It’s the only home in Abington located on a golf course.
The 100-year-old, 2-story home located next to Strawberry Valley Golf Course’s seventh tee box is also the only single-family home owned by the Town of Abington — at least for now.
The Select Board is expected to discuss Monday night whether to sell the home that the town has owned since it bought the course in 1987.
The board at its meeting will also discuss whether to change the needed quorum for Town Meeting, and vote on formally placing a debt exclusion override for the South Shore Regional Vocational High School project on the Town Election ballot, among other topics.
Select Board Chairman Kevin Donovan said there isn’t a particular outcome proposed regarding the house on the golf course, just that the topic is “on the agenda for deliberations.”
However, multiple town committees may not be on aboard with the idea of selling the house, which is currently assessed for $431,100.
Steve Wakelin, who chairs the Strawberry Valley Golf Course Committee, says the panel understands that the Select Board doesn’t want to be landlords and is looking for ways to raise additional revenue, but doesn’t support selling off the land.
“We are ok with tearing the house down but do not want to lose property,” he said. “We do not want the property sold.”
Wakelin said the land could be used for a storage building, or even building a new clubhouse as part of a larger course redesign.
Bruce Hughes, who chairs the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Committee, which is charged with looking for opportunities to improve the town’s affordable housing stock, said his panel hasn’t been involved in any discussions about the property’s future, but wish they would have been. He said he and other committee members will be in attendance Monday night to learn more.
The house came with the golf course, which the town bought from the Trufant Family back in 1987. It is a familiar sight to anyone who’s played course, jutting out between the sixth green and the seventh tee box.
Wakelin, who said the house is in need of repairs, speculated whether selling the property to a private owner could then require the town to spend money protecting the home from stray golf shots.
The Select Board first publicly raised the idea of selling off the property in July during a discussion about budgetary account transfers. The thought at the time was that when the current lease expires, the town should explore selling it to help offset upcoming budgetary shortfalls.
The Abington Housing Authority’s portfolio of properties also includes a couple of single-family homes.
Other topics on the Select Board agenda:
- Scheduling the statutorily required “preambulation” of the town’s bounds. (State law says every five years at least two members of the Select Board, or its designees, have to locate and check on the official town boundary markers.
- Discuss and possibly vote on a bylaw change reducing the needed quorum for Special and Annual Town Meetings. Currently 150 voters are required for a quorum.
- Receive an update on possible commercial development proposed at Union Point.
- Receive an update on the Request For Proposals for redeveloping the Center School into housing.
- Receive an update on planned upcoming auctions of surplus land and town vehicles.
- Receive an update on the status of state certification of the town’s revenue reports and free cash number
- Vote whether to place a debt exclusion override question on the Town Election ballot that would pay for the new South Shore Vocational Technical High School project.
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