A showdown between two groups hoping to lease the old library, the Harvard Cultural Collaborative (HCC) and the Concord Area Special Education (CASE) Collaborative, failed to materialize this week when CASE decided not to submit a proposal. The Cultural Collaborative was the only group to submit a proposal, and Town Administrator Tim Bragan confirmed that it met the minimum criteria set forth in the request for proposals (RFP) prepared by the selectmen last month. All that remains is to work out the details of the lease, Bragan said, and he plans to have the lease ready for the selectmen to sign at their Feb. 7 meeting.
The Cultural Collaborative’s 20-page proposal included a detailed explanation of how the organization rated itself in each of the five evaluation criteria stated in the RFP. The collaborative also submitted letters of support from various town organizations and prospective program providers, a three-year business plan, and a copy of a petition to use the old library as a cultural center, which was circulated last summer and signed by nearly 800 residents. Proof of cash assets consisted of a letter from Enterprise Bank stating that the collaborative’s bank account balance on Jan. 18 was more than $24,000, raised in the past two months.
The HCC’s board of directors was elated by the news, and supporters offered congratulations on Nextdoor Harvard and thanked the group for its dedication. HCC President Jan Daley, in an official statement, thanked the many residents who supported the group on its 15-month-long quest to lease the building (see Daley statement). On Nextdoor Harvard, collaborative board member Jim Breslauer reminded supporters that “this is not yet a done deal—lease details will need to be worked out, not least of which is how the building will be made accessible for all.”
The collaborative offered to pay the minimum amount of rent required, stated in the lease agreement as $450 per month for the first year, $600 per month for the second year, and $800 per month for the third year. In addition, it offered an additional payment of $501 per month to go toward making the building wheelchair accessible. In its proposal, the collaborative stated that the old library deed calls for “free and equal” access, and in that spirit, it believes that it is crucial to provide a “single entrance for all.”
The selectmen have agreed that restoring the entrance to the front of the building is the most desirable solution to making the building accessible, and have asked the Capital Planning and Investment Committee for $20,000 to study the cost of that solution, and $55,000 to make the building’s back entrance meet accessibility codes so the building could be leased by the fall.
CASE director explains absence
CASE Executive Director Thomas Jefferson said in a phone interview that although CASE was “very intrigued” by the possibility of leasing the old library to house the Colebrook High School, a 25-student therapeutic day school, a number of factors had led it to pursue other sites. He cited the amount of work necessary to make the building accessible and to build out classroom space, as well as the cost of that work. “It’s a mysterious space,” he said. “You don’t know what you’ll find when you start opening up walls.”
Another factor was timing. Colebrook needs to move into a new space in time for the new school year starting in September, and the town has yet to decide how it will make the building accessible. In addition, Jefferson said that CASE has limited funds to work with, and it would be difficult for the organization to contribute substantially to the necessary accessibility renovations over the short duration of a three-year lease. He also said that the building is not as large as CASE would like, especially with the unusable third floor and the space in the basement reserved by the town.
“We did come across a promising space in December,” Jefferson said, and added that it was open office space that would be easy to convert to classrooms. CASE will also be releasing a request for proposals to lease space in early February, and it anticipates a number of responses that will meet its short timeframe and space requirements.
