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Politics & Government

Recreation Department Inches Closer to Parker School Move

The Town Council approved the agreement allowing the department to use Parker School at last night's meeting.

The Recreation & Adult Education Department is one step closer to its big move to the former Parker Memorial School, after the Town Council approved an agreement between the town and the Board of Education Tuesday night. The contract, which would allow the department to use the school’s 1992 addition for its programs, summer camp and offices, still needs approval from the Board of Education.

“We’re looking forward to moving into the facility and making use of the space,” Director of Recreation & Adult Education Tom Ainsworth said.

Under the five-year agreement, the town must repair the 1992 addition and pay for the utilities. According to Ainsworth, the town has already supplied $30,000 for renovation. The town supplied another $25,000 for one year’s worth of utilities, taken from the $50,000 that AT&T paid to the town for an easement on Tolland High School land in order to run cables underneath the property.

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Town Manager Steven Werbner said that he does not expect the town to pay for the cost of implementing recreation programs at the school.

“Almost 100 percent of the recreation programs are sustainable by fees,” Werbner said at during the .

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Tolland resident Sam Belsito, however, expressed concern during the meeting’s public comment period that the Recreation & Adult Education Department’s use of the school will raise unexpected costs.

“What will happen next year; where will the funds come from?” Belsito asked. “The movement and use of the facilities for other uses is a sure sign that in the near future a new recreation facility will have to be built.”

Although the Board of Education has yet to vote on the contract, tiling and painting are already underway at Parker Memorial. Ainsworth said a wall has also been built to separate the 1992 addition from the older part of the building.

The department plans on hosting its summer camp program at the school beginning on July 5 and hopes to move its offices to the building by August, according to Ainsworth.

“It’s a nice space,” Ainsworth said at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting on Monday night. “It’ll give us a lot more room for daytime activities.”

The Parker Memorial contract, as well as a renewal of the Fields and Ground Maintenance agreement, will be on the Board of Education’s agenda at its next meeting. The maintenance contract contains only minor changes to the agreement that allows the town to maintain school grounds and playgrounds owned by the Board of Education.

The next Board of Education meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hicks Memorial Municipal Center Council Chambers.

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