A sign on the door of the old library serves as the first notification some renters and students received of troubles at Center on the Common.
(Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Tenants and students came to their weekly Thursday classes at the Center on the Common (CoC) on Dec. 18 only to find a sign saying that activities at the center were suspended because of “an insurance issue.” The following day, the organization’s president, Bob Hubert, sent a letter to friends and supporters saying that the CoC would be vacating the old library for good, leaving residents wondering what had gone wrong. A lapsed insurance policy, no payments to the town for rent or utilities in the past year, and uncertainty about the future of the building contributed to the controversy surrounding the closing.
The unraveling began on Dec. 2 when board members of the Center on the Common, a nonprofit cultural organization that leased the old library building from the town, appeared before the Board of Selectmen to discuss payments owed to the town for back rent and utilities. At that meeting, most selectmen voiced their reluctance to oust the center from the building, and they gave Hubert a month to come up with a three-year business plan.
But things took a turn for the worse at the next BOS meeting when Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the selectmen that the CoC’s liability insurance policy had lapsed. The selectmen directed Bragan to send a letter telling the center to cease all activities until a valid insurance binder could be produced, and another letter notifying the CoC’s board members that they had 30 days to pay the $9,675 they owed the town for back rent and utilities. After receiving those letters, the center’s board met, and on the morning of Dec. 19, Hubert issued a statement announcing the discontinuation of the center’s programs at the old library building. (See letter in sidebar.)
Original lease agreement
While Hubert and the other CoC board members declined to talk to the Press, Bragan provided his account of the center’s financial history with the town. In the fall of 2012, the town negotiated a lease for the old library building with the newly formed center on the Common organization. Rent for the building was set at $100 a month, and the CoC was to reimburse the town for all utilities. In addition, the town would rent meeting rooms from the center at a charge of $25 per meeting, and that amount would be deducted from the utility bills. According to Bragan, the town paid roughly $250 a month for meetings. The lease also included a “special termination” clause, stating, “If the entire premises are required for the relocation of Town Hall due to its renovation, this agreement will be suspended upon 30 days written notice, and will be reinstated when the center on the Common, Inc. is able to re-occupy the premises.” In an article in the Press in Sept. 2012, Hubert said, “I think we spent quite a bit of time on that to make sure that the notifications and the amount of time we have to vacate the building would be appropriate.” The lease was signed Sept. 27, 2012.
Financial decline begins
The center paid its rent on time through the end of 2013, but utility bills began piling up in the summer of 2013. By the end of the year, the CoC owed the town approximately $3,300 for heat, electricity, and water and sewer. Early in 2014 Hubert contacted Bragan about the lease, which had expired. Hubert told Bragan that he thought it was a two-year lease and asked if it could be amended. Bragan responded that the center would have to go before the Board of Selectmen to do that. The selectmen asked Hubert to attend their Feb. 4 meeting to discuss renegotiation of the lease and a possible application for a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, which the town was willing to match. Hubert responded that his board was not yet ready to apply for the grant and asked to postpone the lease negotiation.
No payments to town in 2014
By summer of 2014, Bragan said, the center owed the town about $8,000 for back rent and utilities; and in response to a notice regarding the arrears, Hubert came to his office and offered to write the town a check and close the CoC down. Bragan responded that he didn’t think the town wanted the center closed down, but that it did expect the money. In July Hubert contacted Bragan about a possible cost/revenue-sharing arrangement with the town. Bragan said he told Hubert that the center would have to take that up with the BOS and to let him know when the center would like to be on the agenda, but Hubert never responded.
Hubert meets with BOS
After Special Town Meeting in late October, Bragan said he contacted Hubert to give him a heads-up that town offices might possibly move into the old library during Town Hall renovations. On Dec. 2 Hubert and CoC board member Tracy Kraus appeared before the BOS to discuss the impact that losing the use of the building for 12 to 18 months would have on the center. The issue of back rent and utilities, which by then totaled $9,675, was raised. Hubert and Kraus told the selectmen that their financial difficulties had arisen because their business model was based on a combination of revenue and fundraising, but fundraising had been inhibited by a delay in receiving 501(c)(3) status because of the IRS’s increased scrutiny of charitable organizations. They also mentioned that the state required two years of tax returns before it would issue a license to solicit funds. The center’s taxes for 2012 and 2013 were not filed until Aug. 2014, and the board received the license two months later. The selectmen asked Hubert and Kraus to bring a three-year business plan to the first BOS meeting in 2015 to show that the CoC could be financially viable going forward.
Insurance lapse discovery
Two weeks later Bragan discovered that the center’s two insurance policies, one for liability and one for the director, had lapsed on Apr. 23, 2014. The amount due on the two policies at the time of cancellation was $1,183. Former CoC treasurer Willie Wickman, who resigned in Feb. 2014, said she continued to receive notices of the insurance cancellation after her resignation because she was the contact person on the policies. Wickman said she forwarded those notices to Hubert and the new treasurer, Wendy Feddersen. Wickman added that she warned members of the BOS that they should check to see if the center was insured. BOS Chairman Stu Sklar acknowledged that he received the warning, and he said he asked Bragan to contact the center. According to Sklar, Bragan was told that the CoC was insured. Sklar added that the town, as owner of the building, would have been notified if the insurance had been cancelled, but because the policy lapsed, the insurance company was not obligated to notify the town.
Bragan announced the insurance lapse at the BOS meeting on Dec. 16, and despite his assurances that the CoC’s board, not the town, would be liable for any mishaps that occurred during center activities, the selectmen were uncomfortable with leaving the town open to any liability. They told Bragan to notify the center to cease all activities in the building, and a certified letter was sent the next day. On Dec. 18, the CoC informed Bragan’s office that the building was closed, and Bragan attempted to get in touch with Hubert to find out what his plan was but got no reply. Bragan said he was shocked when he saw the letter stating that the center had decided to discontinue programs in the building. He has not received any communication from Hubert since the center closed.
Center’s plan unclear
Hubert declined an interview with the Press, but he did send this statement on Dec. 30: “At the Dec. 2 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, the Center on the Common committed to deliver a three-year projected budget for operations. We will deliver that budget along with any relevant historical financial information for the first selectmen’s meeting in January 2015. At this time, the Board of the Center on the Common feels that any further comment by our group will not be helpful.”
The first BOS meeting of 2015 will be on Jan. 13. Bragan said that the town is required to wait 30 days from the date of its letter to the center, which will be Jan. 16, before taking any action against the organization. He added that he will present the options for those actions to the selectmen at their meeting on Jan. 20, which is coincidentally the day that the quotes for temporary town office space are due.
Sklar said that he has heard that other groups in town may be interested in taking over the CoC if the current board decides to step down. If the organization is dissolved, any new group would have to start again from square one to obtain nonprofit status. And as one interested party, who preferred not to be named, pointed out, “It’s all meaningless in the near term until the selectmen choose a location for the temporary offices of Town Hall.”
When asked about the likelihood of moving town offices to the old library during renovations, Sklar said that a decision could come as late as Feb. 3. He added that no estimate has been done yet for retrofitting the building, but that the electrical system needs to be redone and the building must be made ADA compliant to have town offices there, even temporarily.
Sklar said that if the Center on the Common were to continue as a tenant, he would want a BOS member or appointee to be on the center’s board, and he would ask for a regular audit of the organization’s books. “I’d like to see it succeed,” he added, “and as I said on Nextdoor Harvard, I’m willing to do whatever I can to help.”
