Patton Committee Begins to Take Shape; What's the Best Use?

The future of the Patton estate in Hamilton will begin to be decided in coming weeks by a group of 10 citizens that will make a recommendation to Town Meeting in May.

Joanne Patton . Town Meeting voters will need to vote to accept the gift and a committee has been named to determine how the town can best use the property.

This week, seven of the committee members were officially named and the Hamilton Board of Selectmen said eight community members have expressed interest in filling the three at-large spots on the committee.

“We are receiving a lot of interest,” said Jennifer Scuteri, chairman of the Hamilton Board of Selectmen.

On Monday, the board approved committee members Planning Board Chairman Peter Clark, Zoning Board of Appeals member John Rodenhizer, Community Preservation Committee member Tom Cotalano, Hamilton-Wenham Recreation Commission Chairman John Cusolito and Conservation Commission member Stacy Carpenter. The Board of Selectmen also named Scuteri and Selectmen Marc Johnson to the committee.

The committee plans to meet for the first time on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at to survey the skills, background and resume of the committee members to determine what selectmen will look for in filling the final three spots.

The Board of Selectmen will name the final three members when it meets on Feb. 6. Two of the board’s five members, Dave Carey and Marc Johnson, will not be able to attend the meeting and initially Scuteri said she wanted all five members to take part in the decision.

“I think it means a lot to a lot of these people and I’d like to have a full board to make the decision,” Scuteri said. In the end, though, it was determined that the final three at-large members will be named on Feb. 6.

But what do you think should happen with the property? Some of the ideas that have already been suggested are listed in a poll below. And multiple uses of the property are possible. Or offer up your own idea in the comments section.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Feb. 6, and not Feb. 13, is the date the three at-large members will be named to the committee.