GUILFORD — Some Selectboard members are reluctant to enter into a partnership with the Broad Brook Community Center without first weighing the costs.
But though they will have voices in the discussion, it's not ultimately their decision but rather one voters may settle at town meeting.
Sara Coffey and Don McLean, officials with the nonprofit Community Center, visited the Oct. 22 regular Selectboard meeting to talk to the Board about a possible partnership between the organization and the town.
The Community Center, which assumed ownership of the Broad Brook Grange earlier this year, is engaged in a multi-phase renovation project to make the building ADA-compliant and available as a much-needed hub for the town's residents and other guests.
Coffey and McLean told Board members the Community Center is shouldering the cost and responsibility of providing the town with a community center - which other towns in the area maintain through municipal taxpayer funding - and they would like the town to consider coming in as a partner.
The model for the Community Center, they said, is one of partnerships with other organizations, and the Broad Brook Grange was the first to sign on.
By partnering with the Broad Brook Community Center, the town would contribute an annual fee and have the opportunity to continue holding public, town-sponsored events there, such as elections and the Guilford Free Library's two-week children's summer camp.
But at the following Selectboard meeting, on Nov. 12, some Board members cautioned against rushing into things.
Cost effective?
Board member Gordon Little questioned whether the arrangement would be cost-effective for the town. Before the meeting, Little submitted a series of questions to Town Administrator Peder Rude to help the Board make an informed decision.
Rude noted the partnership is “essentially a contract” between the two parties, and “it's a substantial amount of money.”
Rude later clarified to The Commons that the proposed contract is “$10,000 with guaranteed use of at least 40 days per year ($250 per day)."
Little asked whether the proposed cost is “just a starting point to have a conversation,” and noted he isn't comfortable approving this contract until his questions are answered.
Rude was able to provide answers to nearly all of Little's questions.
One consideration of Little's was how much the town has used the building in its past incarnation as the Broad Brook Grange, and how much they expect to use it in the future.
In the past three years or so, the town has had an average of 30 to 35 events at the center, Rude said.
In addition to elections and the library camp, the planning and conservation commissions meet there, and the Selectboard has informational meetings in the building, he said.
Some public events happen at the Community Center, but aren't sponsored by the town, Rude noted, such as the pre-Town Meeting public meeting. Future anticipated usage “was hard to answer,” said Rude, who noted, “if you sign the contract, it would be up to your imagination.”
Alternative venues
Little asked if the town had other options for meeting space, and if so, what were their cost and their relative size.
The two primary options, Rude said, are the Guilford Central School and the Guilford Community Church.
The former doesn't charge the town a fee, even for custodial services, because school administrators want to keep public events accessible to all. Rude said the size varies at the school, and the largest room, the gymnasium, can hold “several hundred” people.
The town pays the church a donation on a sliding scale, based on the number of attendees. It's the smallest option of the three, Rude said. Selectboard Chair Sheila Morse noted the church has no wireless internet or cellphone service.
Board member Verandah Porche questioned whether it's “necessarily appropriate” to have town-sponsored events at a church “even though the church is a great citizen,” adding, “it's still a church.”
The Community Center's maximum capacity is unknown, Rude said.
“For plays upstairs, they've had as many as 140 people,” he said, noting that the state fire marshal is about to issue an occupancy limit for the building, and Rude is awaiting those figures.
Little asked the value of the Community Center's property-tax-exemption. That amount, Rude said, is $5,388.25 annually.
Board member Richard Wizansky asked the Selectboard to think beyond dollars and cents.
“I'm not trying to sway the Board in any direction,” Wizansky said, “but part of our thinking should be the context of what that center is trying to do is to become a community center. And, the town's participation in it is an imprimatur to make it more of a community center than it is.”
Longtime goal
During the Vermont Council for Rural Development's visit to Guilford a few years ago, one of the three main goals townspeople identified was to develop a community center.
Wizansky reminded his colleagues that Guilford doesn't have its own community center, “and part of the nonprofit BBCC's mission is to have a center where the community can gather.”
Porche noted her impression of the Broad Brook Community Center's process is that they are working on their fee structure and other aspects of the change from a Grange hall to a community center.
“I don't think [the $10,000] was a firm figure,” she said.
Morse said that perhaps the Selectboard can negotiate with the BBCC, “but in the end, this is not a Selectboard decision. It will be a town decision.”
Morse reminded Board members that voters at Town Meeting have the authority to approve entering into an agreement with the BBCC.
“You can make this a separate article on the [Town Meeting] warrant, and give the [voters] the option to adopt this,” Rude said.
The Selectboard, Morse said, “will either defend it or not at pre-Town Meeting and at Town Meeting, but we are not making the decision independent” of the voters. ”This is probably going to be a big conversation.”