Residents Petition for Town Office Renovations

Last Tuesday, Nov. 5 former Middlebury selectboard Chairman John Tenny announced a citizens’ petition drive regarding the future of the Middlebury Town Offices. The petition’s goal is to make sure that the 2014 Town Meeting Day ballot has a bond vote regarding the new buildings, which includes a new town office and recreation center.

As reported in The Campus last Thursday, the future of the Middlebury Town Offices and new recreation center is a big topic in town and is somewhat controversial and divisive within the community.

The current plan for the new municipal buildings includes a land-swap with the College and the town of Middlebury. In addition to the land-swap, the College would also donate $5.5 million to help fund the $7.5 million project.

The new municipal building would be located at 77 Main St. and the new recreation center would be built off Mary Hogan Drive, near the elementary school. The College would then receive the parcel of land on which the Town Offices currently stand and will turn that piece of land into a public park.

The citizen-led petition started by Tenny, which needs to garner the signatures of at least 10 percent of Middlebury’s registered voters, wouldn’t necessarily be questioning, endorsing or derailing the current plan. The goal is merely to open up the issue to the public and create more dialogue and discussion throughout the community in general.

“[The petition] certainly doesn’t take away the work of this board; what it does is make it the work of the whole community,” Tenny said in the Addison Independent.

“The whole community then can have a good discussion,” Tenny said. “I hope that while the petition will be one in support of the issue, it could be supported by those who might oppose the issue because they should have the opportunity to vote.”

Reasons for opposition vary but they are certainly voiced in the community. One concern is that there won’t be enough parking space and that the traffic around Mary Hogan Elementary will become more congested and difficult to manage than it already is.

Another less quotidian concern is that the College is encroaching on the Town of Middlebury. Although the current plan to relocate the municipal buildings is the only one on the table at the moment, some residents still are voicing their preferences to have the new buildings rebuilt on the current town office site.

All of these concerns are difficult to balance, but one that may be mitigated is the worry by some residents that the public wasn’t included in the process from the beginning. This petition gives more voice to the general community, especially with the potential to have a bond placed on the ballot in 2014.