The Scarborough Town Council has given initial approval for the creation an Ad-Hoc Community Center Committee to assist with the creation of a community center.

In the fall 2021 community survey, many residents were in favor of Scarborough creating a community center to serve all demographics. The Comprehensive Plan and the new Parks and Facilities Master Plan have also pointed to the need and desire for such a facility.

If approved, the Ad-Hoc Community Center Committee would, according to a document from the Appointments and Negotiations Committee, work with design consultants and  town council and staff to advance the project. The town council has already allocated financial resources for site selection, space needs analysis, conceptual design, and cost estimation.

On March 15 , the town council held a first reading on the proposed Ad-Hoc Community Center Committee created by the Appointments and Negotiations Committee.

There will be nine voting members of the Ad-Hoc Community Center Committee: three members from the 2018 version of this committee, two from the Community Services Advisory board, and four residents at-large. These members will be recommended by the Appointments and Negotiations Committee and then approved by the town council.

“One of the things that we’re going to be doing is when we staff this we are going to be doing it through the Appointments/Negotiations Committee,” said Karin Shupe, town councilor and chair of the Appointments and Negotiations Committee. “So we’ll go through the whole process and we will then come to you guys with recommendations.”

There will also be four non-voting members of the committee. These four will be comprised of two members of the town council, one member representing the Scarborough Public Library, and one member of the Board of Education.

The timeframe goal is to have the project ready to be voted on for the November 2024 referendum.

Council Chair Jon Anderson commented on the initiation of the process.

“I just want to add: this was one of our council goals this year, to kind of get this Ad-Hoc Committee started,” said Anderson. “My experience on the school building committee is that these things take time to do and do well and do right and there is a lot of great work from the previous committee that is going to be leveraged to address some of that, but there is still a lot of work to be done. So starting now, starting the process now or at least getting the committee set up… By the time the work really starts will happen six months from now for the committee to be functional, so I think this is the right thing to be moving forward at this time.”