Additional Capital Funding Sought For 44 Main St.

ORLEANS – Planning for the future of the community center building at 44 Main St. has stalled in recent years. But a request to earmark additional capital funding toward the project could reinvigorate those discussions.

After some back and forth Sept. 30, the select board voted to place an article on the November special town meeting warrant seeking $450,000 in capital funding for the community center. But the board voted 3-2 against recommending in favor of the spending.

The town first started looking at options for the community center building back in 2012. The historic structure originally served as the town’s first fire station and today houses the Orleans Chamber of Commerce offices and has space for other programming. 

A plan was advanced to renovate the building with new bathrooms, porches and a covered walkway and to allow for expanded function space, but that plan was not supported for funding by the community preservation committee in early 2023. Since then, there has been some discussion but little in the way of developments on plans for the building.

In May, town meeting voters authorized $50,000 in capital funding for the building. Kevin Galligan of the select board noted that that vote of approval came with the town’s intention to seek an additional $450,000 in November.

But it has yet to be determined what direction the select board plans to take with the property, or how that money will be spent. Board members on Sept. 30 expressed concern with earmarking the money at the Nov. 16 fall session without those details. 

“I guess I’m feeling a little fuzzy on what that project is,” said Mary Wright of the select board.

Board member Michael Herman recalled a joint meeting between the board and the town’s affordable housing trust in 2024 in which two concepts for 44 Main St. were produced, both of which called for housing on the second floor of a renovated structure.

Minutes from the 2024 joint meeting show that votes were taken by both boards in support of the trust conducting a survey of the property, but the votes were later rescinded over questions about whether the trust could conduct that work. A request was instead made to Town Manager Kim Newman to have the property surveyed.

Herman said “the time is now” to take action and develop a plan for the property, especially given the vote from May to award capital improvement funding to it.

“We’ve gone to the voters,” he said. “I find it very difficult to go back on what town meeting has voted on.”

With the creation of a new downtown zoning overlay district and the sewering of the downtown area, board member Mark Mathison agreed that planning and discussion about what to do with the community center needs to happen “sooner than later.” But he voiced reservations about placing the $450,000 among the fall capital improvement requests, especially with millions of dollars for maintaining the town’s existing buildings and facilities anticipated in the coming years.

Finance Director Darrin Tangeman said that an impending facilities assessment projects that the town will need to spend about $2.5 million a year over the next 20 years on maintenance and repairs of the town’s existing facilities.

“And so [$450,000] is a large amount of money,” Newman said of the request. “You could do exploratory work [on the community center] with a lesser amount of money.”

Newman also cautioned against creating the impression that the town has more of a plan around what to do with 44 Main St. than it actually does by going forward with the $450,000 request. That figure was born out of an estimated $5 million cost for renovating the center that was placed in the capital improvement plan years ago, but she cautioned that the figure is a “placeholder” and has no basis in real numbers.

 “My only concern at this point is we don’t know what the project is, and we don’t know what the cost really is,” she said.

Select Board Chair Mefford Runyon said he supports moving forward with the $450,000 figure in November only if the board and the town approach the community center project as a “clean slate.”

 “I am uneasy with having this go forward with any sort of hopes attached to it or intentions attached to it,” he said. “Specifically housing, because I’m no longer certain that that’s how that building should end up being developed.”

Galligan said if nothing else, bringing the article to town meeting will give the board a better sense of how voters prioritize the community center project among the town’s other capital needs.

“And I think that helps inform the conversation,” he said.

The board voted to separate out the 44 Main St. request from the other capital requests packaged in Article 18 of the proposed special town meeting warrant. The other requests include replacement of chest compression machines for the fire department ($134,000), police tasers ($35,000), replacement of a moveable wall for the council on aging ($60,000) and town hall painting ($150,000).

The special town meeting is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. in the gymnasium at Nauset Regional Middle School.