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There is a small, very vocal, and very well-connected, group of people that view the budget for the town of Sudbury as a zero-sum exercise. Every dollar that is not spent on the Rail Trail is a dollar that shouldn’t be spent in their opinion. They tried to prevent the town from purchasing the property at Liberty Ledge and have fought the town working with an outside camp operator to run the property. I feel the role of the Select Board and the town budget should be to serve all the town. I support money being used to continue to build the Rail Trail, encourage the town to finish the renovations at Feeley Field to make the softball fields more useable and accessible, and hope that the town continues to invest in projects like the Community Center. One project I am particularly glad the town chose to support is the property at Liberty Ledge and to allow Scott Brody and his team to maintain it as a summer camp.
Since the town purchased Liberty Ledge Scott and his team have been great stewards of the property and terrific partners with the town and the local community. The Camp Operator has performed all of the maintenance for the property, financed the capital improvements (which include ADA compliance upgrades), and has paid the full insurance for the property on behalf of the town for the past 6.5 years. Those expense average $300,000 per year, which the town would need to begin covering if the town decides to sever the relationship with the Scott and his team. The town would also lose the revenue that the Camp pays the town each year per the current agreement, which would amount to over $300,000 per year.
Beyond the financial benefits the Camp Operators provide the town is the partnership that they provide the community. During Covid the camp hosted the SPS-Sudbury Community Food Pantry drives, which my wife and I were able to volunteer at. The Camp also offered meeting space for local non-profits including SMILE Mass, Hope Sudbury, and many Sudbury Scouting groups. The Camp also hosted small businesses during the pandemic in the open-air pavilions, which enabled them to stay in business. The Camp continued to provide storage space to the Food Pantry until the moved to their new building in Wayland last year. Every year HOPE hosts a fishing drive fundraiser on the property and the Camp worked with SMILE Mass to purchase a beach chair as part of the ADA improvements at the pond.
The Camp is also a home to joy over the summer, as 1300 children attend the camp every year. Over 500 of those children are residents of Sudbury, and over 50 of those children receive scholarships to attend camp. Many residents take advantage of the use of the property over the summer as well, including the recent addition of resident swimming on the weekends. Our family even used the camp as the backdrop to family photos one summer. The Camp employs over 200 people every summer, more than 80 are Sudbury residents.
Since the relationship with Scott and his team began in 2019, the town has asked for more scholarships, higher rent and profit share payments, summer access to more of the property (tennis courts, basketball courts, and resident swimming), and ADA compliance upgrades. Scott and his team have consistently said yes to every ask. I appreciate that the residents of Sudbury have shown their support time and time again to maintaining the Liberty Ledge property as a summer camp, and I appreciate the experience that Scott and his team have provided for our community. I do hope that the Select Board and the committee they have created recognize that and understand how positive this property and relationship with the Camp provider have been for Sudbury and we can continue to maintain that relationship as we agree to extend the additional 5 years of the current agreement in early 2027.
Dan Brock