Brian Yates
Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA
Emerson Community Center
- As a second generation graduate of the
Emerson Elementary School in Upper Falls, I was very
disturbed by the School Committee decision to close it in
1978, and was part of the unsuccessful efforts to fight
the closings of Emerson, the Hamilton School in Lower
Falls, Hyde School in Newton Highlands, and other village
schools.
- As a citizen and an Alderman, I have
worked to preserve portions of these buildings as
community centers in the heart of our village. A plaque
in the Emerson Center describes it as the heart of
village life. As the site of a polling place, nursery
school, after school care, senior citizen programs,
various recreational programs, meeting place of the Friends
of Hemlock Gorge and the Newton Upper Falls Community
Development Corporation, it continues to play this role.
- After I became Alderman in 1988, I
established the Emerson Community Center Trust to have
the proceeds from the sale of the building earn interest
(they hadn’t for ten years before that.) I persuaded
Mayor Mann to replenish the Trust. More recently it
became clear that the funds were being depleted in annual
condo. fees. At my request, Mayor David Cohen added the
$3,500 per year in condominium fees to the city's operating budget.
- If re-elected, I will pursue total
restructuring of the relationship between the City and
the condominum association concerning the ownership and
maintenance of the Center. A major roof
repair will be needed soon because rain from the roof leaks into the
gymnasium, Cathy Becker Room, and other parts of the Center. The condo association does not
earn enough from the annual fees on the Center to pay for
this. The future of he Emerson Center must be re-thought
in the next two years so that it can remain the
“heart of village life.”
This page last updated on April 9, 2003
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