ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting on Tuesday authorized the Board of Selectmen to negotiate purchase-and-sale and lease agreements for Memorial Building.

 

The vote was 85-2 supporting the sale of the former school building for housing and leasing back the gym/auditorium area for 20 years as a community center.

 

The goal has been to turn the south end of the 72-year-old building into a community center and Council on Aging facility using the gym, auditorium and offices. The condition of the building, primarily the bathrooms, has prevented this. 

 

Michael Mackin was the only bidder in the last request for proposals and plans to invest $1 million in the town's section, including upgrading the bathrooms that will make the space usable. He's proposing to put in 25 apartment units, of which around five will be affordable, and commercial space in the cafeteria.

 

Members spent more than a half-hour debating the wisdom of the sale, with some advocating for a way to retain ownership of the property. 

 

"I don't like the idea of giving away a nice beautiful location of a building and then having to pay rent for it," said town meeting member Corinne Case. "It just doesn't fit well with me." 

 

Community Development Director Eammon Coughlan said the town had always assumed it would be some type of condominium arrangement, with the developer taking over the classroom wing. 

 

"Even though the town planned for that for a long time, Mr. Mackin with his financing, he's basically told us that he needs to have the full equity, the full value of the building, for his finances," he said. "So the condominium-type arrangement doesn't work."

 

Town meeting member Diane Parsons said she was "delighted" to hear about new space for the Council on Aging and housing, but didn't like the amount, feeling $50,000 a year was too much. 

 

Selectmen Chair John Duval said the $50,000, which would start in the third year (first being zero and second $25,000) was a baseline and that the town has received a $300,000 grant that can be used for the building he thought would lower the rent. 

 

Coughlin said the assessed value of the building is $7.2 million and that Mackin will be investing up to $13 million; that will roughly translate to $120,000 to $170,000 a year in property taxes. Duval said the cost to heat the entire building as required by the insurer has cost the town $116,000 a year, which will also go away. 

 

Member Donald Sommer questioned why the town was keeping the auditorium when the Adams Theater was open; Duval said there had been inquiries from community groups about using the space. 

 

There were also questions about the fate of the Visitors Center and Duval said it could be rented but that the board had not really discussed anything in depth. "As soon as this plan is approved we'll move onto the next one," he said. 

 

Two amendments to the article failed: member John Cowie asked to amend it so that the board would have to bring the agreement back for approval by town meeting and Chad Worley to require the developer to install an accessible path from Columbia Street to Liberty Street field, thereby improving a footpath there.

 

Duval said he liked the idea of the path and would push it but asked town meeting to reject both amendments as impediments to moving forward with the building's renovation.  

 

"I don't want to tie Mr. Mackin to anything we haven't discussed yet," he said, adding that it would likely be on the town to pay for engineering to see if a path was even possible. As to the amendment to bring the agreement back to town meeting for approval, "My concern is that Mr. Mackin gets frustrated ... we may lose the only individual entity that is going to upgrade this building."

 

Town meeting member Frederick Lora said it didn't make sense to bring it back because "how can you rent an apartment if you don't own the building?"

 

"My concern is attempting to negotiate a lease in writing before the sale could disrupt the process," he said. "I believe that the town selectmen have the ability to come back to the town in various meetings or formats and discuss your negotiations for the best lease possible for the best terms of the town."

 

In other business, town meeting spent nearly half the three-hour meeting on a citizens' petition asking to form a Greylock Glen commission which was easily defeated.

 

But members made quick work of Articles 1 and 2, a change in definition for accessory buildings and a home occupation bylaw. And a special taxing agreement for the Adams Theater and capping a revolving fund for Greylock Glen maintenance passed easily with no discussion. 

 

They took longer in discussing a stormwater bylaw, raising concerns about language and how it might affect residences permitted to connect to the system, farms, gardens, road maintenance and just fertilizing lawns.

 

Coughlin noted the town is about a year behind in adopting a bylaw and could be penalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if it did not pass.

 

Town Meeting Member John Cowie asked if it was a template and if it had been adapted to Adams, noting it did not have an agricultural waiver as did Pittsfield. Coughlan said the language came from a Central Massachusetts coalition but added that the bylaw allowed for waivers through the authority of the Planning Board.

 

"We also have a draft set of regulations that the Planning Board will need to adopt that will help to guide implementation and i think can clarify a lot of these concerns," he said.

 

The article passed 80-9 and Article 4, giving the town the authority to lien property to recover costs from bylaw scofflaws, was approved on a voice vote.

 

Also passed was a solar power agreement with Solect Energy, by 89-0, to build solar carports at the Greylock Glen. Selectman Joseph Nowak, who has been strongly critical of not putting the solar on the roof of the Outdoor Center, again posed his objections. 

 

Andreas Schmid of Solect Energy said the energy generated is designed to cover 100 percent of the center's needs and acknowledged that putting solar on the roof may have been "missed opportunity."

 

"The architect had an opportunity when initially designing the building to put more solar on the roof," he said. "But he decided that ultimately the solar should be put on the parking lot, so we were brought in to accommodate that, put the design together."