Consultant Hired To Study Community Center For Brewster

BREWSTER – The town has hired a consultant to conduct a needs assessment to study the possibility of constructing a community center on the Sea Camps bay property.

“There will be opportunities for public feedback and input once we get further along in the process,” Town Administrator Peter Lombardi told the select board Monday. “This is framed rightly as a needs assessment. The focus is to understand what our community needs and how that translates to a facility.”

Bargmann, Hendrie and Archetype Inc. were hired to conduct the community center needs study at a cost of $290,000 with the prospect of wrapping it up by Dec. 31, 2027. Two years ago, town meeting appropriated $300,000 for the project and the request for proposals was put out this spring after consultation with the Sea Camps advisory committee.

“BHA’s submission highlights the very good work they have done in this space. They are well known in Massachusetts for their work on community center facilities,” Lombardi said.

BHA will present the town with cost estimates for three possible designs for a community center building meeting the needs that were determined from surveying citizens and stakeholders and incorporating current services, programs and structures. The Boston-based company has designed 150 senior centers, youth centers and, importantly, multigenerational facilities for Falmouth, Chatham, Pembroke, Scituate and Sandwich, among others.

A steering committee of town staff and committee representatives will guide the project. 

“We are starting to schedule key stakeholder sessions. They are going to be meeting with the council on aging [and the] recreation commission next week,” Lombardi said. “We are also working on scheduling some other meetings on that front. They are working through their discovery period where we are providing them with a lot of information and data.” 

Lombardi noted that Brewster did some “very early conceptual work” on a community center during development of a comprehensive plan for the bay property. The concept of a community center predates Brewster’s purchase of the Sea Camp’s 121 acres. Fifteen years ago, there was a plan to sell the town hall to the Lighthouse Charter School (the town hall used to be Brewster’s elementary school), move the town hall into the Eddy School and move the council on aging there as well and let the Brewster Historical Society take over the COA building, which is the old Victorian-era town hall built in 1881. 

That plan came apart when the Massachusetts School Building Authority demanded Brewster return $8.3 million in school funding if the town was no longer going to use the Eddy School for students. However, the idea of using the Eddy School for the COA combined with youth/recreational activities (a community center) persisted and was supported by Lombardi’s predecessor. 

Lombardi made clear that while BHA was aware of the history, this was not an evaluation of alternate sites for the community. 

“There are questions, understandably, from residents about re-use of existing facilities,” he said. “We know the comprehensive plan adopted by town meeting identified an area on the site for a community center and that is theoretically possible.” 

The study is a needs assessment that recognizes that there is the prospect of a community center on the bay property, he said.

“Is this study site specific or not?” asked board member Laurel Labdon.

“It is both. It includes some site specific considerations about the bay property and also broadly looks at developing several different facilities based on programs that are identifiable as needs in the community,” Lombardi said. 

Labdon wondered if the town did not support a community center at the bay property would the information gleaned from the study be portable to other potential locations in Brewster. 

“It is not going to look at alternative sites and their feasibility,” Lombardi said. “What it is going to do is give us three different options: bare bones, the absolute minimum that we think is realistic to do; a middle of the road balancing needs and wants; and a best-case scenario, all in things you would dream for. In doing so it will clarify the conversation around needs versus wants.”

Assistant Town Administrator Donna Kalinick pointed out there will be a townwide survey of residents as part of the process so the needs and wants of everyone, not just designated stakeholders, will be included. 

“I don’t want anybody to be worried there won’t be an opportunity,” she said. 

Work is proceeding at the bay property. The low bid for building demolition came in at $404,583, well under estimates, so the board voted to reduce the funding request from the Community Preservation Committee at next Monday’s special town meeting warrant from $600,000 to $350,000. Combined with $395,000 the town has on hand, there will be a surplus and more buildings can be demolished. The plan is to take down 14 dorms, 13 sheds and storage facilities, six showers and a boiler building, all of which are in poor to fair condition. The property will be closed while the work is done.