Seymour Selectmen are trying to turn two former school buildings in town from liabilities to assets.
The buildings — the Community Center on Pine Street and the old Anna LoPresti School on Maple Street — will both see new uses if all goes according to plan: the Community Center could house a local Boys and Girls Club and the LoPresti School will be sold.
Both buildings are among a stock of antiquated real estate town officials have been debating what to do with for well over a year.
Community Center
Selectmen on July 2 voted unanimously to spend $55,500 to renovate the Community Center on Pine Street with a view to the Boys and Girls Club eventually using part of the building.
The Community Center currently houses the town’s Recreation Department and Senior Center.
The renovations will be funded through the state’s Local Capital Improvement (LoCIP) program.
Town officials have been in talks with the Boys and Girls Club about opening a Seymour location for several months.
“Though we need to make some initial investment to get the building up to code to allow this, I think there’s a tremendous payback to our residents,” First Selectman Kurt Miller said during the July 2 Selectmen meeting, noting the $75 per month cost for after-school programming is an “extremely inexpensive” option in this day and age.
Shaye Roscoe, the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club’s Lower Naugatuck Valley branch, said Monday (July 8) that she’s talked with Miller several times about the possibility of opening a Seymour location, but that the two sides haven’t yet agreed to specific terms.
“We’re still in the preliminary stages of trying to make something work,” Roscoe said. “We would love to have a satellite unit in Seymour.”
Roscoe said more than 100 kids from Seymour participate in the club’s offerings already at its locations in Shelton and Ansonia.
The cost for the renovation at the Seymour Community Center break down as follows:
- $20,000 for mold abatement
- $8,000 for smoke alarms
- $12,000 for emergency and exit lights
- $4,000 for door closers with magnets to lock automatically in the event of a fire alarm
- $1,500 for making doors resistant to carbon monoxide penetration
- $5,000 for a sprinkler system
- $5,000 for contingency
A list of the necessary work was recommended by the state fire marshal’s office, Miller said, after which Seymour Fire Marshal Paul Wetowitz and Don Smith, a local engineer, went through the building and made additional suggestions.
The need for mold cleanup at the building was discovered after selectmen paid $2,500 for an air quality assessment at the building that showed mold growth in ceiling tiles in the building’s basement kitchen.
About $10,000 in additional costs for engineering and architectural work and permits will be paid for by the Boys and Girls Club, Miller said.
Roscoe said Monday the club is trying to determine whether its budget can fund that work.
“We have to see what we’re going to do on our end and find out if it’s feasible,” she said.
Miller said officials hope to have the renovations done and the program up and running by the time school starts, but that the club would move in a month or two late if need be.
“If our goal is to make better use of the Community Center, I think having the Community Center filled every day with kids would be a great thing to go along with the Senior Center,” he said.
LoPresti School
Also on July 2, Selectmen voted unanimously to officially put the former LoPresti School on the block, a move they have contemplated for months.
The property is 4.6 acres, and the school has a floor area of about 52,425 square feet, according to a request for proposals (RFP) approved by Selectmen July 2.
The building, at 29 Maple St., was constructed about 1910, and will be sold as is.
The RFP will officially be sent out Aug. 1, with proposals due Oct. 1. According to the town’s timeline, Selectmen could select a proposal for development in December.
The building itself was last appraised at a value of $2,658,400, according to the town’s online geographic information system, and the total appraised value of the property is $3,378,000.
Selectmen voted this year to have the property appraised again, but Miller wouldn’t reveal the results of that appraisal after Tuesday’s meeting.
The RFP says the town wants the property developed “in a way that maximizes its highest and best use consistent with the town’s comprehensive plan of development,” as well as “in a way that generates the maximum number of high wage jobs and/or provides the maximum possible economic or other benefit for the town.”
Special consideration will be given to proposals that “demonstrate the potential for attracting and developing ‘green industries,’ environmental friendly businesses, or those that provide opportunities for local business incubation and/or growth.”
The document also notes that because the property is in a residential area, Seymour “has an active interest in ensuring that the use of property shall not diminish the bucolic appearance of the area.”
It also points out that the land is zoned as residential, so depending on what developers envision for the site, a zone change could be necessary.
