Residents are one step closer to having a community center in town. At its Dec. 13 meeting, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) appointed members to a new ad hoc community center committee and approved its charge.

Selectman Chet Bialicki presented several recommendations for a proposed community center committee at the BOS' Nov. 7 meeting.

Bialicki said that the committee should be comprised of an architect, designer, contractor/construction manager, someone familiar with finances and grants, a current park and rec member, the park and recreation director as an ex-officio member, and an optional BOS member also as ex-officio.

At the Dec. 13 meeting, the BOS unanimously approved Chris Hallahan, Jr., Karl Heilmann, Bob Merrick, Greg Carlo, and John Orsina to the ad hoc committee.

The BOS also unanimously agreed to approve the charge of the committee.

Under the guidelines, the committee will consider possible locations around town, timelines, relevant codes and ordinances, the layout and design of the center, the needs of the park and recreation department relative to the center, and the potential cost to build and operate the center. Per the charge, the committee will also consider the lifespan of proposed center designs.

As a secondary consideration, the committee will also consider the ability of any proposed community center to be used as an emergency shelter. Per the minutes of the meeting on Dec. 13, “(t)he committee is to incorporate separately the additional costs of the community center being used as an (e)vacuation (c)enter with the ability of the (e)vacuation (c)enter to survive an emergency or disaster with continuous operations. (For at least a Category 1 Hurricane).”

John Palermo, the town's emergency management director, asked at a November BOS meeting that the committee consider the potential of using a community center for an emergency evacuation center.

Interest in starting a community center in Westbrook to meet the town’s appetite for more recreational offerings began a decade ago. In 2011, the town’s consulting engineering firm Woodard & Curran recommended using basement space in the Westbrook Public Library as an interim center, but that never happened. Interest was reinvigorated a couple of years ago when some residents again began to clamor for more space for recreational activities like pickleball.

In 2021, An online survey for Westbrook residents designed to gauge interest in a town community center received more than 280 responses in less than 24 hours of being live. In total, 714 people filled out the survey with a majority of people in favor of the town building one.

Efforts to continue the project continued in 2022. In the town budget that voters approved in May, $125,000 was included in the capital budget for design and engineering so that a possible new community center can be presented to residents.