The Town should at least see if a high school could fit on this site. If it could, the present building housing the High School could be a revenue generating source. Here is an example and a financial overview of what a community college on the second floor and course related businesses on the first floor could bring in to the town's treasury. This would finance a great portion of the cost of a new school and give students co-op work study with the possibility of not having a gigantic student loan mortgage when they are through with college.

Wilmington Community College (proposed) 159 Church Street

Financial projections:
25 college classrooms
20 students per classroom
Co-op work study available
$8,500/year per student tuition cost
Salary for college professor $100,000/year
20 students x 25 classrooms = 500 students
500 students x $8,500 tuition/student = $4,250,000 (income)
25 professors x $100,000 =$2,500,000 (educator salary and benefit cost)
Administration cost = $600,000/year

$4,250,000 (income) - $2,500,000 (ed. costs) =$1,750,000 - $600,000(admin cost)=
$1,150,000 Profit

1st floor - 25 college course related related businesses
25 leased out rooms
$1500 per month x 25 (rooms) = $37,500/month
$37,500 x 12 months = $450,000 per year
****** The first floor income would cover our building operating costs******

****** Another scenario could be a regional school with North Reading**********

Use the foundation for an elderly housing apartment type building. The land behind for fields and trails for hikig and or biking.

Good suggestion Gary. There is a 200 person waiting list for the Deming Way housing units. I wonder if government bailout money was given it to Century Bank.
I believe Century Bank holds the title to the property if i am not mistaken. If so, it is a great deal for them. Get bailout money then get money for selling the property!

Century Bank did not get bailout money. http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list/index

Thanks for the info Ernie. Do you know if any banks that got bail out money used it to buy companies and or merger deals. It would be interesting how many monopolies were created through this program. it seems that monopolies drive up prices eventually. I noticed some banks took bail out money and paid it back already. I also heard there were banks that didn't need it and took it anyway. I hope you and everyone on Patch have seen the documentary film "Inside job". It is a great movie and very educational.

They need to put in necessary sports fields, a playground and picnic area, a walking perimeter and a dog park. There should be something for all the citizens of Wilmington.

The town has obviously needed more soccer fields for years but I hope room is made there for a softball field since we are losing the one at the high school under the new school plan.

The Town is losing a softball field and getting a disaster. Shoehorning a school into a site with a massive oil spill that is not going to be cleaned up! Who in their right mind knocks down a structurally sound building with the ability to generate income to get something that drains income? Who in their right mind desires to spend $82 million dollars to build a new school that is sized to educated over 230 less students? Who in their right mind desires to build a drainage leach field abutting saturated oil soil with the water flow toward the oil spill direction and expect it to drain? Who in their right mind designs permeable pavement over an oil spill? What happens when oil additives mix with water and head toward wetlands that feed other water ways that provide drinking water to other communities or our own residents with abutting drinking water wells? Does our leadership just say sorry we were not in our right minds?

I would like to the foundation used for town-owned housing for elderly and disabled, especially veterans. The foundation looks to be in very good condition to the eye. It would cost a great deal of money to put a similar sized foundation anywhere, so lets take advantage of it. Use the remaining land for field, dog walk, and so on.

I like Bernie's suggestion. We definitely need open space for field sports like soccer and lacrosse (Wilmington has one of the biggest soccer programs in the state). I also like the idea of a walking path, and something for everyone. Kevin, you really need to give it a rest, there's very little support for your plan, as was evident in the last election. I can appreciate your passion around the subject and keeping government honest, but the project will move forward on the site that has been determined.

I don't like the elderly and disabled housing suggestion. I always thought an elderly/disable housing should be near something...i.e., a plaza. Wouldn't it be nice if the elderly could just walk outside of their building and go shopping? Without waiting for a ride? I don't think sticking the elderly near anything does them any good, unless they can walk somewhere. On my way to work I pass an elderly housing unit right next to a highway..such a sad sight. The elderly sit in the front, watching the cars whiz by on their way to 128...they are trapped by highway. If this were an elderly unit, is it close enough for them to walk over to that plaza nearby...? If so, go for it! :)

If not an elderly housing situation, I love the idea of open space..the more the better.

