Selectmen, Community Center Board at Stalemate on Future of Center

Despite the foundation of an agreement between the Board of Selectmen and Wellesley Community Center representatives on the future of the community center last fall, the two boards have hit a roadblock.

The Community Center Board of Directors told the board of selectmen in a March 9 letter, signed by David P. Walsh, chairman of the Community Center Board of Directors, and Stephan V. Peretti, president of the Wellesley Community Center, that it no longer will consider the board of selectmen’s desire to purchase the land on behalf of the town of Wellesley.

In a well-attended public meeting, the board of selectmen outlined a plan to erect a new building at the current community center site, 219 Washington St., that would be shared by several community groups. Currently, the community center, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit and therefore not owned by the town, houses the Council on Aging and Wellesley Senior Center.

At the time, the community center board of directors seemed satisfied with the town’s vision. However, the board of selectmen stipulated that for the plan to go forward, the town would have to outright own the property.

Walsh told Wellesley Patch that his board has not yet received answers to several specific questions regarding the selectmen’s vision for the center, and that because of legal requirements preventing his board from disposing of the building’s assets due to it being a non-profit entity, his board’s hands are tied.

“We have to make sure [their plan] conforms to a certain mission,” Walsh said, referring to the community center’s mission of “providing meeting space to Wellesley community-based groups.”

There is subjectivity in the determination of a “community-based group,” Walsh said, adding that this is one of the questions that has gone unanswered.

Selectwoman Terri Tsagaris, who has been in on the talks among the several boards involved over the course of the last several months, said the board of selectmen has asked for a list of groups the community center board of directors would deem viable to use the space. They’ve yet to receive this list.

“It’s our position that in order to go forward with discussions everybody needs to know what all the other parties needs are and who they would like to use the building,” Tsagaris said.

The board of selectmen is scheduled to take this issue up again during Monday night’s meeting. In a letter to the community center board of directors dated March 16, the board of selectmen urge community center representatives to once again consider a feasible purchase of the property by the town and also the types of organizations who they think would most benefit from using the property.

The selectmen want to initiate the process, but without the two sides being able to get back on the same page, it will remain stalled.

“We know who typically uses the building,” Tsagaris said, “but…we need it [from the community center board] so we can say yes.”