Options for Colburn School
The Finance Commission held its first hearing on the proposed new library on February 8. At the hearing, members of the Finance Commission asked the library director, why can't we apply for the next round of funding, when the state covers 50% of the project cost, rather than only 30%? Tom Viti replied that the wait would be at least three years, with an uncertain outcome. Most critically, the wait would affect the library's ability to raise private donations for the project. People are reluctant to contribute when the project remains only on the drawing board, with ground breaking far in the future.
Historic Colburn School in Westwood, MA
The same reasoning goes for the Colburn school. Who wants to donate funds for its preservation, when the town cannot decide what to do with it? A prospective donor has to ask, why has the town not faced this question? Because plans to restore the Colburn school with private donations would compete with fundraising for a new library? Because the problem is inherently difficult? Because library planners know that the chances of preservation are low, and the painful decision to raze the building is best deferred to keep plans for a new library on track?
A complete answer might include all three reasons. We have to press the town - that's us - on this issue. If we can't find the funds to return the Colburn school to usefulness now, how can we find the resources after a new library is built? Three or four years from now, the school will have deteriorated still further, every property owner will have to pay higher taxes to retire the bond for a new library, and we will have to support the increased cost of operating the new building as well. Who will want to donate money - or pay still higher taxes - for Colburn school restoration at that point?
Having pressed for a decision about the Colburn school sooner rather than later, let's take a systematic look at all the options open to the town. Four options are available under a plan that keeps the Colburn school in its current location. The second set of options, similar to the first, becomes available under plans that move the school from its current location.
Options available if the Colburn school remains in its present location:
- The current state: let it deteriorate indefinitely.
- Tear it down.
- Decide on a new use for the building and restore the building with that use in mind. For example, restore the school as an addition to the current library, giving our library the additional space it needs.
- Restore the building as an emblem of Westwood's history, to return it, as much as possible, to the way it appeared when it was new.
Options available if the Colburn school is moved from its present location:
- Move it once. Decide on a new location and move it. Then see options 1, 3, and 4 above.
- Move it twice. Move it a short distance to a temporary location while a new library is under construction. Select its ultimate location and move it there after a new library is completed. Then see options 1, 3, and 4 above.
In principle, tear it down could follow removal of the school to another location. But if destruction is the option the town selects, it is far more economical, if more painful, to tear it down in its current location than to tear it down after moving it.
Another way to analyze the future of the Colburn school is to decide whether or not to sell the building. If the town does not sell the school building, it's entirely responsible for deciding the school's fate. If it sells the building, it passes that responsibility to the new owner along with the bill of sale. It also assumes an obligation to help the new owner find a new location for the building. That obligation isn't part of a normal real estate transaction, but clearly, disposition of the Colburn school is not a normal real estate transaction. No individual or group will want to buy the school without a new location for it.
Use and location, location and use: those are the two variables that bedevil the town as it decides what to do about the Colburn school. Plans for a new library can't be reconciled with the school's current location, that's certain. To complicate matters, location and use are highly interdependent, and - in Massachusetts especially - highly regulated. Most uses require a highly constrained set of locations, and most locations rule out all but one, or all but a few uses. The difficulties of this decision suggest that it won't become easier with time. Moreover, given the building's rapid rate of deterioration since it became empty, time is not on the Colburn school's side. In light of that, we should decide what to do with the school while the issue is in front of us, not later when the school's condition is even worse than it is today.
Here's a final note. You know I'd be sad to see this fine old building meet the wrecking ball this year. I wouldn't be the only one. That leaves two obvious options: use the building to expand the present library, or sell the building to someone who wants to preserve it. We have to guess that the library director and board of trustees considered the first alternative and rejected it. The advanced state of plans for a new building testifies to that. That leaves the option we'd like to defer because it has so much uncertainty associated with it. Selling the building under these circumstances creates a lot of questions and new tasks that we don't want to undertake right now. Yet a sizable number of people in Westwood would like to save and restore this fine old building, and within that number are individuals who would like to lead the way. Together, we should find those individuals and offer them our support.