Kevin, I don't have any figures to counter yours, but you throw in rental space income. Those are assumptions...not guaranteed. They could end up being empty space in disrepair. How many community colleges in the area are landlords as well? How much space do they rent out? What is that success?
I would never go to any college without looking at the track record first...so without a track record, there is a built in assumption of the number of students jumping in and going to class. Schools take years to build a reputation, you can't just jump in with full classload calculations.

As a university professor and resident of Wilmington, I can state that there is no market for higher education. Greater Boston is rich in public and private institutions of higher ed and the vast majority are going through contraction, not expansion. Also, the increase in online education is making brick and mortar schools more obsolete. To propose a community college in Wilmington demonstrates a lack of understanding of the higher education landscape.

A profitable idea has to start somewhere. The current high school has an average of 14 students per class room. When i went to school there, W.H.S had about 28 students per classroom.Since then there has been an addition and a tremendous amount of money put into that school building. A business owner with the skill and credentials to teach a college course could receive a pay package of $100,000 which would more than cover the lease, could hand pick top students for employment, would have in his/her best interest to really put a quality effort into educating, could even record the course and sell it in the form of DVD educational videos to other countries and areas to help with GDP. I believe people would be drawn to a college if they had a tremendous opportunity to get a job that paid for their schooling and were able to live at home to save on room and board. We need to think differently in this economic environment. How many people can actually afford to pay a student loan of $200,000, afford a home and afford to raise a family, especially, if both husband and wife each have student loans? Did you hear about the Harvard grad that couldn't get a job and wrote Harvard offering to return his diploma in return for a refund for his tuition? We need a dialogue started with ideas from the many gifted people in Wilmington that will be willing to offer positive creative ideas to help take back our community from the small thinking leaders that are running it into the ground.

Even under optimal economic and political times, small businesses fail at an alarming rate and considering part-time or adjunct faculty in Massachusetts make between $900 and $5,000 for a class you would need to teach a lot of courses AND have a successful business to come close to making $100,000 a year. The numbers just don't compute.

If Community Colleges were so flush with cash, Middlesex, North Shore, Northern Essex and Bunker Hill would be doing better financially but they are not. Enrollments are down, expenses are up, financial support from the state is down, faculty contributions to retirement and medical plans are up. It's tough enough for the established schools (four of which are close enough to Wilmington that there is no market for a CC in Wilmington. To think that a start up Community College with no infrastructure, no faculty, no staff, no business plan, no students and nothing more than a decrepit building that isn't fit to film horror movies in is about the worst idea imaginable in today's economic climate.

DVD educational videos produced by mythical faculty at a mythical college with no production facilities to sell abroad? Unless the good folks in Narnia are looking for our "educational videos" that idea won't work. There are already established universities with established faculty and all of the infrastructure necessary to produce such videos and there are publishers that are already years ahead of this mythical Wilmington start up.

Think positive Frank. Find a way to make it work. Be creative and innovative. Offer something that others don't. How about trying to offer at least one thing that can be attributed to you that we here on Patch can say that Frank offered to prosper this Town other than taxation.

Kevin, positivity is wonderful but it has to be grounded in reality. Positivity without reality is fantasy and fantasy won't put a prosperous community college that is also a home to an educational video production consortium that will sell videos worldwide. Because I am limited by the number of characters in my post, I can't even begin to scratch the surface on the myriad of hurdles that you would have to go through to start a Community College in Wilmington. Even if we had a fully functional space, faculty, interested students, a developed infrastructure and an organizational plan, you would still need to go through an accreditation process. I have worked at three universities that went through re-accreditation and it is a time-consuming (multi-year) process and requires a lot of financial resources. Good luck going through NESAC and the State of Massachusetts for that.

