Committee recommends seeking town funds to temporarily reopen Wixson School gym for winter recreation

A town-appointed committee that has been advising on the future of the former Wixson School on Aug. 22 recommended asking the Select Board to place an interim warrant article before the next town meeting to transfer maintenance funds to reopen the gym — and possibly the auditorium — for recreation.

The committee’s chair (Chair, S1) opened the discussion saying the goal was to “get a gym open for winter sports this coming winter sports season,” and stressed urgency because waiting until the May town meeting could delay reopening for a year. Committee member (S2) presented a draft warrant article that would ask the Town of Dennis to transfer available maintenance funds to cover maintenance and reopening costs for the gym, auditorium and adjacent rooms; the draft deliberately did not name a dollar amount so the committee would have time to prepare a precise estimate.

Why it matters: Committee members said reopening even a portion of the building would restore recreation programs for children and adults — including winter pickleball and youth sports — after several years of services being displaced when the school vacated the property. The committee framed the request as an interim measure, not a permanent plan, intended to provide short-term community benefit while long-range options (a new community center or other redevelopment) continue to be explored.

Key constraints discussed included: septic capacity and restroom counts, egress and fire-safety approvals, the condition of the heating system, and localized asbestos in ceiling tiles. The chair said they had met with fire, plumbing and health officials and that the health agent indicated the two bathrooms near the main corridor “are probably not enough” for auditorium use but that a health department permit limiting occupant numbers—or providing portable toilets—might allow temporary gym use. The chair reported the gym’s published capacity is 980 people and the auditorium roughly 600, which informed the discussion about restroom needs and potential occupancy limits.

On septic capacity, the chair said plan sheets include a 4,500-gallon septic near one exit and a larger system shown on the plan that could read as 33,000 gallons; members cautioned that the drawing might instead reflect several tanks and agreed to verify the plans before finalizing cost assumptions. On heating, a committee participant (Participant, S3) described the system as a two-boiler hot-water system and flagged a likely safety-pressure-relief-valve issue with a preliminary repair estimate of about $7,500 for that component; the chair said contacting Wilkins, the company that formerly maintained the system, was a priority to determine whether a restart or temporary heating solution is feasible.

Asbestos in a few small rooms also shaped options: participants advised marking tiles suspected to contain asbestos and avoiding ceiling removal until an abatement contractor scopes the risk and recommends encapsulation or safe removal. Committee members proposed interim steps such as isolating the area of use, installing padlocks on nonessential doors, and deploying portable heaters or isolated heating if restarting the full system proves infeasible.

On process and timing, Committee member (S2) said Selectman McCormick favored putting the article on the town meeting warrant to let voters decide; S2 explained that placing the item on a warrant requires a majority recommendation of the Select Board (three votes) or a petition, and warned that without Select Board approval the earliest opportunity would be the May town meeting, which would likely delay reopening another year. The committee agreed to ask the Select Board to post the committee for the board’s next meeting and to produce a base cost estimate quickly if the board allows the article on the warrant.

The committee also discussed potential funding sources, including maintenance-account balances and possible solar-farm revenue sharing; members said some maintenance funds exist and that prior transfers for insurance and other items left available balances that could be used for relatively small temporary fixes.

The meeting ended after scheduling follow-up work: committee members agreed to verify septic/tank sizing on the plans, pursue vendor confirmation on the heating system from Wilkins, request a scoping/fixture count with the health/plumbing officials, and ask the Select Board to place the interim warrant article on its agenda for the upcoming Tuesday. The motion to adjourn passed unanimously.