If you take those offices out of the Central Village, I’m not sure what happens with Central Village. If you remove them, do we have a town center? I don’t know. We need to be careful.”

James Whitin, planning board

It could become a true community resource, a governmental and cultural town center. It could support senior and veterans’ housing, gymnasiums and sports leagues, or could serve as a social and service hub for the town’s growing aged population.

There are endless possibilities for the old high school, and dozens of residents crowded in to the school library Thursday evening to hear the latest in the town’s attempts to come up with a plan for the massive building and its grounds.

But while the future is uncertain, many residents who spoke Thursday agreed that it’s past time for real answers, and a real plan forward, after years of similar study and brain-storming to little effect:

“I really hope that this time ... we don’t just kind of sit on our hands,” Westport firefighter Weston D. Thurston II, a candidate for select board earlier this month, said. “It’s just kind of frustrating to see that happen over and over again. I just hope that at the end of this we have a great outcome and have something everyone in Westport can enjoy.”

“I’ve been on the (study) committee almost two years now,” chairman Christopher Thrasher added. “This study that’s happening right now is what I was hoping to do as soon as I was on the committee. I agree wholeheartedly — it’s taken too long to get here.”

‘Don’t sell — keep it’

There have been no fewer than four studies on the old high school over the past three years, and Thursday’s meeting of the Long Term Town Building Evaluation Committee was called so experts from RGB Architects could go over preliminary, incomplete findings in another, which was authorized by voters at last year’s Town Meeting.

Architects David DiQuattro and Andrew Barkley spent about an hour going over what they’ve found to date, touching on what it could cost to use the building for various new purposes and brainstorming how it would all work. They also touched on the condition of the town’s other municipal buildings, and whether consolidating town offices into the old school, and selling town hall, the annex and COA building, makes economic sense and would be in the town’s best interest.

“Doing in essence nothing with the building still costs you,” DiQuattro said, alluding to the estimated $360,000 per year the architects said it costs to maintain the old school. “Think about what you have here and what you could do with it.”

While they explained that they weren’t presenting recommendations, just options, architects said it’s clear that the town’s other municipal buildings are aging and need updates, and using the new school smartly could help the town save money or at least, spend it more wisely, while creating a more cohesive and centralized municipal hub by vacating the town hall, annex and senior center.

They estimated that consolidating those offices into the high school, and funding necessary upgrades to make that happen, could be at least partially offset by the cost savings.

By consolidating those three buildings into the new school, they noted, the town could save $165,000 per year — about what it would cost per year to cover a 30-year, $2.5 million “bridging” bond to renovate 5,000 square feet of space in the 150,000-square foot building. From that “bridging bond,” architects suggested, the town could bond for a larger amount, say $6 or $7 million, to go through the entire building.

“That’s money you don’t have to come up with,” they said of the potential $165,000 yearly cost savings.

“All options produce potential tax increases,” Barkley said. “The bottom line is it is going to cost some money.”

But if renovated and brought up to code, he suggested, there are a myriad of possible uses, including as a theater/stage space for the cultural council, an EMS call center, an urgent care center, indoor and outdoor farmers’ markets, town recreation space, a YMCA or longplex-type use, a maritime/marine trade school, and before and after school programs.

Regardless of what the town chooses to do, “the objective is to fill the entire building so you’re not paying for space that’s unoccupied.”

Floor suggestions

Close to a dozen residents spoke, and all had suggestions on what to do.

Eileen Moncrief, chairwoman of the Council on Aging, said she envisions a “Westport Community Campus” that would preserve the sports and limited classroom use the building currently sees, while expanding the town’s senior services, which she said are being stifled by inadequate space at the COA building on Reed Road.

She and another COA member added that “we could use every portion of that building,” both for town uses and leases to organizations who could run programs out of it.”

Planning board chairman James Whitin said he believes the building could house a large “community center” and the council on aging. But he said he’s not necessarily in favor of moving the offices currently at town hall and the annex there.

“If you take those offices out of the Central Village, I’m not sure what happens with Central Village. If you remove them, do we have a town center? I don’t know. We need to be careful. If we’re going to be redoing space here for town offices, it’s probably going to be the same cost as redoing office space in the annex itself. I like that funky old building — I don’t want to see it sold to somebody.”

The old school, he said, could instead be home to congregate or veterans’ housing — “it is a sorely needed use in this whole area.”

“I think we ought to at least consider sending out an RFP for some of this space, not all of it,” he said. “There’s all kinds of other things that we could do with this building. So let’s not sell it and let’s not knock it down.”

“I am strongly in favor of keeping all three buildings,” added Connie McCoy, director of the COA’s supportive day program.

“I think we would lose a lot of the character of Westport by getting rid of town hall. I’m not in favor of selling any of these buildings — I am strongly in favor of making this a community building.”

More answers, please

Architects added that their study is, at best, 50 percent complete, and in-depth financials have not yet been completed. But Thrasher said following the meeting that he believes numbers will be ready for public discussion soon, and he hopes to have another meeting as early as next week.

Bring them on, several speakers said, noting that it’s difficult to talk about plans without going over exactly how much each could cost:

“All options produce a potential tax increase,” floor speaker Donna Amaral said. “Historically, people in town don’t like tax increases. If you are invested in this, talk to all of your neighbors and get your neighbors as invested as you are. There may come a point when you are going to be presented with options, whether it’s to take out a bond or another override. You have to know that none of this is going to happen if you don’t have the funds to do it. If you’re invested ... please go out and do the work.”

Jake McGuigan, elected to the select board just two days earlier, said financials are key:

“What’s clear (is) there is a lot of interest in town,” he said. “We know there is a ton of space here ... COA can use it, recreation department can use it, recreational leagues can use it. We need the community space (but) we need to see” revenue forecasts and other financials.

“We need to know the economic reality of this space in a reality where we could be heading into a recession.”

“The fact that we had this much turnout (at the meeting) is great. But again, we need answers, and not continuing to pay consultants.”