Questions raised on future of city building

SOUTH PORTLAND — A South Portland resident is openly questioning the city’s commitment to his father’s legacy.

At issue is the public clubhouse abutting Wilkinson Park at 172 New York Ave., which is due this year for $50,000 in renovations to re-shingle the roof and fix or replace a faulty furnace that forced city officials to close the building to the public this winter. The city lets the building out for cribbage groups, bridal showers and wedding receptions.

These repairs, said City Manager Jim Gailey at a March 12 council workshop, “are only the tip of the iceberg” for problems at the property, including plumping and electrically systems, in addition to general vandalism.

“That’s an awfully big investment for a building I’m not sure we have a long-term plan on, especially if we’re only scratching the surface,” said Councilor Tom Blake, who asked to make the building the topic of a future council workshop.

Before that could happen, however, John M. Wilkinson, son of the man who donated the property, stepped up to fault the city for letting it get run-down.

“I’m not pleased with any of this because it shouldn’t have got to this point,” he said at Monday’s council meeting.

In May 1950, John J. Wilkinson gave 9.47 acres at the end of New York Avenue to the Sunset Park Men’s Club, which built a 2,132-square-foot clubhouse there that summer. The site also included two ball fields and a playground, and Wilkinson’s only stipulation was that the property had to be used continually for public recreation, or else it would revert back to him.

But within a generation, the men’s club – having since changed its name to the Sunset Park Community Club – was in trouble. Records at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds show that six separate tax liens were placed on the property after 1988. Finally, in March 1994, the club worked with Wilkinson to sign the property over the city.

“Mr. Wilkinson gave that property to the city for nothing if you maintain it,” said Don Cook, a club president during the 1970s, addressing the council. “But you haven’t maintained it. You haven’t kept up with your word like you’re supposed to do. You haven’t maintained that building.

“You, meaning the city, nothing personal against any one of you,” said Cook, “but you gave your word and you haven’t backed it up.

Gailey said the city has the same stipulation assigned to the community club: use the lot for recreation, or lose it. City Attorney Sally Daggett is checking, Gailey said, to see of this requirement is tied only to the land, or if it also includes the clubhouse.

“As I read that deed, there’s no mention of a building anywhere in there,” he said Monday.

Gailey also noted that with the community club no longer a going concern, the use-it-or-lose-it clause means the property would revert to the heir of John J. Wilkinson – his son, John M.

So, far, Wilkinson has made no demand other than that the city maintain the property.

“My dad and his dad and my great-grandfather, down through the generations, the one thing they said they always wanted to have happen is that the property would be for the kids, and that the building that is there would also has be in working shape,” Wilkinson said.

The first phase of the clubhouse repairs passed Monday as part of the city’s $16.7 million capital improvements plan for the next fiscal year.

Blake acknowledged, as did Gailey, that, “we have not done the best job taking care of that building.” Gailey said that he and interim Parks Director Tim Gato were at odds over the building during planning for the capital improvements budget. Gailey was for initiating stop-gap repairs, and saw his view win out. But Gato, he said, put up a spirited defense for his position, nonetheless, which, Gailey said, is “a look at alternative options for that building.”

“We might be able to build something new there for what we might end up having to put into it,” said Gailey, adding that because the back wall of the clubhouse forms part of the outfield wall for one of the Wilkinson Park ball fields, “it gets absolutely pelted with baseballs.

Blake upped the ante on his previous workshop agenda request and asked for a council site walk in the near future.

Still, he joined all seven councilors in adopting the capital improvement budget, even with Wilkinson clubhouse questions hanging in the air.

  

“If we don’t vote for this budget simply because we don’t agree with one item, it wouldn’t pass,” he said. “We’re looking at the bigger picture here.”

“I think we have a responsibility to take care of that building,” said Councilor Alan Livingston, seconding the call for a closer look. “I think it’s important that we honor the wishes of Mr. Wilkinson. He did a lot for the city of South Portland – a lot for the youth of South Portland.”