Lanesborough Considering Leasing Space at American Legion
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The selectmen have been paying bills for the American Legion out of their own pockets.
Town Manager Kelli Robbins had recently identified that the town's support for the American Legion wasn't legal and stopped payments. The town was spending upwards of $5,500 per year to pay for propane, electricity, and the phone lines for the American Legion Post 446's home and the Selectmen remain supportive of that decision.
While the town waits for legal clarity, the members of the Board of Selectmen have personally paid the bills out of pocket as they've come up.
"It is illegal for a municipality to expend funds on private property. Since the Legion owns the building, we can't pay the bills. We are currently working with town counsel to find a legal way. We don't want to remove the support but we have to do it within the law," Robbins said.
The town has long supported the Legion but this is not the first time such a question has come up. In 2014, former Town Manager Paul Sieloff had questioned the support as well with documents showing the Legion was privately owned.
Legion officials at the time said the loss of support would be devastating to the organization. But at the time, there was also some ambiguity as to who actually owned the property. While the Legion had documents showing ownership the town's lawyers researching the deed didn't come to the same conclusion. Eventually, the town continued its support with no clear understanding of who actually owns the building.
Robbins has now identified the same issue. This time, however, those questions may be circumvented completely. As the Selectmen discussed the issue, a solution came up: storage space.
American Legion Treasurer Roger Parent said only half of the building is being used. And town officials say they are getting cramped for storage space. The town is now looking to see if leasing the other half of the Legion would provide the ability to legally continue supporting the nonprofit while also easing some clustering.
Town Secretary Diane Stevens used sports equipment being stored in Town Hall as an example. She said Town Hall's records continue to grow while the youth sports equipment is taking up space. She suggested moving the sports and recreation equipment currently at Town Hall to the Legion's unused space.
"It makes a lot of sense for you to use the upstairs room. We haven't used it for 20 years," Parent said.
Parent said the town would have its own entrance and key to the currently unused space. He added that the Legion is working with the insurance agent to implement language that would ensure the town isn't liable for the property.
Robbins said that plan should work. Now it is a matter of getting the legalese in place.
"I could definitely work with that," she said.
Until then, Board of Selectman Chairman John Goerlach told Parent not to worry about the bills.
"The board and the Police Association will try to get you through," Goerlach said.
In other business, the town has some questions over which homes still need to have the water tested on Ore Bed Road. The water in a number of homes was contaminated years ago and the state had significantly upped its requirements for testing. Eventually, the town extended a water line to those homes to help avoid the cost of testing the wells.
Robbins said the state Department of Environmental Protection provided a list of homes that still need to be tested and that doesn't seem to match up with the number of homes connected to the water line. She said only four homes in the area are listed as being connected but Robbins and the Board of Selectmen feel like there were more.
The town is now going to dig through the records and get an accurate count. Robbins added that any homes in the area that could connect but haven't will be sent a letter asking them to consider doing so.
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