After 22 years of planning, Colchester residents will weigh in on funding a $16 million recreation center on Town Meeting Day.
“Personally speaking, I’m really excited,” said Adriane Martin, chair of the Colchester Recreation Advisory Board. “We’ve done so much research and so much behind-the-scenes work to try to make this happen. I think it’s going to be an amazing opportunity to bring more recreation, especially indoor recreation, and expand opportunities for people of all ages.”
The project will not require any new property taxes and will be funded through the town’s existing 1% local option tax, which was approved by voters in 2015, officials said.
“By the time this gets approved by the voters in March, we’ll have roughly $9 million in reserves of that sales tax revenue, which we will use towards the building cost of the project,” said Glen Cuttitta, the town’s parks and recreation director. “We will take out a loan for another $6.9 million that will be paid out over a 10-year period. There’ll be no property taxes used to pay for the construction of the building.”
Cuttitta became the parks and recreation director in 2000 and said the conversation about a recreation center started soon after. A community survey in 2001 indicated residents wanted a recreation center in town. Since then, the town government has formed multiple committees and conducted surveys to flesh out the idea, he said.
Article 7 on the Town Meeting ballot asks voters to approve a $6.9 million bond, which equates to about 46% of the town’s $15 million municipal budget request. The bond will be repaid over a period of 10 years.
Members of the selectboard are extremely happy the project can finally be presented and hope voters will approve it, according to Pamela Loranger, the selectboard chair.
“I was just speaking with a woman today who was involved on a committee way prior to when I got involved,” she said.
The voter-approved capital project outlines a 29,427-square-foot multigenerational facility to be built on a centrally located 14-acre site the town already owns on East Lakeshore Drive, which was bought with voter approval in 2004. The center will include an elevated track, a gymnasium, a cardio/weight room, locker rooms and studio space.
“This has been a long time in the making,” said Town Manager Aaron Frank. “There’s been probably 90 different meetings about this project over the course of the last 22 years, so we’re really responding to a longstanding community need and desire for more indoor recreation space.”
City officials hope to seek bids for construction once voters approve the bond, and aim for opening the new center in the spring of 2025. The parks and recreation department will manage the center and charge tiered membership fees for residents and nonresident youth, adults, seniors and families. For example, a resident family can expect to pay $28 for daily use or $1,200 for an annual membership, according to a rate chart prepared by town officials.
While many residents are excited about the possibility of having a recreation center in town, some, such as Melinda Morissette, are disappointed it doesn’t include an indoor pool, according to discussions on social media.
Morissette said she is excited to finally have a recreation center close to home, but was really hoping it would include a pool. She and her children currently go to the YMCA in Burlington or to the Hard’ack Pool in St. Albans, “so it would be nice to have something here in town, especially for residential pricing,” she said.
Officials said a pool would add significantly to the construction costs and incur high operational costs. Although communities in Vermont typically do not have public pools run by recreation departments, there is space for one, and a pool could well be part of a future phase.
“We’re aware that there is some interest in a pool but we were also told to do something that we could afford now, both from a capital and operating perspective,” said Frank. “There’s an opportunity for us to do that in the future.”
That’s what happened in St. Albans, he said, noting that the recreation center there was built first, and the pool was added. Building a pool later is also more viable from a financial perspective, he noted.
The selectboard is aware of community interest in a pool, said Loranger, but the current project is the most practical way to create a wide range of multigenerational services.
“Hopefully, in phase two, there’ll be an opportunity to do the pool,” she said.
Colchester’s Town Meeting involves two events at the Colchester High School gymnasium on Laker Lane. Voters will meet at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 6, to discuss the warrant and will reconvene to vote on articles on Tuesday, March 7 with ballot voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee and early voting information is available online or by calling the town clerk.
