Kent Town Board to Discuss Selling Former Rec. Building
With the former recreation building in the Town of Kent empty for the last few years, the town board is exploring whether it should sell off the property along Route 52.
In an interview, Supervisor Maureen Fleming said the town board would discuss its options during tonight’s (Tuesday) town board meeting and possibly look into getting the building appraised to see how much it’s worth. The workshop portion of the meeting starts at 7 p.m.
The majority of the town board in 2014 opted to shutter the building that only housed a couple of town employees when Fleming first took over in order to save money in heating and electricity bills. The recreation department employees were moved to town hall and the only use the building has now is storing old equipment, Fleming said.
Fleming said past town boards discussed selling it before the housing market tanked which would’ve resulted in the town getting little to no value for it. Fleming said she doesn’t have an opinion yet because she doesn’t know how much the building is worth.
“A couple of different uses have been suggested so I’m interested where this board wants to go with it,” Fleming said.
Councilman Bill Huestis said when selling the building was seriously discussed last time, he was the town’s recreation director and felt the department needed to keep that space to meet town’s recreational needs.
If the building is kept, it would need some work done on it like window replacement and making it compliant for disabled residents, Huestis said. Right now, the parking lot is used as a cut through for many drivers and some nearby residents park their cars there during snowstorms. Seniors also gather in the parking lot as a meeting place before jumping onto a bus for day trips.
The building does have some historical value, Huestis noted. It used to be the old town hall and also the former garage for the highway department.
“It’s been sitting there, either we should recommend getting an appraiser to see how much it’s worth and let the final debate begin: do we sell it or do we use it for town needs,” Huestis said, noting there is always a possibility that the town might need more space in the future.
Highway Superintendent Richard Othmer, who was once the town’s historian, wrote a column more than decade ago in a local newspaper making the case to keep the building. In an interview, Othmer said he didn’t currently have an opinion on the recreation building, but did explain some of its historical roots.
He did place an historical marker on the building many years ago. He said the building is well constructed and has room for vehicles if the town ever needed more room. When Othmer spoke with the late Ethel Forkell, the former town supervisor, she told him the building was actually constructed by all volunteers.
“It’s a big piece of history,” Othmer said. “And it’s a well-built, well preserved building.”
