AGENDA #5e
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TO: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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FROM: |
Butch Kisiah, Director of Parks & Recreation Bill Webster, Assistant Director of Parks & Recreation |
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SUBJECT: |
Update on Status of the Lincoln Art Center |
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DATE: |
June 27, 2007 |
This report provides information on the status of the Lincoln Art Center and the staff’s progress on finding a replacement facility.
In 1976 the Town executed an agreement with the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools that provided for the lease of certain school facilities to the Town for a period of 30 years. The Town agreed to expend funds to pay for construction and renovation of facilities and to provide maintenance of some facilities. One of the facilities covered in the lease agreement is the Lincoln Arts Center on Merritt Mill Road.
In the early 1990s the Town returned about half of the leased Art Center building to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools for use as a Head Start program facility.
On November 4, 2006, the Town received a petition requesting that the pottery program be continued and expanded.
The current agreement is scheduled to end on December 31, 2007. In June 2007 the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City School Board agreed to extend the lease until the end of June 2008.
The Lincoln Art Center is a 2,600 square-foot facility located on Merritt Mill Road that is used by the Parks and Recreation Department for youth and adult pottery classes. The building contains enough space for three kilns, eight pottery wheels, table space, drying shelves, and storage. The building was specially modified to allow venting of gases during kiln firings.
Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools staff members have decided to use the space for their Phoenix School program. We will have use of the space until the end of June 2008.
Our original proposal was to provide Town-owned office space to the School Board in exchange for allowing the pottery studio to remain in its current space. Now that we know that our preferred solution is not attainable we will focus on converting unused Town-owned space to a pottery studio.
Schedule: We will report back to the Council in September with an update on our progress. It is our intent to move the facility to a new space by the end of the lease period in June 2008.