I was asked on FB to comment further on the town possibly buying the Medfield State Hospital site, and I will do it here as it also gets to FB and Twitter.
I think the town certainly must explore purchasing the Medfield State Hospital site, as controlling the ultimate uses of that site are both too important to and too desirable for the town, not to do so.
However, to intelligently explore any purchase we first need to marshal the facts and the data, if we are going to make a rational decision. That means getting DCAMM’s asking price, as well as the costs to demolish and/or rehab the buildings, and learning things such as whether Mass. Historic will allow the demolition of any buildings.
Months ago the Board of Selectmen asked DCAMM to do building surveys of a sampling of the buildings to get a handle on the costs that would be involved to demolish and/or rehab them. I think the cost to do those surveys in advance of any demolition of the current police and fire stations was quoted to me at about $5,000 per building. I can imagine those surveys would cost more if the costs to rehab were wanted.
We also need to have a town wide discussion about what we want to do the the site if we were to purchase it. I have suggested that we employ someone like Professor Lawrence Susskind of MIT to assist us in getting to a collaborative decision on the ultimate uses, by using the techniques he wrote about in his book, “Breaking Robert’s Rules.” https://medfield02052.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/msh-discussions-with-state-today/ The basic process is that the person facilitating the process talks to all interested parties, writes up a list of the issues, holds a televised meeting to discuss and debate the issues, during which the residents vote on each issue by means of their cell phone. We learn what the majority wants, and we then proceed with what the citizens have select.
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