By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
12/30/10
The former East Milton Library building on Edge Hill Road may soon have a new tenant.
According to Town Administrator Kevin Mearn, Friends and Advocates for the Visual Arts, or FAVA, was the only organization to respond to a Request for Proposals to lease the space before bids were closed Dec. 19.

Formed in 2003, FAVA is a parent-led group geared toward providing public school students with additional art instruction.

Last year, the library trustees voted to close the East Milton branch and devote the budget to the renovated Milton Public Library on Canton Avenue. Ownership of the shuttered building, which served as the neighborhood branch library since the 1930s, was transferred to Selectmen at Annual Town Meeting last spring.

If the board approves FAVA as the tenant, details of the length of the lease agreement would be negotiated, according to town officials.

“They seem like a very viable tenant,” said Selectman John Shields. “It seems to be a use that’s benign for the neighborhood. I think it’s a good compromise for everyone, which is what we were looking for. It would give [FAVA] a home.”

Selectmen Chair Marion McEttrick said having FAVA operate out of the Edge Hill Road building would “be a great resource for the town and the neighborhood.”

“I’m happy we got the proposal,” she said, adding that the tenant would not generate much new traffic, something neighbors had feared. “There are a lot of children in the neighborhood … a lot of people would walk.”

According to McEttrick, FAVA would pay the town $1,300 per month in rent for the first two years of the lease and the rent would likely grow to $1,500 monthly after that.

She said the group would run art classes out of the lower level of the building, and the main floor could be leased out for another use.

In its bid, FAVA proposes adding an elevator but “no major changes to the outside of the building,” said McEttrick.