Longmeadow Town Manager Lyn Simmons.
Reminder Publishing file photo
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow Town Manager Lyn Simmons is looking ahead into 2026 with finding a use for Old Town Hall, Town Hall and Community House, along with moving forward on the Fiberspring project.
On Dec. 15, 2025, the Longmeadow Select Board began the process of developing a future building use task force, with the purpose of evaluating, envisioning and recommending the future use of the three buildings.
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.
Simmons said the task force will hopefully begin work at the end of February and the Select Board initially said that work will ideally wrap up between December 2026 and February 2027.
“That will guide a lot of the work in the coming years,” Simmons said “Those three buildings are either fully vacant or very underutilized … they’ll fully dive in and decide what the next life is for those three parcels.”
Longmeadow partnered with Fuss & O’Neill, a Springfield based engineering firm, in May 2025 to assess each buildings’ improvement needs and the “perfect renovation” for all three buildings is estimated to be around $12 million.
Simmons also said she is pretty certain that approval for the Fiberspring project will be on the warrant for Town Meeting in May.
Longmeadow has been partnered with South Hadley Electric Light Department since 2024 to provide the town with a local fiber network.
“I think if the town can vote to approve this, years from now we’ll look back and feel that this is one of the best decisions that we made,” Simmons said. “I think that internet and fiber to your home is truly a necessity now and for municipality to be able to pull something like this off is a huge achievement.”
Simmons added that she believes each voter can make the decision based on what they think and can afford for their own, but she’s looking forward to the town vote to see if the project can move forward.
“This is a pretty monumental thing to be able to set up a new utility,” Simmons said. “I’m really curious to see how the vote goes in May and if it’s successful there, it would move on to a ballot question at the June election.”
Simmons said many of the questions she receives are about the plan for Glenbrook Middle School when the new middle school is complete. She said there have been discussions on it and to stay tuned for that decision.
“We will likely be forming another task force to take a look at how we should use that parcel for the future as well,” Simmons said. “No decision has been made on that yet and I can anticipate that we will be seeking public input over the next year or two.”
