Speak Up Tonight: Let's Wait until the Fall Town Meeting to Decide the Old Library's Fate

Now playing on the Weston Media Channel:  Selectman Ed Coburn stares intensely into the camera lens and announces he is speaking directly to the viewers at home watching the video rerun of the April 29 Boardof Selectmen meeting.  He challenges viewers who think the Urbanica proposal is not the best solution for the re-use of the landmark Old Library and Josiah Smith Tavern.  He says they should bring forward their own proposals. 

Real estate developer Urbanica’s proposal would convert the Old Library and Josiah Smith Tavern into privately owned commercial and residential condos, with up to $4.1 million, or 50% of the cost of this conversion, to be paid with public funds.  The Josiah Smith Tavern portion of the Urbanica proposal has now been deferred until the Fall Special Town Meeting so that complications with the Town’s zoning by-laws applicable to that building can be untangled by the Planning Board.    

Meanwhile, at our Annual Town Meeting that is now in progress, Article 28 would authorize the Board of Selectmen to sell the Old Library to Urbanica for $22,000.  The Old Library has its own zoning problem because it is currently limited to commercial use.  An amendment to allow residential condos there must get Town Meeting approval before Urbanica can obtain a building permit for its conversion work.  And before such an amendment can be considered by Town Meeting, it must presented by the Planning Board at a public hearing, which has been scheduled on June 4.

Tonight, the selectmen intend to make motions that three articles related to the Old Library, including Article 28, be passed over so that they can be taken up at a Special Town Meeting that the selectmen have already called for June 17.  A warrant for the June 17 meeting with just these three articles was closed by the Board of Selectmen last Wednesday.  So anyone wanting to respond to Selectman Coburn’s challenge will not have a chance to do so at the June 17 Special Town Meeting.

The selectmen’s presumption, that tonight Town Meeting members will agree to pass over the three Old Library articles, including Article 28, deserves some discussion and debate.  The key question:  if the selectmen get the
authorization they are seeking on June 17, when will they sell the Old Library
to Urbanica?  The likely answer:  as quickly as possible. 

The selectmen’s rationale for haste is that Urbanica can do the rehab and restoration work to the Old Library’s exterior more cheaply because the higher cost of prevailing wage requirements can be avoided when the Old Library becomes private property.  But this reasoning is suspect.  It has been two years since $850,000 was appropriated for emergency repairs of the Old Library’s exterior, and it turns out a far smaller amount from other available funds was spent to do what was truly necessary.  Further work seems safely deferrable until 2014.

Another rationalization for haste is that Urbanica has indicated it will not wait until
the Fall Town Meeting for these approvals.  But why then did Urbanica agree in a December 11, 2012, Letter of Intent to consider extending deadlines, the last of which does not occur until the end of this year?           

What is clear, however, is that once the Old Library is sold to Urbanica, it is gone
and any other proposal—such as saving its architecturally beautiful reading room for public access, will have been preempted.  If Selectman Coburn’s April 29 challenge was serious, he and his fellow selectmen should wait and let that challenge be taken up at the Fall Special Town Meeting.

Regardless of what other proposals might be ready for public review by then, voters and taxpayers should be given at the very least an opportunity to consider the economical alternative of fitting out the Old Library and all of the Josiah Smith Tavern into simple space for rent to civic organizations or private businesses.  That would at least keep these landmark buildings town-owned at a lower cost to taxpayers.      

Town Meeting members who want to consider a choice on the fate of the Old Library at the Fall Town Meeting should speak up tonight.  The selectmen should heed these neighbors and promise not to sell the Old Library before then.

BillSandalls                                                                                                                                                                                      
May 20, 2013