Two groups have submitted proposals to revive a vacant city-owned community center in Old Town.
The Herbert Sargent Community Center on Bennoch Road has gone unused since this summer when the nonprofit Old Town Recreation Center dissolved and stopped using the building, leaving the city with just one community recreation space.
Two organizations, the YMCA and the Courageous Steps Program, submitted proposals to Old Town to use the building earlier this month, City Manager Bill Mayo said. Both plans would use the building and the surrounding 50 acres as a community center for their programs. It would be the second location in the city for the YMCA, which currently operates the other local recreation center on Stillwater Avenue.
Organizations could purchase the building or enter a long-term lease with the city, according to the request for proposals.
Courageous Steps and the YMCA pitched plans for using the building as a community center to the Old Town City Council earlier this year.
Founded in 2014, the Courageous Steps Program works with kids with disabilities to help them succeed in school and life, the group’s website says. The non-profit would use the building for learning areas inside and outside along with sensory spaces, a quiet area with calming activities, President Connor Archer said.
Plans for maintenance of the outside of the building would be supported by community members who told Archer they would help by contributing plants from their gardens and doing some of the work, he said.
Before Archer made his pitch to the city in October, his program received 61 letters of support from residents who favor his proposal.
Officials with the local YMCA approached the council with the idea of using the Herbert Sargent building for additional space, but did not describe what programs would be housed there. Using gymnastics as an example, they said the Stillwater Avenue location was too crowded to offer some activities.
Before the two organizations presented their plans or filled out the proposal, the city determined it would not use the building. City officials decided this when it was estimated that the building needed $4 million in repairs and rehabilitation to be usable.
Proposals should have the price of rehabilitation factored in, Mayo said. Officials have not said what kind of work the building needs.
“If you’re going to put something in there, you have to be ready for the costs,” he said.
Both Courageous Steps and the YMCA said they were prepared for the costs and were still interested in the building.
“We know that the project is going to be a major one. That doesn’t intimidate us,” Archer said.
Previously, the building was the Herbert Sargent School in honor of one of the most active community members in the city. Now called the Herbert Sargent Community Center, the building has been owned by the city since the early 2000s after Old Town joined RSU 34 and decided to send its students to a different school.
The proposals will be reviewed and discussed by the council on Jan. 4. The council can deny both proposals or accept one of them, Mayo said.
