Reasons for Proposed New Westborough Community Recreation Center

Editor's Note: The date of Special Town Meeting has been corrected to read March 17. This piece is a blog written by resident and School Committee member Bruce Tretter.

This Saturday, March 17th, at a Special Town Meeting starting at 7 pm at , Westborough voters will decide whether or not to approve renovations of the and Forbes Building as well as the construction of a new fire station and community recreation center. This is the fourth in a series of four photo blogs outlining the reasons the town is proposing these projects. 

The currently has an administrative office on the ground floor of the Town Hall, stores equipment on both the 1st and 2nd floor of the same building and also manages a non-regulation basketball gym in the basement of the Forbes Municipal Building. If the proposed Town Hall and Forbes Building renovation projects are approved at the Special Town Meeting this Saturday, the Recreation Department will lose its administrative office, storage space and Forbes Building gym. In light of that situation, the Westborough Municipal Building Committee has proposed constructing a new Community Recreation Center to meet town recreation needs. 

Here’s a bulleted list of current Recreation Department conditions as well as a list of what a Community Recreation Center would offer:

•  Recreation Department provides programs for 5000 residents annually.
•  All recreation programs are fee-based and are not funded by local taxes.
•  The department’s operating budget has decreased from $215,000 in FY03 to $198,000 in FY13 
• The department has not requested supplementary funding from a Town Meeting article since March 2002.
• The Forbes Building gym is the only indoor facility managed by the Recreation Department and is used by 300 children per week.
• All other town (school) gyms currently operate at maximum capacity to support 103 town-wide basketball teams, numerous youth and adult recreation programs as well as space for other town organized activities.
• The Recreation Department spends $15,000 per season to use school gyms on weekends.

The new Community Recreation Center would:

• provide efficient office and storage space for the Recreation Department
• help satisfy town recreation needs as requested on capital expenditure plans for the past 20 years and open space plans since 1994
• help meet the demand for new programs and expansion of existing programs
• provide shared space for senior citizen programs
• increase part-time employment opportunities

Annual Town Meeting begins this Saturday, March 17th, at 1 pm in the Westborough High School auditorium. The Special Town Meeting, dedicated to all proposed town renovation projects, begins at 7 pm the same Saturday evening. Please click the highlighted meeting titles for a direct link to the meeting warrants (lists of specific items to be discussed and voted). 

You can see the Town Manager's photo presentation concerning the proposed renovations and construction projects by clicking this link as well as the architect's space needs assessment by clicking this link.