West Tisbury residents gathered virtually to discuss the future of Howes House during a select board meeting on Wednesday, August 31. The topic of Howes House’s potential use was brought up during a previous board meeting, but needed to be delayed to be posted on the agenda to allow more people to participate.
“A point was made that the Howes House, on top of its role as the home for the [Up-Island] Council on Aging, could also be and should be considered a community center, and to make sure the Howes House building committee, and the process that we’re envisioning going forward with, takes this into consideration,” board chair Cynthia Mitchell said.
Before the Zoom attendees were invited to speak, Mitchell read aloud the one piece of correspondence about Howes House from Mike Bellissimo.
“I have been following the discussion about Howes House and agree with its mixed-use potential, especially for those 55 and older. Combined with the West Tisbury library sharing the same property, what a powerful legacy we can leave if we are thoughtful in our approach to serve everyone in the community,” Bellissimo wrote.
West Tisbury town moderator Dan Waters said this reminded him of the “very early stages” discussing expansion of the West Tisbury library over a decade ago. He said these included a “series of strategic planning sessions,” a “facilities needs study” addressing the potential users of the library, and the five- to 10-year outlook on the programs to be done at the building that took population change into account, among other topics. Waters thinks the town has an “opportunity to have a conversation before we commit to a particular direction.”
“It feels as though this is that type of inflection point, where a substantial amount of very varied community input is called for, including [an] invitation to people to envision what might happen in this building if it were not restricted to people 55 and up,” Waters said. “As somebody who has discovered just recently he is no longer 55, I am realizing that the Howes House for me has always been something that I might be destined for someday, but was never quite ready for, and I find myself smack in the middle of its, apparently, intended demographic, and yet it has never seemed particularly as relevant to me as the library. I’d like to see that change, and I think a way to do that is to have a conversation with people who are, like me, looking for ways to remain active in the community as they get older by continuing to interact with people who are younger as well.”
Susan Silk, who serves on the Howes House building committee’s focus group subcommittee, said, “The building committee is expecting the taxpayers to invest $7 million in a renovation of Howes House,” and she would like “the building to truly meet the needs of the community, not just today, but a decade from now.”
“Now, as Island-wide data indicates, and the building committee have received this data from Healthy Aging M.V., Councils on Aging across the Island most often provide services for seniors in the oldest years of their lives,” Silk said. “I think this is shortsighted, and it deprives many of us of the services and opportunities that they don’t just need but they want.”
Examples of improvements Silk listed included increased operational hours of Howes House (currently open on weekdays from 8:30 am to 4 pm) to accommodate older adults who are still working or taking care of children, being a destination for fun, and incorporating an “intergenerational energy.” A day before, the committee decided to explore using a focus group study rather than a survey to understand the needs and wants of Island seniors.
West Tisbury resident Phyllis Segal, who had never attended a select board meeting before, “was drawn here” to add her support of an intergenerational use of the building. She said there was a need to end the “age segregation,” pointing out a study done by the Rural Health Scholars stating there is a lack of places on the Island for young people to congregate after graduating from high school.
Concerns about expanding Howes House’s use were also raised.
“The Healthy Aging survey has indicated that only a small fraction of our over-55 population uses the Council on Aging,” West Tisbury finance committee member Cathy Minkiewicz said. “If we are going to go to taxpayers for $7 million, I think it should involve more people. We should sell it to the whole town as something that would be beneficial to them. We don’t have any funding coming from the state or the federal government for this. It’s all on our nickel. Let’s spend it wisely, and spend time considering how to spend this money.”
West Tisbury treasurer Katherine Logue said while she supported the idea of intergenerational use, she also expressed concern over potential funding issues for Howes House if it becomes closer to a community center rather than a senior center. Committee member James Klingensmith echoed this concern, adding that there are already other nonsenior activities that take place at Howes House.
“I think if I was a Chilmark or Aquinnah voter, and you wanted to make a community center, I’d say, ‘Well, we have a community center in Chilmark, so I don’t think we need to be coughing up any money to help West Tisbury build a new building,’” Klingensmith said.
On top of financial concerns, Doug Ruskin expressed concerns about the carbon footprint a community center Howes House would bring.
The discussion about Howes House will continue through the building committee and its subcommittee, alongside the board keeping an eye out for it, according to Mitchell.
In other business, the board unanimously appointed Carol Sarason to the West Tisbury historic district commission for a one-year term, replacing Ken Lieberman. Initially, Sarason was going to be appointed to a three-year term, but board member Skipper Manter raised a concern about the commission’s bylaw requirement to have a lawyer in its membership. Lieberman had filled the lawyer spot.
Rand said the commission was unable to find another lawyer to fill the spot after two years, and will look for one during the next replacement. Manter said while he was not against the appointment, he was concerned about “breaking our own rules without changing the rules first.” Rand said town counsel Ron Rappaport had explained in the past “there are other bylaws that we have … and the select board at times uses their discretion when needed for those circumstances.” After more discussion, the board made the appointment, and also unanimously voted to “put forward” an article to change the historic district commission’s membership requirements.
The board agreed to attend a joint select board meeting with all of the other Martha’s Vineyard towns and Nantucket to discuss “issues of mutual concern.” The tentative date the board decided on was Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 4 pm.
