PROGRESS

The townspeople have voted overwhelmingly in favor of all warrant items brought before Town Meeting concerning this project. In addition, there was tremendous public support shown for the "seed money" fundraising campaign and our 2006 Labor Day events: the Tag Sale run by Laurily Epstein, and the George Packer Lecture coordinated by Maggie Leonard. This gives us confidence that our community will respond enthusiastically to our scaled-back plan, even in these tepid economic times.

We have a reasonable and frugal plan for the renovation of the main floor, which will also include repairs on the structure of the house to make it worthy and stable. And we now know what will be required to satisfy the Massachusetts Building Code for such renovation.

Reroofing the house, with repairs to the roof structure that were necessary, is now complete, as is the removal of the hazardous material in the house left over from olden days. Next on the list will be seeing to the necessary foundation work, and structural repairs within the post and beam framework.

The SelectBoard has been most helpful in the process of applying for a Building Permit for the renovation work. We submitted our application in late February, 2009, and the process was on hold temporarily pending the Town's application for a Special Permit to satisfy Zoning Bylaw requirements. The property has always been a residential one, and for it to host municipal uses requires the Special Permit, even though the owner of the property is the Town itself. Following a public hearing on the matter on Oct 7, 2009, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted the municipal use status to the property, with specific approval for its use as a Community Center.

In the summer of 2011, the Town Highway Department, with the assistance of Tryon Construction, completed the new driveway for the property, assuring us of good access year-round, and opening up substantial areas for parking our vehicles.