By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—On a rainy Sunday afternoon, a bunch of middle-aged friends in Pittsford want to play some pick-up basketball. Or some older folks want to continue their daily exercise walks when the snow is knee deep outside in winter. Or some kids want to play volleyball but the school gyms are all closed. Where can they go?
A group of 5 local residents—Tanner Romano, Travis Romano, Alia Dick, D.J. Keith, and Mike Howe—have an idea: a new community center that provides indoor recreation space to all the towns that feed into the RNESU school district. According to the plan, these seven communities—Brandon, Pittsford, Sudbury, Leicester, Whiting, Goshen, and Chittenden—would share an indoor recreation and exercise complex that would provide residents with recreational opportunities that the area currently lacks. The area has a combined population of over 10,000.
The new “Valley Community Center” (VCC) would be centrally located on the Otter Valley campus, on land leased or purchased from the district, and would be managed by a nonprofit created specifically for the purpose, whose board would comprise members from each participating town. VCC would encompass an indoor gymnasium with basketball and pickleball courts, a walking track, weight and cardio rooms, a snack stand, first-aid station, and a flexible, multi-use meeting room.
“There was talk around the community about a desire for this,” said Tanner Romano in a recent telephone conversation about VCC. “It’s similar to the new lights on Markowski Field. A group of us saw a need and came together to figure out how to make it happen. We wanted to put some science behind it and come up with a proposal that would give the communities the core fundamentals to make the decision.”
Last week, the group made its first public presentation on VCC to the Otter Valley School Board, hoping to win the board’s support for locating VCC on land currently owned by the district, specifically a parcel along Route 7 just south of OV’s main parking lot.
“We zeroed in on that location because it’s a central hub,” said Romano. “We didn’t want to locate the center anywhere it could be seen as clearly within a particular community. It’s a shared resource.”
The presentation included architectural renderings of the facility, a floor plan, and a breakdown of the project’s budget, which is likely to be the main sticking point for community members in a year when the public’s appetite for municipal spending is especially low given recent tax increases.
The total estimated cost of the project now stands at roughly $12.1 million, with an estimated annual net operating cost of $246,900. Though the group will seek donations and grants, the bulk of these costs will be borne by the participating communities, through bonds and town budgets. Though Mr. Romano has brought his experience at Naylor & Breen to bear on creating the proposal, the project will be put out to bid and Naylor & Breen will have to compete with other construction firms for the job.
VCC estimates that the cost to taxpayers will be $31.47 per $100K of assessed property value. So, a taxpayer whose home is assessed at $300K, for example, would be looking at an additional $94.41 per year on their tax bill for the carrying costs of the bonds for the project. And the $246K in operating costs would also be divided among the taxpayers of the participating communities and included in their respective town budgets.
“Participating towns will have to pay a portion of the maintenance,” said Romano. “But it doesn’t seem insurmountable if it’s spread out.”
Each participating town would need to approve the plan in order for it to go forward. The VCC group is prepared to make the rounds to pitch the project to the communities’ Selectboards. Though, no Selectboard has been formally approached at this stage, the Selectboard in Pittsford was alerted to the proposal and discussed it briefly at its last meeting, balking at the cost and expressing some skepticism that the project was feasible at that price.
But the VCC group had anticipated some resistance.
“We started putting this proposal together in 2023 though we put the project on ice 4 or 5 months ago because of everything that was happening with local taxes,” said Romano. “But OV reached out and asked us to speak with them.”
OVUU School Board President Laurie Bertrand said in a subsequent email to The Reporter that although the Board was open to the proposal, the district’s taxpayers would ultimately have to make the decision whether to convey the requested parcel to VCC.
“That is a decision that would have to be done by ballot by the taxpayers,” Bertrand wrote. “We’re also cognizant of the fact that we’re in tough economic times, as you know our budget went down twice last year. Even if the taxpayers conveyed the land, we would need to make sure that the public realizes this is not in direct correlation with the school. There are many factors to consider. We have a lot to think about in the next couple of weeks.”
VCC will revisit the OVUU School Board at its next meeting on Tuesday, October 29. If Otter Valley ultimately decides not to proceed, Romano says the project will go back to the drawing board.
“Everything in our presentation, including the architectural renderings, is based on that location,” he said. “If OV says no, we would need a whole new evaluation.”
The project also depends on the agreement of the seven constituent communities. Without their buy-in, the project will not go forward.
Along those lines, Brandon Rec Department Director Bill Moore said in response to an email, “If the VCC group is able to acquire the necessary land/permits and convince the taxpayers in all the towns to bond for the funding, the Brandon Rec would be happy to collaborate on expanding recreational opportunities for area residents using their proposed community center.”
“If folks decide it’s not for them, they can vote it down,” said Romano. “We’re not trying to force it on anyone. Someone had to bring the project to this point or there’s no progress. We’re just trying to work for the community.”
