Published in the August 2, 2018 edition

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING —The town is poised to take advantage of an opportunity to obtain a $10M state grant to fund an intergenerational community center on land adjacent to Ipswich River Park.

According to Selectmen Chairman Mike Prisco, tucked within House Bill 4249 that was signed into law recently by Gov. Baker totaling $3.8 billion for capital projects throughout the state is a $10M grant for North Reading to develop an intergenerational community center.

At the July 23 Selectmen’s meeting, Prisco explained that this funding is part of a five-year capital budgeting process at the state level and cautioned that it’s not yet guaranteed that the town will receive it, but on a positive note, it is not the type of grant that requires matching funding and the preliminary legwork already done by the town strengthens its placement on the list for funding.

“We can see it on the horizon,” Prisco said. Such a center has long been a dream of the town’s Parks and Recreation Department, which has expended some privately raised funds over the past five or so years developing preliminary plans, with assistance from Gale Associates.

Prisco said while Parks and Rec has been actively engaged in this process, not much has yet been discussed with the broader community so he invited the principals involved in the legwork thus far to share what they’ve done.

Parks Operations Director Maureen Stevens, Recreation Director Lynne Clemens, Parks Director Marty Tilton and longtime Recreation Commission member and Land Utilization Committee member Rita Mullin were all present for what will be the start of a broader discussion with the community.

Presently, recreation programming is scattered throughout many facilities in town and a centralized location at Ipswich River Park, with its many amenities, would go a long way toward unifying the programming, according to Stevens. Programming for the youngest children generally takes place at the small single family house at 5 Central Street which the town acquired many years ago. It is adjacent to the meadow at Ipswich River Park. It has three different programming rooms, upstairs storage and a small fenced in play yard to protect the kids from the cars, trucks and buses that use the gravel lot to park and access an old barn used by the Parks Dept.

The summer program for older elementary age kids is held at the Batchelder School while other programming utilizes the gym at Town Hall,

In response to a question from the board regarding the involvement of the town’s senior citizens in the planning process, Clemens said when this process was begun many years ago it was initially done with a vision of it being a youth center, but that idea has evolved to include building a facility that will also serve the town’s senior citizens as well as the town’s veterans and both departments have been consulted and everyone is on the same page regarding the value of making North Reading “more senior-friendly,” Clemens said.

 Clemens has visited many facilities throughout the state and has spoken to those involved to ask them what they liked and what they wished they had done differently if they could do it again.

In order to meet the needs of all three groups there would be some shared rooms.

Prisco said it was very important that space be allotted for the town’s seniors so that they could finally have a decent facility, noting they have waited a long time to get adequate space. Currently all senior programming takes place in one room on the first floor of the Third Meetinghouse on the Common, including the daily hot lunch program.

Three sketch plans for utilizing the land were proposed by Gale Associates, all of which would require razing the current Recreation Center and the barn to make best use of that long, narrow parcel that joins up with active “field” side of the park. The barn would need to be rebuilt in the rear of the property. This parcel also includes a pump house for the irrigation well for the fields at IRP.

The first plan would keep all buildings and parking on the current narrow and deep strip of land where the Rec Center is located. The second option sketched a community center that partially encroached on the adjacent meadow, in order to increase parking and the size of the building. The third sketch plan placed the entire recreation center parallel to Central Street using all of the meadow, which would leave the entire narrow and deep strip of land for parking.

Selectmen Andrew Schultz, who noted he lives directly across the street from the existing Rec Center, said he preferred sketch one, which would concentrate the activity closer to his home but he was more concerned with the loss of green space if it was built in the meadow.

Selectwoman Kate Manupelli said increasing space for teen programming in town is also needed. And Prisco noted that having a mix of spaces available for use, including private rooms for counseling services, will also be a priority.

All agreed that whatever form it may ultimately take, this grant will provide the town with a exciting opportunity to meet so many currently unmet needs and that the town is in an advantageous position to obtain the grant due to all of the preliminary legwork that has been done to date by the staff and volunteers at Parks and Rec to bring a dream into a reality.

Many more discussions will be had in the coming weeks and months as the town weighs the direction it will be taking in advocating for obtaining the state grant.