STM Articles 6, 7: A chance to end the 35-year quest for an accessible entrance to the old library

At Monday’s Special Town Meeting, voters will be asked to approve spending $472,000 for an accessible front entrance to the old library and for bringing the building’s interior up to 21st-century standards. Articles 6 and 7 allocate money from three different sources to pay for the project. Article 6 takes $50,000 from Harvard’s Community Preservation Fund, while Article 7 adds the unspent $39,000 from an earlier project to upgrade a rear entrance and then asks permission to borrow up to $383,000 to pay the balance. Separately, the town is seeking a $200,000 grant from the state to further reduce the cost to taxpayers. The Capital Planning and Investment Committee has endorsed both articles; the Finance Committee recommends Article 6, but not Article 7.

If both articles are approved, the old library will finally get an accessible entrance, ending a journey that began 35 years ago. While there are other options for an accessible entrance (see below), doing nothing is not an option unless the town decides not to use the building. The town received a three-year variance from the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) in June, but when that variance expires, if the town has not made an effort to provide a fully accessible entrance to the building, a complaint to the MAAB could result in action against the town.

The saga begins

In January 1982, Special Town Meeting appropriated $350,000 for a renovation that included moving the entrance from the building’s front to the side to create more interior space. Because the renovation cost more than one-third of the building’s value, it triggered compliance with MAAB regulations, so accessibility modifications needed to be added to the plan. The warrant for the March 1982 Town Meeting contained two accessibility articles: one for $37,000 for a ramp to the new side entrance and one for $88,000 for an elevator. The Finance Committee recommended the ramp, but not the elevator, stating that its cost was too high, and it would also incur maintenance costs. By the time Town Meeting voted, the ramp article had been pulled from the warrant. The town voted to fund the elevator with a transfer from the Stabilization Fund. Since the pathway to the back entrance exceeded the 8.3 percent slope specified in 1982 MAAB regulations, the building was left with no accessible entrance.

Fast forward to 2014

In December 2014, personnel from the Massachusetts Office on Disability visited the old library to evaluate the building for temporary use as town offices. Their report addressed four key barriers as defined in the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility guidelines, including the slope of the ramp, which was “as high as 12 percent in some places.” The report said that the office on disability “strongly encourages the town to do a full ADA review of the existing conditions and make the necessary modifications in order to make this space accessible to persons with disabilities before moving public services into the building.” The report also mentioned the scope of an earlier renovation to the building that likely triggered compliance with MAAB regulations.

Despite the likely noncompliance, Town Hall employees moved into the old library in spring 2015 while Town Hall was being renovated. The selectmen said they would seek a temporary accessibility variance from the MAAB to cover the town’s stay in the old library. In August 2015, the Press contacted Thomas Hopkins, executive director of the MAAB, who said he could not find any variances ever issued or requested for the building at 7 Fairbank St. He added, “If the ramp to the accessible entrance is too steep, and there is no variance for it, we would consider that an outstanding violation of 521 CMR, specifically, the 1982 regulations and Section 25.2.” In June 2016, Town Hall employees moved out, and shortly afterward Council on Aging employees moved in while Hildreth House renovations were being done.

OLAC is born

Meanwhile, in January 2016, the Board of Selectmen appointed the Old Library Accessibility Committee (OLAC) to address accessibility issues in the old library. The committee came up with three options, which they presented to the selectmen in November 2016. The first option was a new path from Fairbank Street to the back door that would meet MAAB regulations. The estimated cost of this option was $54,000. The second option was to install a ramp to the side entrance. That work involved building a new entryway and vestibule in order to meet accessibility codes and was estimated at $300,000. The third option was to restore the center entrance to the old library and build a new ramp and stairway. The estimate for this option, which included the removal of the side entrance, was $376,000. None of the estimates included soft costs or design costs, or the cost of any interior accessibility improvements that would be triggered by the renovation.

OLAC told the selectmen it recommended the center entrance option because, unlike the back door, it allowed everyone to use the same entrance. The side entrance option would also have accomplished that, but because its estimate was so close to the center entrance option, the committee went with the more aesthetically pleasing center entrance. Four of the five selectmen voted for the center entrance option, with Selectman Ken Swanton abstaining because he thought the selectmen should take more time to weigh all three options. As OLAC left the table, Selectman Ron Ricci told committee member Wendy Cote-Magan, who came up with the center entrance idea, “I like the front entrance, and I’m the cheapest guy at the table. I just wish you had lived here in 1982.” OLAC put out a request for proposals for architects, eventually awarding a contract to Abacus Architects & Planners to provide schematic drawings, a list of other accessibility code compliance issues inside the building, and cost estimates.

A 2017 lease forces the issue

Early in 2017, the selectmen agreed to lease the old library to the Harvard Cultural Collaborative for three years. Worried about liability, however, the selectmen stipulated that the building must either be made accessible or a variance from the MAAB must be granted before the lease could be executed. At Town Meeting, voters appropriated $50,000 for OLAC to create an accessible back entrance and parking space. Rather than spending money to regrade the slope to try to make it meet MAAB guidelines, OLAC decided to make some minor upgrades to the back door and seek a variance from the MAAB to use the rear entrance as an accessible entrance for a short period of time. Cote-Magan met with the MAAB and explained the committee’s plan for a new common center entrance to the building that would meet the board’s regulations, and asked for the variance.

In June, the MAAB granted a three-year variance to use the rear entrance as an accessible entrance with some minor modification. Work is currently underway on those modifications, which include installing new push pads on the back door and replacing the grate and regrading the area outside the door. OLAC Chairman Mark Mikitarian told the Press that a rear entrance for handicapped visitors “is not an acceptable approach to accessibility, nor is it viewed favorably in the eyes of the MAAB.” He added that the MAAB likely considered the town’s efforts to provide a common accessible entrance before granting the variance.

The Harvard Cultural Collaborative moved into the building in September and has stated its support for the accessible center entrance, despite the fact that some space will be lost inside the building. Mikitarian said that the space where the new entrance would go is currently extra space for tenants who rent the “fireplace room” in the northwest corner of the first floor, so the lost space would not likely result in lost revenue for the collaborative.

In the hands of voters

The current cost estimate of $472,000 includes construction of the center entrance and removal of the side entrance, as well as modification to the height of some of the windows on the side of the building to restore them to their original height. Cote-Magan went before the MAAB again in the fall to seek variances for some of the accessibility code compliance issues that will be triggered inside the building. The board is expected to make its decision on those variances Nov. 13.

Mikitarian said that OLAC is seeking approval of the project at Monday’s Special Town Meeting instead of waiting until the 2018 Annual Town Meeting because the delay in design and construction could translate to higher costs. If design doesn’t begin until May, construction could slip into 2019, and the existing estimate has only a one-year cost escalation built into it. Ideally, OLAC hopes to be able to begin detailed design and be “shovel ready” next spring, Mikitarian said.