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See also the first article in this two-part series, Decide Colburn School's Fate Now,
The library board of trustees plans to present the new library plans at 7:30 pm on February 23, at the library. To learn more about the new library, and perhaps about plans for the Colburn school, try to attend. Not surprisingly, the architects' drawings make the proposed new building look spring-time attractive.
Most importantly, attend the special town meeting on March 8, where all Westwood voters can decide whether or not plans for a new library will go forward. Join the Finance Commission, the library directors, and your fellow Westwood residents to ask questions and to let others know what you think. The town meeting is the last chance Westwood residents have to render a judgment about the library plans.
Comments
Feb 22 Meeting
Just to clarify, the meeting on Feb 22nd is the public hearing for the regular town meeting warrant articles not the library. The public hearing for the special town meeting which included the library article was held last week and has already been voted on by FinCom.
February 23 Presentation of New Library Plans
Yes, I confused the February 22 FinCom hearing with the library directors' meeting planned for February 23. Thanks for the correction!
The Colburn Folly
Why on earth would anyone considering "buying" this building? The only true value it has is it's location, and that will disappear the moment it's moved off its foundation to make room for the library. At that point we won't be able to give it away because it will be too expensive to move, build a new foundation, reconnect to services, gut and rebuild the interior and bring it up to code. This is a $millions+ undertaking.
If you truly want to preserve the Colburn School you should vote against the library expansion and then have the town donate the property to a not-for-profit group (assuming they can find one willing to take on its renovation on the current site).
The other option is to tear it down which will save the town several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years and lower the cost of the library construction. For all the Scott Brown republicans out there, this is the fiscally responsible choice.
mea culpa
I must now admit that I did not understand the full implications of the Colburn School in this process. It seems that all the state funding must be signed off by the Mass Historical Commission which has oversight of the Colburn School District. I was unaware of the memorandum of agreement between the MHC, the town of Westwood and the Board of Library Commissioners that established the parameters for approval of funding. Here is a link to meeting notes from January 10, 2010 BOS meeting specifically about this subject.
Colburn School Irrelevant
I must be missing something here. If we tear down the building, then we forfeit millions of dollars of matching state funds for the Library, right? So IF you want the Library, it's worth spending whatever it takes, up to the amount of money we are getting, to move it, preserve it, mothball it, whatever. That might not be a great long term view, but it's practical. I don't mean to trivialize the great contributions here about this...but I just don't understand why the issue of the Colburn school is getting in the way of deciding whether or not to support the Library.
How would tearing down the Colburn School impact library funding
Dave - how is the Colburn tied to the library funding?
Why would tearing it down forfeit matching funds? My understanding is that the only reason it is part of this discussion is that it sits on the site of the proposed new library.
Stop reading and start posting...How do you feel.
I believe Dave is correct in what he is saying. If we as a town could just tear down the school, I think most residents would vote to tear it down. That is not the case, we have to spend thousands to save millions because the Colburn School is tied into the grant money.
Like I said in my last post what I think most residents are loosing site of is the amount our taxes can jump in one year. Can the basement of the Library be used for something besides a Library like a Civic Center? This is going to be another building that the town owns and needs to maintain. How much will this new library cost to run compared to the old one? Remember we are not collecting big tax money from this whole Westwood Station project, so all I see in the next year is the potential for one of our largest tax hikes. .
. Before voting YES or NO on the Library you have to ask yourself can you afford a several hundred dollar hike in your taxes in one year? If one of the BOS or Pam Dukeman could get on the blog and say that we are not going for a huge operational override next year then I would vote YES on the library in a heart beat. On the other hand as a resident I can wait a few years and would like to see the town get 50% from the state instead of 30% for a new library. I believe we need to maximize the amount we get and use every square foot of this large library.