HADLEY — Hadley’s programs for senior citizens will be run out of the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church beginning in April, following a Select Board decision last week to rent space at the Route 9 site.
With Goodwin Library trustees pledging $49,850 to cover a large portion of the Senior Center’s rent and moving costs, the Select Board Wednesday voted 4-0, with member Molly Keegan abstaining, to sign a lease with The Colebrook Group of Springfield.
The need for the space at 120 Russell St., which will cost the town $67,800 for the year, comes because the Hooker School Building on Middle Street, where the Senior Center has been located, will be demolished to make way for a new $8 million town library. Demolition of the aging building is scheduled to happen around May 1.
The Senior Center will also be getting its own new building, with a groundbreaking March 1. The $7.1 million building will be constructed in the field behind the Hooker School and is supposed to open by the end of April 2020.
Hadley’s lease with the church calls for paying $5,650 per month, which representatives from Colebrook informed Town Administrator David Nixon was based on the lowest per-square-foot rental of similar office space on Route 9. The lease can be extended on a monthly basis if the Senior Center opening is delayed.
On March 15, the Senior Center will start its move, which will be complete in about two weeks. Once at the church, senior citizens will have access to the church’s auditorium and hall, three classrooms and the library and kitchen, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The contract stipulates that when the church needs the space for funerals, Senior Center programs may be canceled, though staff might be able to continue working on those days.
The reason the library trustees were comfortable paying for the bulk of these costs is due to an estimated savings of $7,000 per week for the new library project by starting early, rather than waiting nearly a year to break ground, according to town officials.
Jo-Ann Konieczny, chairwoman of the trustees, said the idea is to do what is best for the town and the taxpayers.
The $49,850 was calculated through a formula that Konieczny explains included the costs of the church rent and the move, and deducting operational costs for the Senior Center already appropriated by the town, such as heating and electricity.
Konieczny said trustees worked closely with Select Board Chairwoman Joyce Chunglo and member Christian Stanley to reach a deal that would satisfy the Select Board.
One trustee, former Select Board member David Moskin, even made an effort to negotiate a lower rent with the church’s realtor, though this raised red flags from current Select Board member David J. Fill II about whether this was an appropriate action, and possibly interfering in the lease arrangement.
Fil said he applauded Moskin’s reasoning for cutting costs, though not the manner in which it was attempted.
“I appreciate the effort to save the money, but people need to be a little bit more cautious about destroying a deal before we have something in writing,” Fill said.
Chunglo said Moskin’s heart was in the right place as a Hadley resident. “He wasn’t acting on behalf of the trustees, he just went down on his own,” Chunglo said.
A day after the meeting, though, Moskin wrote in an email that he was determining if there was a way to save Hadley money, a responsibility of elected officials and that the realtor understood that. Moskin offered a counterproposal, arguing that the lease should be different when renting to a municipal entity rather than a business.
“I would like to believe that a little initiative from a resident that bore fruit will not be demeaned and twisted into something it is not,” Moskin said. ” I also encourage taxpaying residents to help the town save money where it can. Whether or not your ideas and efforts are appreciated.”
With the Hooker School to soon be razed, some of the other tenants, including the Planning Board and Park and Recreation Department, will move to Town Hall, with office space being reconfigured to accommodate their presence. Hadley Media is moving to the second floor of Goodwin.
The Select Board Wednesday approved a plan in which the town will spend up to $13,000, which could still be reduced, to make the needed changes to Town Hall.
Building Commissioner Timothy Neyhart said the major expense is moving a large safe from the first floor to open up new room for the Board of Health, which will move from the second floor. A new wall may also be built between the health board’s room and the assessors’ office.
On the second floor, a second meeting room will be created, and the Planning Board will be given a room to store its paper records and scanner used for processing documents.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