Want to open a technical school? Have fun competing with Devry and other established schools. Want to do an online school? Good luck with competing with The University of Phoenix and other established schools.

The Community College idea can not work. Why can't we all come back to reality and realize that what we need are new athletic facilities and field space to make up for the woeful conditions that our young athletes have to compete in now.

Frank, still not one single thing offered. You say that you are a university professor. How about one positive idea? Some of us believe college has gotten to be big business with educators assigning students work to do to educate themselves. Here is your big chance what's it going to be Frank?

Sorry but I'd be hard pressed to find someone who would want to proudly say they went to "Wilmington Community College". Bunker Hill, Massasoit and Middlesex (and others that I am forgetting) are already well established but not considered as highly as other educational institutions. With the amount of highly educated students not being able to find jobs, I don't think a graduate of WCC would be able to compete successfully educationally speaking.

I grew up in a town that had a town pool. It was a great community resource, but the town also had sufficient fields for the kids to play sports. (For the record this town's taxes nowadays are double to almost triple of what the average Wilmington resident pays and they still have to pay for trash pick up). First, let's get the fields ready and then if there is room put in a pool (that isn't run by the state!).

Finally the elderly need to be able to access resources. They need to be active and feel independent. Sticking housing for them in the middle of nowhere doesn't help them or the town.

We have Silver Lake, a pool would be an added expense to the town.

All that sand at Silver Lake! (kidding). A pool would be very good thing for the town - I have great memories of our town pool growing up. However I really don't think we would have the space to support it.......the fields are a priority in my opinion

I have long complained about the lack of much to do in this town. Movies, malls, bowling, (even swimming), minigolf, lazertag, absolutely nothing. I always go to Woburn, Burlington, both Readings, Billerica, Andover...I go everywhere except here. My kids are a bit older so it's frustrating. Though luckily everything is a short drive. I have no big idea outside of loving outdoor space. And I'll throw in my .02 about pools...sorry...germophobe...no public pool or lake for me. I loved them when I was little before I became germ obsessed :(
I see some parks that are barely used (since most kids like to stay indoors and use their ipods and other gadgets)..other than the Shawsheen during soccer season.
So while I have no ideas, I look forward to other's suggestions.

I think a pool would be too much liability for the town, and I would think insurance will be sky high given the recent current events. I'm definitely against a pool, also for the germaphobic reasons. :)

Would love to see a dog park in addition to walking/hiking trails.

I think a pool would be great !!! The senior citizens can use it.. PLUS Wilmington can have a swim team and it's also would be great for the handicap .. So everyone in town would be able to benefit from it.

Town pool

Another Dunkin Donuts

OMG a Dunkin' Donuts at the park! Love it.. ;)

I would love to see a nice park area. Not with slides & such but some walking/bike trails, a picnic area & a sprinkler park would be amazing! I'm not sure how much land is being acquired but if they could work in an athletic complex all the better

Professor Frank, you still have not offered one positive idea or solution to make a community college that could generate over a million dollars in revenue to Wilmington. Do you have another idea how to generate over a million dollars per year into the Town?

The town should have bought that space behind Sonic for eldery housing. It is right next to the plaza plus if they ever needed to, they could jump on that bus that drives down Rt 38.

The builder of 195 Salem St. ran out on the project. The tenants have been left to hire an attorney to help them with issues at their own expense. No one will build on that foundation until the last unit in the rear building is sold...and it's no longer only 55+.

One more thing...the purpose of the original post here was what to do with Yentil Farm, but once again Mr. MacDonald has made this about him and the high school, which is NOT located at Yentil Farm.

Frank - thank you for the refreshing posts!

The way to curtail naughty toodler behavior is to ignore. Just saying

Frank's ideas gave me an idea....let's call up Steve Wynn and tell him since Foxboro gave him no love let's have them build a casino.....then we could kidnap the Beiber and at least give him some decent accomodations (vs. in one of our garages)

We need to form a small committee to determine the best use of not only the farm, but to oversee all building and planning in Wilmington as well as have jurisdiction over fences, syringes, blasting equipment, historical re-enactments, insurance premiums, chickens and other livestock. I suggest we call it the T.O.W.N (Town of Wilmington Nuts) Authority. Kevin can be the Chairman, and then we all can show up to HIS meeting and speak during Public Comments. One thing is for sure, they better get a bigger room.

