Parks and Recreation Director Bryan Litz presents options for the future of Memorial School.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
WILBRAHAM — Scores of people filled a large space at the Wilbraham Senior Center on Feb. 24, all wanting to know what would become of Memorial School.
After a presentation, talk by the Building Utilization Committee and time for questions, the crowd left still not knowing the answer.
Memorial School was shuttered for education in 2010, before the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District turned use of it over to the town. Since then, the Parks and Recreation Department has used the building to house many of its programs. But over the past 15 years, the building and its parking lot have deteriorated, with roof leaks, a broken boiler and floor tiles that are peeling up.
There are three possible futures for the Memorial property, and each has costs associated with it, Litz said. One option is to close and sell Memorial and build a new recreation center elsewhere in town. A “mothballed” building would cost about $15,000 per year until it was sold. Litz said he did not think taxpayers had an appetite for the roughly $8 million to build a new center and the impact it would have on the tax rate. Alternatively, the building could be closed and sold, and with programs relocated or cut entirely.
Litz said 1,149 people, aged 2 to 89, use the building for various sports and activities. There are programs running in the building between five and seven days of the week. Closing the building would “affect hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of residents,” he said.
Much of the department’s use of the building is focused on the gymnasium, one of few in town. “The facts are that we are tapped out with gym space,” Litz said. Aside from the gymnasium at Memorial, there is an undersized gym at Wilbraham Middle School and “one and a half” gyms at Minnechaug Regional High School. Meanwhile, all the sports programs are asking for more practice time.
Several sports would be eliminated solely because there would be no gymnasium to house them in, Litz said. These include futsal, indoor wrestling, indoor pickleball, N-Zone multisport and both pre-K and instructional basketball. Other programs, such as dog obedience, would also be canceled. Meanwhile, schedules and location for high school wrestling, dance, art and acting classes, and indoor track and basketball at Wilbraham Middle School would be affected. Litz said the competitive suburban basketball program would be reduced from 10 teams to eight.
Litz emphasized that he was not speaking of program cuts as a scare tactic, but instead because the limitations of available facilities made these hard facts.
The final option is to continue use of the property, which would require investing in its maintenance. The building was funded at $60,000 in fiscal year 2026. The Parks and Recreation Department had requested $100 million and was requesting the same amount for FY27, which begins on July 1. That amount is required to “maintain the status quo,” Litz said. Facilities Director Sam Boyd largely blamed deferred maintenance for the condition of the building.
Parks and Recreation Director Bryan Litz explained that a study of all the town’s buildings was undertaken in 2021. A second study, focusing on Memorial School, was completed in 2023. The studies found the building needs new insulation, gym window frames, bathroom drain, main door, air handlers and HVAC system. Some of the capital items in needed by the building and grounds include floor tiles, flat roof replacement, plumbing, access road and parking lot improvements and a boiler. Litz explained that the backup boiler has been nonfunctional for several years. If the school’s one functioning boiler breaks, an emergency repair would cost about $250,000.
The Building Utilization Committee is currently studying all town buildings and will recommend what to do with them to the Select Board in August. Chair Jeff Smith said that the committee has hosted informational sessions and sent out surveys to get resident input. He said, “Everything is on the table” when it comes to building use. Options might include consolidating buildings, moving the town’s information technology department to Memorial School or even moving the town offices there. He noted that Hampden had done something similar with the former Thornton W. Burgess School. If the town offices moved, the existing office building, located next to the Senior Center, could be converted to senior housing, he said.
With the building’s maintenance funded at $60,000, taxpayers average $10 per year to care for the school. Funding Memorial School’s FY27 maintenance at $100,000, plus $250,000 for capital expenses, as the department has requested, would cost taxpayers $58.33, or $4.86 per month.
Litz also suggested that the town could offset that by selling surplus property worth approximately $1.5 million, according to the Sustainable Budget Committee, or selling Brainard Park. The “pocket park” is a small piece of land valued at 121,000. If the Recreation Department offices were relocated from the Scantic Valley YMCA to Memorial School, it would save the town $24,000 per year. Litz said that if the building was renovated, it could be rented when not in use. He also mentioned that the town could implement a local meals tax, although the option has been shot down by voters twice.
Alternatively, Litz said, the capital costs could be offset by grants from the state Green Communities program, the local Cultural Council or the town’s Friends of Recreation organization. Funding can also be sought from the Community Preservation Act accounts. The CPA is a program which the town funds at the beginning of the fiscal year. Money from the program can be used for recreation, historical preservation and community housing projects. Litz explained that Memorial School is registered as a historic building and, therefore, is eligible for CPA grants. He pointed out that the work done to improve and expand the facilities at Spec Pond would not have been possible without the CPA.
Litz said many people feel the user fees should be increased to pay for maintenance. He said that while the Recreation Commission considered this, it unanimously decided that because no other department is responsible for the maintenance of their buildings, Parks and Recreation should not be held to a different standard. As it stands, Litz said, between $10,000 and $13,000 in cleaning supplies and expenses already come out of the Parks and Recreation Department budget for expenses, which was less than $87,000 this year. Litz said that money generally runs out between January and March. From then until the end of the fiscal year in June, the department relies on user fees.
Finance Committee Chair Todd Schneider cautioned that the town’s financial position is “the worst that we’ve seen it.” He said that the committee must balance the needs of all the town departments and the schools. If the town funded all departments at their requested amounts for FY27, it would add an average $740 to the year’s tax bills, he said. He also noted that mandated costs, such as municipal employee health insurance and pensions, have increased. He said the town may face a Proposition 2½ override, to allow it to charge more than the standard yearly tax increase.
Town Administrator Nick Breault acknowledged that the school “means a lot” to everyone in the town. He said the community must decide how it wants to spend its money. Select Board member Marc Ducey said Wilbraham Middle School also needs capital projects, including a new boiler and roof expected to cost more than $1 million. Asking for voters to fund both projects will likely “kill both,” he said.
During the question–and-answer period, a member of the Friends of Recreation asked for a figure that the town can work toward to “have a facility that will last.” The 2023 study by CHA Consulting and BerryDunn presented a figure of $18.85 million for a completely renovated space, however, people on the Recreation Commission repeatedly stated that they were not looking to create “the Taj Mahal.”
Resident Aurora Pierangelo-Frias said, “We know that Spec Pond didn’t happen overnight.” It took “time” and “determination” to fulfill that vision. Another resident agreed, saying, “Stellar communities have stellar recreational facilities.”
The Memorial School property spans 40 acres, with a sizable portion including the wooded land behind the building. Michael Lanchenmeyer, who grew up abutting the school, said the undeveloped area could be sold to help fund the building’s capital needs. Capital Planning Committee Chair Mark Manolakis said strategic fundraising, including naming rights at the baseball fields attached to Memorial, could build into a “seven figure” capital campaign.
“I think we can do something special with Memorial School,” Litz said, “but everyone has to get behind it.”
