Cultural center to request an extended lease

The Dartmouth Cultural Center will be seeking an extended lease at Spring Town Meeting amid delays in its ongoing renovations due to limitations in its current lease with the town.

The renovation project officially began in June 2023 after the center received a $160,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. At the 2023 Fall Town Meeting, voters approved the Community Preservation Committee’s proposal to award the center an additional $160,000 to fund the first phase of renovations, but construction hasn’t begun.

Under its current one-year lease, the center would be required to establish a state procurement schedule to get the project underway, which Pauline Santos, the Dartmouth Cultural Center’s president, said would be “much more difficult” than extending the center’s lease.

If the center had a longer lease, it wouldn’t have to “go through the state’s red tape” and could get things, such as contractors, on its own, she said.

If the center’s request for a longer lease passes at the Spring Town Meeting, it will set the project back in motion, Santos said.

“If that goes through in June, we will start either at the end of the summer or in the fall with our renovations,” she said.

Renovations will include installing a ramp to make the building accessible, making preservations to the historic building, which was built in 1889 as a community library, repairing windows and updating mechanical systems, along with several other restoration projects.

Having a longer lease would also open the center to more grant opportunities, she said, explaining that it can be difficult to get grants when there’s not necessarily a guarantee the center’s lease would renew each year.

“It’s just taken longer than we thought, but everyone’s working with us, and I believe it’s going to happen, just later than we wanted,” Santos said.