Daniel, you forgot the 20,000 gallons of fuel in tanks in the ground beside our well field that is being literally rocked by Quarry blasting vibration. How does losing our well field to a contamination disaster sound? Will you be proposing drilling wells at the Yentile farm? Oh I forgot, the NDMA chemical is moving into that vicinity because we are no longer pumping water from the shut down wells in that area that are contaminated.

Professor Frank, I am still waiting for the positive input. You are making me reluctant to recommend students take your college course.

Greetings Kevin. You can simply call me Frank, no need to add "Professor." Here is my "positive input" and idea:

1) The current Wilmington High School should be torn down as that is the will of the majority (overwhelming majority) of our town.
2) A brand new, state-of-the-art high school will be built which will help subsequent generations of Wilmington High School students.
3) The town should use the Yentile Farm property to build a beautiful park complete with walking trails, a multi-purpose field for football/lacrosse/soccer and a baseball field.
4) The obstructionists in town finally yield to the demands of the (overwhelming) majority and stop impeding the town from moving along with the high school project and the Yentile Farm project.

A brand new high school will boost student/teacher and staff morale and will increase performance and enhance the experience of our students. Having a new high school and a beautiful park/recreation area will be a boost to town morale and will make Wilmington an even more wonderful community.

I hope that was positive enough. Please go back to recommending students to take my classes. Thanks!

Frank, I am not saying scrap the idea of a state of the art high school. I am simply saying that the architects have said that Wilmington High School is a structurally sound building. I believe it could generate income. The numbers I gave are very conservative and have not taken into account other rooms to also generate income such as the cafe, the auditorium, the gym, the janitors large room, and the enormous basement to name a few. The Town of North Reading desires a new High school. There are many regional schools in Massachusetts, and many combined town high schools like Concord-Carlisle, Lincoln-Sudbury, etc. I believe the majority of people were given misinformation, lack of information, and the whole school building process has been somewhat of a kangaroo court-like experience. This confirmed by anyone sensible who attended the conservation commission meeting when they approved a plan that drains water into an oil spill area beside a wetlands tributary that feeds other communities water supply. A town wide morale booster would be to stop wasting tax payers dollars and find ways to creatively finance projects by alternative means to taxation. What I am simply asking you is to come up with some "can do" thoughts how saving The High School Building could work. If you owned the building come up with your best suggestion how to generate income.

The forum here is supposed to be about ideas for the Yentile farm land, not for debate over issues that have been voted on already and denied! Once again, Mr. MacDonald is allowed to waste our time and energy with his ramblings. Why does he live in Wilmington if it's so bad????????? Mr. Irizarry, thank you for your intelligent, thoughtful and factual information. You are a well spoken and highly respected professor at a very prestigious university, your time shouldn't have to be wasted on this nonsense; it is clear that you have the best interests of the community of Wilmington on your mind.
With that said, I would like to see the land used for turf fields that can be utilized by many sports with walking trails, a playground and even a dog park. If there is enough space, I think a field house for indoor activities, even track meets would be well received. If you travel around to other towns for sporting events, it is evident that they have invested in their youth, and also given something to their entire community by creating a welcome space for everyone to enjoy.

Over a million dollars a year generated from the transformation of Wilmington High School into a community college/economic development could finance some fine things at the Yentile Farm. I have lived in Wilmington all my life. Are you a transplant from the city Anna? If you lose your job Anna and see it moved to India, China, Mexico, or some other country then maybe you can sign up for the college and retrain for a better job and get paid by the company that sponsors a course while providing education AND a job for their students. I meet people that have graduated from prestigious colleges that are not worth minimum wage and witness the ability of people from no name institutions that are worth their weight in gold to companies.

