HADLEY — Even as members of the Select Board are pledging to build a new senior center and minimize disruptions to the American Legion Post 271 next door, the Legion and its supporters are preparing for possible legal action against the town.
At a Select Board meeting at Hopkins Academy March 28, representatives for the Legion called on town officials to halt the $7.1 million, 12,050-square-foot building that would be built on town-owned land east of the Hooker School Building, including a portion of the property the Legion has used as overflow since the 1960s.
“I beg, I ask the Select Board, to delay this project temporarily,” said Stanley Fil, a 96-year-old World War II veteran.
But Select Board Chairwoman Molly Keegan said that a senior center has been long identified as a need and that both it and the new library, which would be built where the Hooker building stands, need to move forward.
“We have overwhelming support for the new library and senior center, and the master plan it fits into,” Keegan said.
Spending for the senior center project has been approved at two Town Meeting sessions and two subsequent ballot votes. The project is scheduled to break ground later this year and be open by fall 2019. That would then pave the way for construction of the new library, also approved by voters and supported by a $3.9 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
The meeting drew about 50 residents, about evenly divided between advocates for the new senior center and new library, and members of the Legion.
Among those in attendance was attorney Michael Pill of Green, Miles, Lipton LP of Northampton. While he didn’t address the Select Board, he spoke to members of the Legion following the meeting.
Pill said he is currently providing pro bono consulting to the Legion. Coming from a family with military veterans, Pill said he would be happy to be hired to defend the Legion’s interests.
“If they want to pursue legal remedies, I will do it for a cost they can afford,” Pill said.
A sign outside the Legion’s home on the busy Route 9 corridor states that it has a goal of raising $50,000 for its legal fund.
“Help the veterans save their home,” the sign reads.
Keegan said the meeting sought to have concerns, most about parking for the Legion, brought up, and then to find common ground, observing that no one in town government wants harm to come to the Legion. At the same time, she said, the voters have spoken on both projects.
“We have to look out for the interests of the whole town,” Keegan said.
Select Board member Joyce Chunglo said the community needs to come together.
“We will work with everybody to make sure there is proper parking for everybody to use,” Chunglo said.
Planning Board member John Mieczkowski said he is concerned about the process that led to approvals of both buildings, and that Town Meeting and voters were tricked into supporting the senior center project by initially underselling its cost. This deceit, he said, means the process should start over.
“That should go back to the drawing board,” Mieczkowski said.
Even as legal action is being considered, two petition articles submitted by the Legion remain on the May 3 annual Town Meeting warrant. The first petition seeks to relocate the new senior center from the 2.6-acre Hooker School parcel to a 9-acre North Hadley location on River Drive the town acquired last year. The second petition asks to rescind the entire $7.1 million in funding.
Since most of the concerns center around the Legion losing its overflow parking, the Select Board is directing Town Administrator David Nixon to begin drawing up an agreement that will guarantee the Legion has access to the new parking lot for the senior center. Members of the legion said many events they hold, such as funerals, aren’t scheduled far in advance.
Building Commissioner Tim Neyhart said he and the Municipal Building Committee members have met with the architect for the project “to make sure the least amount of interruption could happen with the American Legion site.”
Contractors for the senior center and library buildings will use Middle Street to get in and out of the work site, not the Route 9 access next to the Legion.
Some bad feelings remain after a contractor for the Route 9 widening project in 2016 used the Legion’s main lot as a staging area and damaged it, and never adequately repaired the lot. The Select Board entered into a contract with the contractor for use of the lot and the Russell School building.
Select Board member John Waskiewicz said it was “an absolute disgrace” what was done to the lot during that project.
Jane Nevinsmith, chairwoman of the Senior Center Building Committee, said the meeting gives her confidence that issues will be worked out amicably.
“There was nothing brought up here tonight that can’t be resolved,” Nevinsmith said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.