HADLEY — Hadley officials and representatives from the Old Hadley American Legion 271 have reached an agreement that will allow the town’s new senior center and library projects to proceed without threat of additional lawsuits.
The Select Board and Legion members on Wednesday signed a three-page memorandum of understanding that binds both sides to 11 conditions, including requiring that the Legion dismiss, with prejudice, the Land Court suit it filed earlier this year.
Select Board Chairwoman Joyce Chunglo said Friday that the lawsuit has been dropped.
In June, town officials said a resolution to the lawsuit was near, though the lawsuit remained in effect.
In that lawsuit, the Legion claimed it should be allowed to continue using town-owned land as an overflow parking lot, even though that land was going to be impacted by the senior center project.
To remedy concerns about the construction affecting the Legion, the town is pledging to provide up to $75,000 in work that benefits the group, including removing an underground storage tank, replacing sewer service connection from the sewer line to the Legion’s building and doing pavement and line painting in the existing American Legion parking lot.
After construction, the town will coordinate the use of the parking lot between the senior center and new library so that Legion members and visitors can all make use of the parking lot.
Though the signed memorandum resolves immediate legal issues surrounding the senior center project, the site plan special permit has not yet been approved by the Planning Board. The board will meet Sept. 11 to decide.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