As a South Shore/City transplant myself and HR professional I can tell you that even the most educated person can walk through my door because they passed a phone screen process with the recruiters. When they arrive to conduct themselves for an in-person interview I can tell you that no amount of college education will get them the job if they don't fit the right behaviors that the organization is looking for. I would rather higher a lesser degree person who shows me the drive, motivation and the attitude vs. someone who can't hold a conversation and thinks their pedigree degrees will get them a job. I am a proud State College graduate but I also have a Masters from Northeastern. At the end of the day I am hired on my attitude, my experience and how I conduct myself during the interview. I think this topic could be a whole column onto itself because I can't judge how people are when they go in for interviews since I am not there, but I can tell you the jobs are out there....people need to find the one that fits. You also need to be prepared and presentable...key things that people suprisingly are not even with their prestigious degrees. So don't blame the jobs going overseas, it's not the only problem in the sea of bigger problems and don't blame it on being a city transplant. In fact, this town would have not have grown into the town it has been without us "transplants". Sometimes different experiences bring different perspectives.

I, too am a lifelong Wilmington resident, Kevin. If I felt the way you do about the way Wilmington is managed and developed, then I would certainly move. This town has grown beautifully over the years and is a very attractive place to raise a family. Not only are there people who have moved here from other communities, but many families like myself who grew up here and were lucky enough to be able to stay and raise their children. We like the new safety building and middle school and are thrilled with the plans for the new high school!
The chance to develop a property like the Yentile farm land will only further enhance our community.

We already have many fields for or youth sports. Let's dedicate this open space to walking and jogging paths. Tranquilty and nature.

No way are there enough Soccer fields, have you been to the Shawsheen fields?

Yes there are a lot of "fields" but their conditions are awful.

Around the Town Park off Route 38 - great walking trails
Great walking trails at Camp 40 Acres as well

Cross St is pretty close to the Town Park...maybe there would be a nice way to hook them up somehow..

I think that if we made it a multi-purpose space that has a little something for everyone - fields, track/running trails, dog park, a place to sit and have a picnic - it would just be an overall boost to the town. Shawsheen is a mess. I don't know what happened there but I also don't want certain people to turn this into an opportunity to rant and rave so I am not asking.

I think the town should appoint an advisory committee for the development of this area and I would like to volunteer/apply for a position on this committee. I am currently the Playground Director for the Wilmington Recreation Summer Playground Program, a program that started with 75 kids and has now grown to 285 kids as of this summer. This goal was accomplished by the cooperation between the Town Hall Recreation staff (Recreation Director, Debbie Cipriani and Program Developers, Linda and Karen, as well as the full support of Town Manager, Michael Caira) and my former Co-directors: Kerry Robbins and Becky Rufo-Philbrick, as well as the phenomenonal playground leaders. In the 14+ years that I have run this program, we have incorporated 3 different playground programs into 1 very successful and popular program, including making our program inclusionary for our special needs students. Knowing this new recreational area could be asset for our program as well as the entire town of Wilmington, I would very much like to be on any planning committee for development ideas.

Kevin's Quote "I am not saying scrap the idea of a state of the art high school"... That's all I say that's all you Say boy...Nice boy, but about as sharp as a sack of wet mice

Foghorn, You should read and state the entire quote so people don't think you are a bird brain.

Since the high school is now delayed, why don't they start working on this project until someone appeals it

Kevin, you seem to know a lot about Deming way. A waiting list? Just think...if they expand Deming way that is 200 more people you can trick into signing future appeals. Oh and sure, let's put the high school at Yentile so you and the other obstructionists can appeal that too. The high school will be built. You can only abuse the appeals process for so long.

Well put Mark!

A dog park with some parking would be ideal. There are so many dogs in my neighborhood, and we probably average 1 per home. It's a great way to meet townspeople, and we wouldn't have to drive to Lowell to get our dogs some great exercise.