http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20151127/NEWS02/151129621/
Published November 27, 2015 in the Rutland Herald
Woolson Block is Select Board’s top priority
By Susan Smallheer
STAFF WRITER
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield Select Board want to take the down out of downtown.
With that goal in mind, Select Board members this week prioritized various downtown redevelopment projects, and at the top of the list — or close to it — were the redevelopment of the Woolson Block and the redevelopment of the Mason and Handly properties.
Selectman Walter Martone listed the Woolson Block as his personal top priority, and Board Chairman Kristi Morris and Selectman George McNaughton both listed it as No. 2. Selectman Peter MacGillivray listed it as a 3.
The Woolson Block was sold during a town tax sale this summer to Housing Vermont and the Springfield Housing Authority, who want to renovate the building into a mixed use building. The current owner, E.J. Cully of Killington, nailed plywood over the building’s storefronts two weeks ago in a protest of the current inspections by the Vermont Division of Fire Safety. The building has a long history of fire and safety violations, but the building remains open for public housing on its top floor, state officials said.
After about a week, the plywood was removed by the building’s one remaining commercial tenant, Jen Johnson, owner of the JennyWren Café.
Cully has vowed that he plans on “redeeming” the building before the one-year tax sale redemption period is up. The housing authorities paid the town about $27,000 in August to cover the delinquent taxes.
But the problems at the Woolson Block go beyond the taxes: many believe the building is a magnet for drug activity and drug dealing.
The town has targeted the building by adopting a new “no smoking” ordinance surrounding the town library on Main Street, with the Woolson Block and its smoking tenants.
The Mason and Handly properties, which border the Black River on both sides above Comtu Falls, was just behind the Woolson Block in terms of the board’s importance, with Martone listing as No. 2, McNaughton, 9, and Morris and MacGillivray both listing them as their top priority.
Other suggestions for the board’s overall goal of downtown revitalization included property removal and a plan for the Select Board to receive what McNaughton calls “urban redevelopment power,” that would give the board power to acquire and renovate buildings in the downtown area.
McNaughton has been a proponent of opening up the public view of the Black River from Main Street, since it is largely blocked by buildings in the downtown area.
Other members agreed, with Martone listing it a 4, McNaughton gave it a 2, and Morris a 3.
Another downtown issue identified by the board included “improving the town’s relationship with Springfield On The Move,” the downtown organization that gets $20,000 every year from the town, as well as preparing a “futuristic vision of the town” based on the town’s topography, Internet capacity and demographics, and how Springfield is different from surrounding towns.
Springfield needs to buy a big crane with one of those huge iron balls hanging off it.
ReplyDeleteWe just need to do what Chicago did! Have a fire, blame it on a cow and rebuild.
ReplyDeleteThe late Springfield patent attorney Bill Moeser proposed hiring a B-24 to lay a string of 500-pounders from the Community Center to the Plywood Palace.
ReplyDeleteUnless the current owner defaults on his property taxes, this is going to be a tough situation for the selectmen to deal with. Obviously, they cannot prevent out-of-towners from buying property in Springfield. Absentee owners, as evidenced here, aren't on the same wavelength as local residents.
ReplyDeleteLet's build a wall!
DeleteRE: preparing a “futuristic vision of the town”
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take a clairvoyant medium to see what the future holds for this town. Just endless blather on the part of Selectboard's under achievers. Blah, blah, blah................
You could always run to serve on the select board?
DeleteQuestion ? Selectboard, are you getting the vibe here.?
ReplyDeletePart of Springfield's problem is a stubborn attachment to its now dilapidated past. From the eyesore foundry aspiring to be a rec center to rebuilding the Ellis Block to accommodate the same old Section 8 housing recipients to patching together the outdated Community Center and Park Street School, Springfield continues to get in its own way when it comes to real progress and makes the town that much less desirable for prospective businesses or families to relocate to. It's high time that the town takes the lead and razes the decrepit structures it owns and sells those lots to private entities willing to undertake construction of new, modern facilities.
ReplyDeleteBut, but 1:48, those private entities are unlikely to build new, modern facilities for low income housing or a community center, eh? What's your plan?
DeleteThere you go again, thinking like a consumer of government entitlements.
DeleteLet the market decide how the newly designated private property is to be used and let the town reap the property taxes while ridding itself of costly eyesores and liabilities.
Springfield needs to get its head out of its (clouds?).
The federal government's Section 8 program is the reason that America has the best low-income housing in the world. When a landlord friend of mine read the legislation, he told me his reaction was, "Wow! A Landlord Relief Act!" Developers can be motivated to provide excellent and affordable housing in two ways-- positively or negatively. It is up to us to determine what will work. The Planning Commission will soon be addressing a revision of the Town Plan chapter on housing. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteThe Section 8 program is pure vote-getting pandering and is just another program designed to recruit a chronic dependent class that will bend to its every whim. Like most other entitlement programs handing out valuable goodies for nothing or next to nothing, it is consumed by wanton fraud, waste, and abuse. It's also another one of a thousand reasons why the government can never balance its books, but the politicians could care less because it keeps them in office as members of the political elite - at least until the cataclysmic economic collapse that is nearly here.
DeleteLet me guess, your friends name is Will Hunter.
DeleteIt is very hard to "row" against the flow, so why not go with the flow ?
ReplyDeleteBuild a Casino on the land under the Bryant or J&L buildings. Parking can go on the other side with a walkway over Clinton street. The Woolson Block can become a rehab for addicted gamblers. Win Win situation.
Really, Chuck? If we compare the problems we have had with Section 8 and the Housing Authority, I do believe in Springfield I would go with the Housing Authority. You potentially have problems with any form or subsidized housing, but how do you control the absentee landlords who do just enough to pass a Section 8 inspection and otherwise do zero reference checking of tenants? or their boyfriends?
ReplyDeleteGood point, Alpin Jack! I'd go with the Housing Authority, too, since it, unlike private landlords, is accountable to the town.
DeleteAnd, if I'm not mistaken, The Springfield Housing Authority has the majority of Section 8 certificates in town. I have no idea how landlords are granted them.