Sandwich Selectmen Discuss Proposed New Active Living Facility and Library Renovations

SANDWICH – Sandwich residents were shown plans last week for a new active living center, as well as a look at potential library renovations.

The proposed Center for Active Living facility is planned as a new building off Quaker Meeting House Road, and the library renovations would help to update the interior of the century old building to meet the technological requirements of 2019.

Together, they are expected to cost $20 million, according to David Sampson, chairman of the Sandwich Selectmen.

The proposed spending will be brought to voters at a special town meeting, tentatively scheduled for the fall.

Last renovated in 1984, the new additions to the library would include adding a tech bar, relocating the town archives and the children’s room.

“It is a library we will have books, we will always have books but times have changed in the last 30 years,” said Mark Wiklund, chairman of the library’s Board of Trustees.

“30 years ago did you have an iPhone, did you have an iPad, how many laptops have you acquired in the last 30 years?”

Wiklund said he’d like to see the changes so the library can continue to serve people who come to work and study, but recognized the needs of meeting today’s technological standards.

“The inside of the library needs to be transformed to meet our new requirements,” Wiklund said.

The new active living facility would provide for senior citizens, along with other members of the community.

The facility would include a community gym the features pickleball courts and an elevated walking track, game rooms, a kitchen facility, and a large multipurpose space that can be partitioned for smaller uses.

Sampson noted the lack of gym space in the community especially with the unknown future of the Henry T. Wing School, which closed four years ago.

The proposed location for the facility is an area adjacent to the newly opened public safety complex, which is also the site of a planned skate park with tennis and pickleball courts along Quaker Meetinghouse Road.

The special town meeting to vote on the proposed spending of these two projects is tentatively set for Monday, October 28th, however no set date has been made official yet.

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