Community Preservation Committee’s 2008 Annual Report
The focus of the Community Preservation Committee this past fiscal year has been the completion of our historic Stetson Hall. Town Meeting supported our recommendation to spend $2,300,000 to completely renovate the building. In addition, a Stetson Hall Building Committee was appointed by the Moderator to ensure that the building project would be monitored by those with financial and building expertise. To that end, the building committee appointed Richard Goodhue as the Clerk of the Works. Dick has done an amazing job making the budget for the project stretch, getting us the best “bang for the buck” and holding all contractors accountable for their responsibilities outlined in the construction plans. The building will be a historic treasure for future generations.
The committee has continued to lobby the legislature to keep the state matching program in place for local CPA funds. Even if the state were to eliminate the matching program the CPA is still a vital part of our community. It allowed us to build basketball courts throughout our town. Before CPA funding, the town had one court for 30,000 residents; we now have seven spread throughout our community.
We were able to build a handicapped accessible, toddler friendly playground for our young children. It is Randolph’s only handicapped accessible playground and the only one located in North Randolph. Imagination Station is geared more toward the 7-12 age group. So as you can see, even with a reduction in state funds, the CPA is a tremendous asset for the town.
Randolph was able to hire the first CPA / Town Planner in our Town’s history. Richard McCarthy, who previously served as the Town Planner for Raynham, was hired in September. He has already been of great assistance not only to the CPA Committee, but also to the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen. Between updating the Open Space & Recreation Plan, the Master Plan, assisting in managing the PWED (Public Works Economic Development) grant and the underground utilities project, Rich will prove to be a great asset for our Town.
The next goal for the CPC Committee is to purchase and preserve open space for our Town. We hope to find land parcels which will enhance future generations enjoyment of active and passive recreation in Randolph. These will be hard to come by as we are a “built out” community but that makes our mission that much more important.
The current makeup of the board is Chairman Brian Howard, Richard Sass, William Alexopoulos, Gerald Good and Mary West. We also welcomed our newest members Roger Kahn, Ronald Lum and Michele Tyler. We thank the Town for its continued support.
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