Center makeover debated
Plan includes sale of historic edifices
As communities modernize, change, and grow, there are often residents who want to recapture the past.
In the tiny town of Tyngsborough, some want to re-create the century-old character of the town center, but it turns out it's no simple matter: Such a makeover could require turning over three historic public buildings for private development and, possibly, constructing a new sewer line under the Merrimack River.
The proposal, still in the talking stage, has won praise from those who say it will revitalize the town and pump up its economy.
"This will take many years, but we're trying to create a town-center identity for Tyngsborough," said Board of Selectmen chairman Richard B. Lemoine, who favors the idea.
But opponents say they want a simpler plan that would preserve the historic buildings, which include the Old Town Hall, for public use. Warren W. Allgrove Jr., chairman of the Tyngsborough Historical Commission, said he believes the proposed makeover would unnecessarily wrest the buildings from town ownership, take too long, and cost too much.
"You can't give away all your history in exchange for some money," Allgrove said. "You just need to clean up what you have and renovate what you have, and then you have a town center."
The debate is a familiar one in many small communities in the area seeking to recapture the look of the past. In the case of Tyngsborough, with a population of about 11,000, the makeover would require providing sewer service - an expensive proposition in a town that has repeatedly shunned Proposition 2 1/2 overrides.
Setting up sewer service would involve renegotiating an agreement with three Massachusetts neighbors - Chelmsford, Dracut, and Lowell - or designing a separate deal with nearby Nashua.
Proponents of the makeover hearken back to an earlier time, when Tyngsborough "was a destination community," with dance halls, carousels, and other forms of entertainment for vacationing city folk, Lemoine said.
Much of the town center dating to that time has been demolished. The remaining historic buildings, now owned by the town, are the Old Town Hall, from 1834; the Winslow School, from 1890; and the Littlefield Library, from 1904. The Historical Commission uses the library for meetings, while the other two buildings are vacant.
A preliminary town center proposal would convert the historic buildings to commercial or residential use and develop others to complement their design. Another building, the former Shur-Fine Market, would be demolished, but a historic barn next to it would be privately developed. All the developments would add to the tax base, proponents say.
The area of town that would be spiffed up is off the junction of Kendall Road and Route 3A, said Ted Carman, a consultant hired by selectmen to craft the proposal. Carman, president of Concord Square Planning and Development Inc. of Boston, said he expects to produce a final report in June.
Carman stressed that part of the hefty cost for necessary sewer lines could be recouped with federal and state grants.
Meanwhile, municipal officials are developing a comprehensive plan to boost the entire town's sewer coverage from about 25 percent to 40 percent, but no cost estimates are yet available, said Tyngsborough Sewer Commission chairman Jeffrey Hannaford. However, any new sewers for the town center would be costly, he said.
"You're always talking millions of dollars when you're talking sewer," Hannaford said.
In addition to the price tag, a new sewer presents logistical hurdles.
Straddling the Merrimack River, Tyngsborough now sends its waste through Chelmsford on the west bank, and Dracut on the east, to a treatment plant in Lowell. Dracut has excess capacity open to Tyngsborough, but Chelmsford does not. Using the Dracut capacity might mean running a sewer line under the river to the town center on the opposite side.
As for the option to run a new line up to Nashua, Hannaford said preliminary talks with that city's officials indicated it might be problematic because "it doesn't appear they have the capacity available for what we need."
Lemoine, the selectman, conceded that money might be hard to come by. In the past few years, voters have turned down operating and debt-exclusion overrides, indicating little appetite for higher property taxes, he said. This year, he said, selectmen voted against putting a $1.2 million override on the ballot.
Allgrove said Town Meeting already allocated about $80,000 for architectural plans to renovate the Old Town Hall, and within a few years the town will need it for a new fire and police station.
"The townspeople want to see a New England town center; they don't want to see a commercial town center," he said. "And they don't want to lose the buildings that now exist and see them turned into commercial adventures for the town."
Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com.
