Wilber School Redevelopment Committee

Approved minutes from February 7, 2005 Meeting

 

 

In Attendance: Jim Goldsmith, Bob Levin, Joel Tran, David DePree, Melissa Mills, David Gordon, Marilyn Kahn and Craig Edwards.

 

Guests: Jeanette Keating, 10 Chestnut Street

 

7:35 PM, called to order.  Minutes from the January 31st meeting were reviewed and adjustments made.  Minutes as amended were then voted on and accepted unanimously.

 

Discussion continued on a realistic time frame for work to start on the site.  In a perfect world with everything falling in place, it could possibly happen by the end of this year.  Realistically, it will take longer possibly up to 2 ½ years from now.  Much talk took place on the difference of opinion as to what the selectmen would like from the committee.  We decided that it really doesn’t matter now and answers will become clearer as we continue into the process.  Jeanette Keating was asked her thoughts as to what the neighbors are thinking and what she would like to see happen at the site.  The neighbors all agree that something needs to happen, but as to what it really hasn’t been talked about.  That is good as we are planning to ask just those questions during our public meetings.  Jeanette would like to see municipal use and said she and other abutters are willing to pay higher taxes for that to happen.  That hasn’t been the view from the town residents in the past.  The water issue is big, as we knew it was, but that is just a factor that needs to be worked around not necessarily a deal breaker.  Also, traffic is a big concern and that would make commercial use a low priority, with a restaurant/retail use as the lowest priority. 

 

8:25 PM-David DePree made a presentation to the committee on some new financial scenarios.  These scenarios revolve around uses for the site.  These include municipal, residential, commercial and office space and a combination of municipal and commercial/office or residential..  The whole project will be influenced by the ability of any project to be financed.  Financial institutions need to be comfortable with the uses projected so that they can make their financial models work.  The financial scenarios presented need to be fine tuned with better cost and rent/sales estimates.  We expect those numbers to fall into place in the next one to two weeks as the committee interviews developers, real estate brokers and others as to the site’s best use.  It was decided that we will hold an announced public meeting on Monday, March 7th, hopefully in the Sharon High School Library.  We then broke into task groups. 

 

The feasibility task group had 5 bullets to work on:

1)                  Refine Municipal use:               

a.       Speak to town decision makers.

b.      Speak to Joel Wolk-Chair of the SBC

2)                  Speak to Developers and arrange for them to speak to the whole committee.

3)                  Commercial Development Scenario

4)                  Senior apartments/activity center scenario

5)                  Abatement of the building.

 

 

The Public Relations task group had 8 bullets to work on:

1)                  A new article for the newspaper.  Melissa was going to work on that and announce March 7th as our meeting date.

2)                  Another letter to abutters regarding our invitation to meet with the committee.  David Gordon is going to work on this letter and then Craig, Melissa & David  will plan on delivering them to each house the week before the meeting.  We feel the hands on approach will make the abutters and local residents feel at easy and will hopefully diffuse any ambivalence or resentment encountered. 

3)                  Marilyn Kahn is going to get another set of mailing labels and make sure all copies are made of the letter.  The task group will help her fold and label them.

4)                  A flyer will be written to be used to contact the general public.

5)                  Craig is going to contact other town committees to invite them to the March 7th meeting.  The flyer will be passed on to these committees. Any ideas on specific committees and where they meet will be appreciated. 

6)                  Flyers will also be placed in public areas of town so that more town residents will know that we are hoping for public input.  A special effort will be made to invite town officials and employees.

7)                  A cable television appearance was to be arranged by David on Colleen Tuck’s show.  Dave DePree and Jim Goldsmith will present.

8)                  Also discussed was how to use letters to the editor as part of our outreach/public relations work.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Craig Edwards