Great Barrington — The Community Preservation Committee is now in its final stretch, having determined in a series of meetings which applicants are still eligible for Community Preservation Act (CPA) money derived from a property tax surcharge and matching funds from the state and that is intended to underwrite projects in three categories: historic preservation, recreation and open space, and affordable housing. With the elimination of two projects at last week’s meeting, the committee is now being asked for a total of $956,000, down from what was originally $1.5 million in total requests.
The committee has $1.2 million to allocate.
At its December 18 meeting, the committee vetted the last six projects, asking questions of applicants and taking a straw vote to determine whether those projects would proceed to the next stage, in which the committee will determine how much funding to recommend for each. The final decision on whether to fund CPA projects is made at Town Meeting in May.
Chair Karen W. Smith and the committee gave three town projects the green light. Mason Library needs what a contractor said is $65,000 to repair a deteriorating cupola that has compromised the inside of the building with leaks. Town Hall, says Public Works Director Joseph Sokul, needs $20,000 for an investigation into “serious problems in the southwest corner” of the building. For the actual repairs to the roof, Sokul said he will ask the town for that money, in addition to looking for multiple funding sources.
The more controversial of the three town projects is the Wetherbee Vault. “It’s only dangerous to dead people,” committee member Suzie Fowle said of the deteriorating burial chamber of Charles Lincoln Wetherbee and his wife, located in the historic Mahaiwe Cemetery. Sokul said he was never able to find money to fix the “beautiful structure,” and that tearing it down and re-interring the remains would not be cheap, either. Committee Member Kathleen Jackson wondered what was better, “spending town money to repair it, or town money to knock it down.”
In the end the committee decided to keep the vault in the funding game, but with the request that Sokul ask the Cemetery Commission for leverage for the $27,500 project. Fowle said she liked “the sensitivity that [the application] shows on Joe’s part,” and that it will draw attention to the historic cemetery.
The Great Barrington Historical Society’s Wheeler Farmstead will go forward in its quest for $50,000 to restore its old Dutch wheelhouse. And so will St. James Place, for $150,000 to complete repairs to the roof of the old St. James Church.
Likewise, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center will proceed in its request for $30,000 in drainage remediation to the historic theatre, though the committee had concerns that the drainage issues may not be resolved by this work alone. The Mahaiwe’s Production and Facilities Director Tim Schroepfer had learned from an engineer, however, that the work would be a “permanent fix” to the problem. Smith worried that this is a “deferred maintenance issue,” but Schroepfer reassured her. “I don’t know what the deferred maintenance would have been to have solved this problem.” The Mahaiwe will replace the floor and install a larger sump pump.
Deferred maintenance is something Ed Abrahams is concerned about, particularly with regard to the three town projects and the Mahaiwe project. He was unable to attend last night’s meeting, but sent a letter to be read to the committee, in which he wrote, “We might be setting up a financial incentive to encourage deferring needed maintenance until a historic building is in danger.”
Last week, the committee, in a 6-3 vote, decided not to fund the Unitarian Universalist Church in Housatonic for $17,250 in restorations to their building. Chair Karen W. Smith said the reason was that the Church did not appear ready; they had not hired an engineer to determine what was needed, nor were costs documented. “There was no real estimate,” Smith said. “They never came to the first meeting…when you’re spending taxpayer money, you need to be ready.”
The Church sits next to the Ramsdell Library, which was also rejected with an 8-1 vote for $345,000 in funding for an addition and handicapped accessibility. Smith said there were two problems with that application. “There was no feasibility study or engineers, and the plan had nothing to do with historical preservation.” The state CPA officials agreed, Smith said, when Library Trustees President Holly Hamer called them. Hamer then changed the application to ask for $300,000 for system upgrades, which the library had planned to ask the town for in 2017, and $30,000 for a driveway and handicap accessible parking.
Chair Smith said there had not been feasibility studies or engineers to determine costs, and that with taxpayer money you “can’t change the plan midstream.”
The committee suggested the trustees come back next year for funds, and that they work with the church for a shared driveway and parking.
In his letter to the committee, Abrahams, who is also a library trustee, expressed concern that the committee has gone too far in telling applicants where their applications were lacking, and were perhaps too harsh with them in the process.
“As a committee we have gone beyond our expertise in past meetings,” Abrahams wrote. “…And we’ve often raised our voices and even ridiculed applicants. At the least, let’s try to be more civil…our job is oversight and prioritizing.”
Committee member Thomas Blauvelt disagreed that the committee had “ridiculed” applicants, and Smith said “we are asked to spend $1.2 million in revenue…if feelings are hurt…I’ll be glad to take the hit on that. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the town, we need to adhere and we need to be picky.”
Kathleen Jackson said some of that pickiness was a way of “steering [applicants] towards the right application.”
The committee will meet again on December 30, after several project site visits.
