Page 14 - BusinessWest December 22, 2021

Lyn Simmons says the town’s former adult center may become the future home of municipal offices.
featuring a full court that can be used for basketball or volleyball and an elevated walking track around the perimeter. On the day BusinessWest toured, three pickleball courts were set up, with games in progress.
The new facility is located less than 100 yards away from the old adult center, which was a former elemen- tary school at Greenwood Park. In the immediate short term, the commercial kitchen in the old center will be used by staff from Armata’s Market to pre- pare holiday meals for their customers after a fire in November destroyed the market, a longtime fixture in Long- meadow (see story on page 15).
Looking ahead, the former adult center may be the future home for
the town municipal offices. Currently, municipal staff are located in Town Hall and the adjacent Community Hall. Town Hall offers limited space, and Simmons said bringing it into compli- ance with current standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would be cost-prohibitive. A recent feasibility study looked at reusing the Greenwood site as combined office space for the town.
“We would move municipal employees from Town Hall and Com- munity Hall to one location and con- solidate under one roof,” Simmons said. If the plan is approved, Simmons said the town can pay for renovations to the Greenwood site out of the $4.6 million allocated to Longmeadow under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Before the town can consider re- using the former DPW site, Simmons said the first goal is to demolish the old buildings which are deemed unsafe.
“We’ve done a feasibility study to see if ground mounted solar panels would make sense for us financially,” she said. “It looks like that would be a good use, but we have a ton of work to do before it can go out to bid.” Right now, it looks like the town will tackle this project in the spring or summer of 2022.
Doing Their Homework
Though mask measures are still in place and students are still adjusting to daily in-person learning, Longmeadow Schools Superintendent Martin O’Shea said having students back in class full- time makes it feel more like a typical school year.
In addition to what he termed as “the ebbs and flows of the school day,” he also recognizes the town is at a crossroads when it comes to deciding the future of its two middle schools.
Glenbrook Middle School, built
in 1967, and Williams Middle School, built in 1959, are two well-maintained buildings, neither of which has had any significant renovation work since they were completed. Despite all the care and maintenance, time has a way of catching up with many of core systems, and the HVAC, plumbing, and electri- cal infrastructure in both buildings have reached the end of their useful life. A study by Colliers Project Lead- ers identified more than $30 million
of essential maintenance and repair issues at the two schools.
O’Shea said the Longmeadow School Committee has petitioned the Massachusetts School Building Author- ity (MSBA) to help answer the ques- tion: should Longmeadow repair the two schools or bring all the middle- school students into one new building?
“If we commit to the repairs Col- liers identified, we would make critical
Longmeadow
Continued on page 16
WILBRAHAM & MONSON ACADEMY
Sunday, January 9 at 10 a.m.
Grades 6-12, PG
Tour our campus and learn more about WMA programs and community. Meet faculty, coaches, parents and students.
www.wma.us/openhouse
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DECEMBER 22, 2021
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
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