After A Long, Torturous History, CFAL Comes Up For Final Vote Monday

CHATHAM – After decades of studies, plans, failed votes and retrenchment, Monday’s annual town meeting will bring closure to the future of the Center for Active Living.

 That is, if voters approve adding $200,000 to the $5 million appropriated last year to expand, renovate and modernize the current home of the council on aging at 193 Stony Hill Rd.

 Article 15 seeks the funds to cover the difference between last year’s appropriation and the bid received for the work from Builders Systems, Inc. of Auburn and Sandwich. The project’s estimated final budget of $5,170,140 includes construction, moving and relocation expenses, soft costs (furnishings, IT) and an owner’s contingency. Officials propose funding $200,000 — slightly more than necessary to meet the estimates — from free cash.

 While a free cash appropriation only requires a majority vote, the article also seeks an access easement over property owned by the adjacent condominium. Because of that, passage of the article will require a two-thirds vote.

 As seen in past votes, that threshold has a problematic relationship with CFAL funding. Time and again, while a majority of voters supported funding for a new COA building, the two-third threshold required to borrow money was not met.

 Attempts to build a new CFAL — initially referred to as a senior center, which is the headquarters of the council on aging — go back more than a decade. 

 The current facility, built as a residential condominium, was never perfectly suited to its role. The space is not adequate for the agency’s programs, and the building has had structural issues for years. Replacing the senior center was long part of the town’s capital building plan, but it was a low priority and took a back seat to new facilities for the police and fire departments as well as the town hall annex and public works renovations.

 Following a 2016 needs assessment, land on Middle Road was identified as a potential site for a new senior center. But in 2019, while a majority of town meeting voters supported borrowing the $6.6 million cost, the vote tally wasn’t enough to meet the two-thirds threshold. Opponents cited the location as a major factor — nobody wanted a senior center in the middle of the South Chatham woods.

 Attention then shifted to land at 1610 Main St. in West Chatham, land that Eastward Companies owner William Marsh agreed to donate to the town for construction of a new senior center. A special town meeting in January 2020 agreed to accept the land and appropriated money for a feasibility study. Some residents unhappy with the location called another special meeting in March and received a positive vote to study land on Stepping Stones Road as an alternative senior center site (affordable housing is now being developed on that land).

 The project was put on hold during the pandemic. When it finally went before voters in June 2021, the $8.3 million request to build a senior center at 1610 Main St. once again garnered majority support but fell 98 votes short of the two-thirds necessary to borrow the money.

 After studying several alternative proposals, including building a new COA facility at the Stony Hill Road site of the existing building, retooled plans for a $10 million, 10,965-square-foot structure at 1610 Main St. went before voters in May 2023. Once again, the proposal won the majority vote, but failed to reach the two-thirds level by a single vote.

 A ballot question authorizing the borrowing passed at the annual town election later that week, and based on that support the select board decided to once again ask town meeting to authorize the spending. The September special town meeting drew a record crowd, but the vote once again fell short of the two-thirds threshold, this time by 105 votes.

 At that point officials paused the process, and eventually decided that a new building — by then changed in name to the Center for Active Living — was not in the cards. 

 The town hired a consultant to develop plans to renovate the existing Center for Active Living on Stony Hill Road with the goal of making the space as functional as possible. Last May, voters approved $5 million, to be taken from free cash — which avoids the two-thirds vote needed for borrowing — for the renovations. But after a working group established by Town Manager Jill Goldsmith refined the plans, the price came in at $6.8 million, more than $1.8 million more than had been appropriated.

 The project was put out to bid in order to have an exact cost for the work. The bid came in lower than anticipated. Officials breathed a sigh of relief; the overage was slightly more than $170,000, meaning that the additional funds could be appropriate from free cash, again avoiding borrowing.

 The plans — details of which are published in the warrant — meet the project’s design objectives of accommodating COA program and offices. About 2,500 of new space will be added in small additions on the west side of the building, bringing total square footage to 8,200, Kurt Raber, vice president and principal architect with Catalist Architecture of Yarmouth said during an April 22 informational session. 

 A new entrance with an accessible ramp will face the street. The loop driveway out front will remain, and the parking lot will be reconfigured to “dramatically” increase parking, Raber said. With 44 spaces where there is currently 30. Changes to the parking lot are what triggered the need for an easement over the neighboring property.

 The entire envelope of the building — siding, windows and trim — will be replaced with durable material. A new dormer on the west side of the second floor will add more functional space. Several steel columns will be removed, making a number of rooms more useful, including the basement, where the COA’s senior day program will be housed. That will also make the lunch room more functional, Raber said, increasing the capacity for dining to 48 and accommodating more than 100 as a multipurpose room.

 The kitchen, bathrooms and offices will be remodeled. Existing heat pumps will be repurposed. Construction will meet all current building codes, and materials are being chosen for the greatest longevity, said Principal Projects and Operations Manager Terry Whalen.

 “Everything will have a fresh, new look,” Raber said.

 Of the total $5,170,140 cost, $3,447,000 is for physical construction, $1,378,440 is for “soft” costs such as furnishings and computers, and $344,700 is for contingencies. 

 “Until we open up all of the walls, we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with,” Owner’s Project Manager Rick Pomroy said at the information session. “So we want to make sure we have some buffer. The goal would be not to spend that money.”

 Some of the soft costs include moving COA operations to the community center during construction. That entails renting trailers and connecting them to power and the internet. 

 Assuming town meeting approval, the goal is to have the move completed and construction started by the end of June. The work should take 10 to 12 months, Pomroy said, with the COA returning to the renovated building in August of next year.

 “It’s a tight schedule,” Pomroy acknowledged.