SHREWSBURY – A special town meeting Wednesday night authorized selectmen to petition the state for ownership of the former Irving A. Glavin Center property, which could become the site of the new Beal Elementary School.
About 13 acres of the approximately 90-acre site would be conveyed to Shrewsbury Youth Soccer Association, 36 acres would be for general municipal use, and about 50 acres would be restricted for recreational and agricultural uses.
The property is also being considered to build the new Beal Elementary School. The new school will replace the K-1 Beal Early Childhood Center housed in the dilapidated and crowded 96-year-old building at 1 Maple Ave., formerly the town’s high school.
The current 3.5-acre site at 1 Maple Ave. is too small for a new school. The project architect has said the new school, which will be a K-Grade 4 elementary school, will have to be at least 115,000 square feet and would need 10 to 12 acres to build on.
State Rep. Hannah Kane, in a Dec. 15 letter to the state seeking assistance in expediting the legal review of draft legislation to transfer ownership of the Glavin property to the town, said in addition to open space and recreation, the property would be used for a public school.
John Lukach, Precinct 2 town meeting member, asked why the town is restricting use of some parcels to recreational and agricultural purposes.
“Why would we put a restriction on what the town will do with the land when it could do other things with it?” he asked.
Selectman James Kane, who chairs the Beal Early Childhood School Building Committee, said if the town did not agree to maintain the parcels as open space, the cost would be higher.
The town is asking that the parcels for recreational and agricultural purposes each be conveyed for $1. That is the same amount the local youth soccer association, which developed and maintains the fields, and a local farmer have paid the state to lease the land for several years.
However, the property that could be used for the school would be subject to a restricted appraisal for municipal use.
According to the warrant article, if the Shrewsbury Youth Soccer Association ceased to exist, the state would convey that land to the town for $1, to be used only for recreational purposes.
Town meeting members unanimously passed all eight warrant articles.
Among them, members voted to transfer $464,963.35 remaining from the 2013 Sherwood Middle School project to pay off a short-term note associated with the library project that will save taxpayers money.