ROYALSTON — Royalston South Village Revitalization Committee (RSVRC) member Linda Alger spoke with the town’s Selectboard at its meeting on Tuesday, July 20, regarding steps that need to be taken for the town to acquire the parcel of land that once was home to Pete and Henry’s Restaurant. The popular eatery was destroyed by fire in August 2018 and the lot on which it sat has been vacant since then. The overall purpose of the purchase would be to help revitalize South Royalston in the wake of the loss of Pete and Henry’s
The property at 18 Main St. is still owned by John and Terry Cloutier, who had owned and operated Pete and Henry’s.
Alger asked the board to have Town Counsel begin a title search while, at the same time, a survey of the property is undertaken. She said the RSVRC had also secured the services of a surveyor. She explained a title search needs to be done prior to the signing of a purchase and sale agreement.
“The title search should be pretty easy,” said Alger. “It’s been in the Cloutier family — when I looked it up — for 47 years. It belonged to the Dufaults and then to the Cloutiers.”
Alger said the RSVRC was using money given to it by the Community Preservation Act Committee, with the approval of Town Meeting, to cover the cost of the title search and related legal fees.
“For the legal fees, we put in for $2,500,” she said. “So, that should cover it. We overestimated it a little bit because it’s better to overestimate and give money back than it is to underestimate and not have enough.”
Town Meeting voters also approved the expenditure of $5,000 for the purchase of the parcel.
“The committee,” Alger continued, “also wanted me to ask you, the Selectboard, about whether we should recommend a committee to talk about what to do with the property once the town owns it. It would be similar to the Common Restoration Committee.
“They had some recommendations, and I told them I would mention it. They mentioned from the South Royalston committee and four members from other parts of towns. But it should include an abutter, some people with some engineering and design experience.
“A lot of the conversation has come up about the bathrooms costing too much money.”
Members of the RSVRC have mentioned the possibility of placing restrooms on the property.
“I think we need a think tank to decide what’s the best route,” said Alger. “I know that some of the ideas that have come up include solar — heating the bathroom with solar. The other idea that’s come up is doing a compost bathroom, like they do at the Johnny Appleseed (Visitor Center). Conservation and Recreation does it in a lot of the state parks, they have the compost toilets.
“People were very concerned about the cost and the maintenance and the cost it would be to the town in the long run. So, it does make sense that we have some sort of committee to at least talk out those issues. The town may decide they don’t want to put a bathroom there.”
For her part, Alger said that with the likelihood of more visitors coming to the South Village some sort of facility needs to be constructed on the property.
She then noted that the RSVRC had drawn fire about the bathroom issue on social media.
“The issue of the bathrooms has come up dozens and dozens of times,” said Alger. “That’s why we need an independent committee to really discuss what’s going to happen on this property.
“I received a nice note from (Police Chief) Curtis Deveneau, and he had some concerns. And he would be someone I would say should be on the committee because he is very level-headed. (The note) was very well written and I think he raised some things of concern. So, I think he would be great on the committee. That would be someone we want to engage.”
“I feel, personally,” said board member Roland Hamel, “that we need to get the ball rolling with the lawyers so that we can get a purchase and sale agreement, get (John Cloutier) his money, and worry about the committee and everything else later, because it’s not going to happen overnight.”
The board agreed with Hamel, saying it would think about the establishment of a committee but would hold off until the property was officially in town hands before appointing members.