011 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, the infrastructure and environmental engineering firm Woodard & Curran delivered its results of a community center feasibility study commissioned by the town. The firm had been tasked with determining residents’ need for a center, ascertaining the offerings and space limitations of the Parks & Recreation Department, researching and suggesting potential locations for a center, and coming up with possible options for funding.
Woodard & Curran found that the town did not have adequate space for recreational activities and recommended locating an interim community center in the basement of the Westbrook Public Library (WPL) for a period of three years, after which the town would reassess whether or not to create a separate facility. Necessary basement renovations were estimated at $239,000. The firm also recommended that the town partner with the Valley Shore YMCA and the public schools on space as well as programming.
Its alternative suggestion was a stand-alone building at a potential 2011 cost of $1.5 million.
During the public comment period that followed, Kathleen Cietanno, then chair of the WPL Board of Trustees, said the trustees had not been consulted about this proposed use of the library basement and added that it was not in the trustees’ “long-range plan for the space and...not compatible with their vision for library use,” according to the meeting minutes. Lew Daniels, then WPL director, agreed, adding that much of the basement space was needed for storage.
While no action was taken at the time, the issue came up again a couple of years ago, when residents requested a dedicated place to play pickleball—the installation of courts at the former Magna Lane tennis court site was approved at a town meeting in March 2019. This, said Bishop, focused attention on residents’ need for more activities and more space in which to hold them.
The Current Question
“This is a community center for all ages and categories of people,” said Bishop, stressing that it is merely a proposal at this stage and that the town does not have any concrete plans involving anything like square footage.
If a community center were to built, he added, it would not affect the Westbrook Senior Center.
Funding for a center is not in this year’s capital budget, Bishop said. The earliest it might be added to a capital budget would be in the following fiscal year.
Planning Commission Chair Marilyn Ozols said she is in the dark as to how the survey came together.
“I do think that before we surveyed which activities people would use, we should have done a current study of existing buildings, both town and private,” she told Harbor News by email. “In other words, can we offer a full range of activities by utilizing existing town buildings, like the schools, and/or by partnering with other entities, such as the YMCA or Oxford Academy?
“We also need to know the life-cycle cost for a new building (both the structure and soft costs),” she continued. “The survey asks whether people would support tax increases for installation but is silent relative to the long-term impact on taxes.”
Bishop said the community center proposal is “all about space...We are serving an increasingly older population in Westbrook,” whose median age is 52 or 53 and continuing to increase as “more and more people are aging in place.” Older residents are “asking the town to provide more and more services.
“We’re trying to build something not just for tomorrow,” he said, “but for the future.”
A link to the Community Center Survey can be found on the top page of the town’s website at westbrookct.us under the heading “Happening in Westbrook.”