Longmeadow’s Community House
Reminder Publishing file photo
LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow Select Board received a developed framework for a future building use task force from Town Manager Lyn Simmons and Assistant Town Manager Michael Barbieri at its Dec. 15 meeting.
The task force’s purpose would be to evaluate, envision and recommend future uses for Town Hall, Old Town Hall and Community House, with the possibility of Glenbrook as well in the future.
The goal is to ensure each building will be used in a manner that best serves the community, reflects long-term municipal priorities and preserves or enhances the town’s cultural, historical and economic vitality, according to Simmons’ and Barbieri’s proposal.
The Select Board initially began looking at the three buildings with a presentation from Mike Nelson from Fuss & O’Neill, a Springfield-based engineering firm. Fuss & O’Neill was hired on a $95,800 contract to assess the improvement needs of each building in May.
In the drafted document, the task force’s scope of work is split into four categories, including accessing and gathering data, public input and engagement, options development and the final report with recommendations.
The task force would begin by reviewing conditions of the buildings while reviewing the existing plans and determining constraints. It will receive public input by developing an engagement plan to ensure participation from residents, businesses, cultural organizations, seniors, youth and historically underrepresented groups. Before the final report, it will create reuse scenarios to discover a range of viable future uses, while analyzing feasibility and taking historic designations on the buildings into consideration.
The member composition draft for the task force looks to add one Select Board member, one Finance Committee or Capital Planning and Building Committee representative, one representative from the Historical Commission or Historic District Commission and five at large community members across diverse ages and professions. The town manager and facilities or building inspector representative would fill non-voting advisory roles.
The Select Board made a few recommendations on what the member composition should look like. Board member Vineeth Hemavathi said he was back and forth on the Select Board’s involvement. He said it would be good to have someone with background knowledge of the town, but also said a resident or volunteer led group would be good because of the potential for a Select Board member’s voice becoming a main decision maker.
Select Board member Andrew Lam said he thinks a Planning Board member has a lot more value over a Select Board member in the composition and that a resident-led composition is a good idea as well.
“I do think it’s important that people do understand how the town works,” Lam said. “I think it’s good to have some, maybe four of the positions can be assigned to a group of different committees and five for the community, but if we’re gonna do that, we should have a range basically.”
Lam added that the Select Board doesn’t know who will apply, so it is important to have a range to pick the best people and the people who have the atrophies it’s looking for.
Chair Josh Levine said he understood where Hemavathi was coming from because if he were on the task force, he would be looking at everything from a fiscal standpoint, which he said might not be the best way to do things. He also recommended having a Planning Board representative and a Housing Authority representative.
“There’s definitely a place here for an advocate for affordable housing at one of these locations,” Levine said.
The timeline currently would be an application deadline for members on Jan. 13. Applicants would then be vetted and selected in the Jan. 19 meeting, begin work in February and ideally wrap up between December 2026 and February 2027.
