By Judy Wakefield
Andover residents have already supported buying Blanchard Street land to create a new home for baseball and soccer fields. Now, the town wants residents to purchase another piece of land next door, to improve access and add to the parking spaces at the proposed facility.
Director of Plant and Facilities Joe Piantedosi said the town wants to buy an antique white farmhouse at 3 Blanchard St. that sits on just over an acre of land for $400,000. The town assesses the property at $382,100. If the land is bought, the town would demolish the old house.
"With or without this, we get the new fields at 15 Blanchard (St.)," he said. "But, the road curves and getting 3 Blanchard (St.) will just make the accesibility a lot better...We'll get more off-street parking which is good for the neighborhood."
On Thursday, March 18, a neighborhood public meeting is scheduled to talk about the fields project. The meeting is from 7-9 p.m. in the Selectmen's Conference Room, Town Offices, third floor. It will be the third public meeting to update residents on the Blanchard Street Field Project, Piantedosi said. He will talk about the proposed acquisition of the property at 3 Blanchard St.
It's shaping up to be a Town Meeting of proposed real estate deals aimed at improving town recreation. Besides the 3 Blanchard St. article, the Conservation Commission will ask residents to buy three house lots on Fosters Pond for $480,000, to create a picnic area and boating access to the pond.
Piantedosi said 3 Blanchard St. abuts 15 Blanchard St. and buying it would calm some "concerns voiced at our last meeting by allowing a safer entrance to the site and more off-street parking."
Piantedosi said buying the old house is ideal because it "squares off the design" of the new fields.
Piantedosi met with the homeowner of 3 Blanchard St. earlier this week and took photographs for the upcoming public meeting. The house is currently rented and the tenant knows about the possible sale of the home, Piantedosi said.
Some history on the antique farmhouse is on file at the Andover Historical Society. A 1849 deed reports that Alexander Jennings bought 14 acres at the site from John Harris of Lowell for $450.
But additional historical notes say the house may date earlier — from the 1700s — as both the Blanchard and Osgood families had extensive farms in the area.
"Maybe someone will want the house and will move it," Piantedosi said. "That's fine."
The Blanchard fields are meant to replace fields that will be lost when the town recaps its landfill.
