The Select Board breezed through 22 of the 23 articles on the warrant for Spring Town Meeting. Only one article led to a divided vote at the board’s meeting last Tuesday. That was Article 11 on the future of Bromfield House.
As originally written, Article 11 would have allowed the Select Board a choice of options: to sell the land and house together, or to deal with the land and building separately. But last month the Bromfield House Committee recommended that the Select Board sell Bromfield House for removal, allowing the town to keep the land where it stands for future use. The committee had recommended that option by a 4-2 vote.
On Tuesday, Town Administrator Tim Bragan presented a revised Article11 prepared by town counsel that accorded with that recommendation. The revised article also authorizes transfering $50,000 from free cash for costs related to the building’s sale—primarily cleaning up the property and filling the cellar hole after the house is removed.
Opening discussion on the article, Select Board Chair Alice von Loesecke opposed this plan. She supported selling the house and land together to return the building to its use as a residence. She noted that selling it for removal would bring very little money. And, she said, the most widely discussed option for this particular lot—a sports field—would cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars.
No other board member supported von Loesecke’s position. Lucy Wallace suggested the town hold a competition for ideas on ways to use the land after the house was gone. Stu Sklar said emphatically, “You don’t get rid of land adjacent to your schools” and suggested the area might be an outdoor classroom or a vegetable or herb garden for school use.
Select Board member Rich Maiore, who also chaired the Bromfield House Committee, admitted he was torn about the fate of the building and had voted for removal of the house in part because he had not wanted the six-member Bromfield committee vote to be split 3-3.
The Select Board voted 4-1 in favor of the revised article, with von Loesecke alone in opposition. The board also asked Bragan to further revise the article to set a two-year limit to find a buyer who was willing to move the house, so it does not not sit empty indefinitely.
As the article involves a sale of town property, its passage requires approval by two-thirds of the voters at the May 15 Town Meeting. Several Select Board members asked what would happen if the measure failed. The consensus was that the question would be brought up again at the Fall Town Meeting in October.
“This will be a fun one to watch,” Maiore said wryly. He said his committee’s survey showed the town was about equally split on the best option for Bromfield House and its land, so it might be difficult for any solution to achieve a two-thirds majority.
Maiore volunteered to present the recommendation. Quipped member Kara Minar, “You wanna borrow a flak jacket?”
Little action on the house could be taken before fall in any event, because the building will be used as temporary offices for Shawmut, the company in charge of construction of the new elementary school. Shawmut’s offices have been in trailers on the construction site, but those trailers will be removed in a few weeks, after classes move into the new building and work begins on demolition of the old building and site work on the land.
Select Board approves other articles unanimously
The Select Board approved all 22 remaining articles unanimously, including Article 14, which asks for additional money to repair the roof, gutters, and brickwork of the old library, a project that is opposed by both the finance and capital committees.
The priciest article on the warrant is Article 3, the $33.9 million omnibus budget. The budget currently shows a surplus of approximately $35,000. Von Loesecke said the board would likely appropriate some of that money to help cover the cost-of-living increase in teacher salaries that is part of the fiscal 2022 Harvard Teachers Association contract.
Look for further details in next week’s Warrant in Plain English, an annual feature of the townwide, pre-Town Meeting issue of the Harvard Press.
John Osborn contributed to this article.
