WESTBOROUGH – After a request to borrow funds for the Westborough Golf Club building project was rejected at Town Meeting, the Select Board has decided to push the project “to a future agenda.”
“There’s no rush,” said board member Ian Johnson during the meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The decision followed a vote by the Municipal Building Committee to refer the project back to the Select Board.
“We saw the feelings of the town” at Town Meeting, said MBC Chair Al Gordon.
Over the past several months, a team from Bechtel Frank Erickson Architects Inc. (BFE) conducted a feasibility study that explored two options to renovate and rebuild the golf club building.
Both options included space for a restaurant.
In October, a warrant article requesting funds to borrow $200,000 for schematic designs, and to obtain a restaurant consultant and owners project manager, was defeated.
Committee members said the project failed to gain support because of a lack of clarity about a possible restaurant, and some miscommunication about how the project would be paid.
During Town Meeting, some residents said they were concerned that the project would drain the Golf Club Enterprise Fund, which is used to maintain the course and pro shop.
RELATED CONTENT: Town Meeting votes down borrowing request for Golf Club
“There was definitely some disconnect on paying for that [project],” said committee member James S. Stewart.
“It’s the right thing to put back” the project to the board, said Ian Johnson, who is the Select Board’s representative to the committee.
While most of the building remains vacant, the town is providing basic maintenance, and the pro shop “is fine and functional,” said Johnson. However, Gordon said something needs to be done about the building soon.
“The building’s in tough shape,” he said. “Something in the near future has to happen.”
Gordon proposed an open house to allow residents to see the condition of the building for themselves.
“We got some good information,” said Rod Shaffert, the Advisory Finance Committee’s representative to the Municipal Building Committee. “There’s still an opportunity to figure out what could work. I’d hate to lose the momentum.”
Town Manager Kristi Williams said that $32,000 is still available for further study.
Learn more about the project at https://ma-westborough.civicplus.com/1219/Westborough-Golf-Club-Building
