Shutesbury weighs reuse options for former M.N. Spear Library

SHUTESBURY — A stand-alone police station. A meeting room for town committees and local organizations. Additional office space for Town Hall employees.

Those are among the ways the M.N. Spear Library, which closed after being replaced by the new Shutesbury Public Library earlier this year, could be repurposed. Town officials want to find a way to use the building, rather than mothball it.

On Tuesday, March 17, the M.N. Spear Library Reuse Committee provided an interim report to the Select Board, outlining both a low-cost option for what the 124-year-old, 768-square-foot building could be used for, as well as a more expensive overhaul that could require a $100,000 or more investment.

But with no running water and no bathroom in the 10 Cooleyville Road building, the Select Board advised the committee that it should try to get more details about the possibilities of trenching across the road to tie into the Town Hall’s well, as well as whether accessing the septic system for the neighboring Shutesbury Community Church is feasible.

Select Board member Rita Farrell, who also chairs the reuse committee, said there will be some costs to look into the church septic system and for doing any soil testing and engineering.

Committee member Susie Mosher said the committee included reconfiguration of Town Hall, at 1 Cooleyville Road, into its planning. That building currently has inadequate space for the police station and the town clerk’s office and records storage, all of which are located on the top level.

One option is to have M.N. Spear just as meeting space, not adding running water or a bathroom, and necessitating any use of the building to coincide with when bathrooms are available at Town Hall.

A second option is to convert the M.N. Spear building into the police station.

The third option is to make the lower level of Town Hall the police station, which could push other offices to the former library.

Both of these options require more significant changes, as demonstrated on a chart showing what each option means.

“The matrix is meant to basically compare those three options by a number of different variables,” said committee member Paul Lyons, such as whether the building needs running water, a septic system or an architect and contractor to design and execute changes.

Lyons said the committee needs guidance and input from the Select Board and the public.

“We know that meeting space has been very limited when we had in person,” Mosher said. “Now that we have hybrid options, setting up a hybrid meeting space there would offer meeting spaces for two simultaneous meetings, which is certainly common in this town.”

Should the police station go into the former library, the well and septic connection would be necessary.

As it stands, having a bathroom in the M.N. Spear building provides a lot more ways to use that building.

Leslie Bracebridge, who serves on the Historical Commission, said it might make sense to do the bathroom and water, and put the police station in that building short term. But her view is that the police department would be better served locating closer to the fire and highway departments, which are on Leverett Road.

Farrell said the committee report is seen as an interim step, before getting money, with any appropriation coming from Town Meeting.

Mosher said the committee likely won’t be able to bring a recommendation for money this spring, though, because there are no definitive figures.

The committee, Lyons said, is at somewhat of a standstill. “We’re eager to zero in and move forward,” Lyons said.

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