Thursday, October 12, 2000 Older Editions

Larsen: We have the answers

By Rebecca Piro

While the town continues to look to the Andover Youth Foundation for nitty-gritty details concerning its youth-center proposal, member Larry Larsen says all the questions have already been answered. There's been enough haggling over details that cannot be settled until residents vote on whether to build the center, he says -- and now he's got a question of his own for the town.

"There are many questions which have been answered, and adequate explanation provided," he says. "The question now is, simply, will the town accept the gift?"

AYF has already reached out to public officials to talk them through the proposal and answer their questions, he says. There have been two meetings between Larsen and Selectmen Chairman Brian Major. AYF member Bob McQuade also had meetings with Selectman John Hess last week, he says.

The general public has not been overlooked either, he adds, and in addition to the public forum that was held weeks ago, AYF has 22 meetings scheduled to circulate the answers the public is looking for.

But many of AYF's answers only go so far: the transportation issue, which many residents are concerned about their children getting safely to the center, has only a tentative solution provided by AYF about a possible bus route. Larsen says the group can outline the plan only so far without knowing whether the building will go up or not. And in response to those who have questioned whether the youth center should actually be a community center, AYF says the building will be constructed with the option of expansion kept in mind.

It may be that the details, which Larsen says can't all be figured out before the Special Town Meeting vote, is what the public wants and is not getting.

"There's always another question," he says. "But sooner or later it becomes a matter of the heart and vision.