TOWN OF LYME
Town Offices Building Committee
April 3, 2006
MINUTES
Attending: Pete Bleyler, Patty Jenks, Town Clerk, Carole A. Bont, Administrative Assistant, Tish Smith, Mike Woodard, Dick Jones (new Selectmen’s appointee), Tom Hunton (new appointed member)
Guests: Adair Mulligan and Joanne Coburn
Pete called the meeting to order at 11:30 am.~
1. Adair Mulligan of the Connecticut River Joint Commissions was invited to supply information on grant options she thought might be helpful if the UVLT property is pursued.~ She told us about two grants available – New Hampshire’s Recreational Trails Program and The 2006 Connecticut River Joint Commissions Partnership Program-in addition to identifying neighboring properties which are connected to the New Hampshire Audubon Society and the UVLT.~~ Further, as a member of the Lyme Conservation Commission she encouraged this committee to call on them if we feel they might be of help in getting this project completed.
2. Carole, Peter and Tom gave a detailed overview of the field trip they, along with Freda Swan, Geoff Thornton and Chief Field took last Monday to neighboring towns that have completed town office/police department building projects.~ Comments:
--Sutton, NH: A very affordable, modular building which lacked adequate operating space and wasn’t particularly well set up;
--Newbury, NH: A building which had been renovated and added on to and it was very welcoming. Opinions were that it was architecturally attractive, well laid out, retrofitted for efficient use, had a beautiful meeting room but lacked adequate storage for historical/archived documents.
--New London: Had dark rooms and small areas and no security measures taken.~ This project was limited by a previous structure. Furthermore the building was limited by restrictions placed on the exterior of the building by the donors of the building-Colby Sawyer College.
--Grantham, NH: Opinions were that it was an imposing structure from the exterior, however not particularly welcoming.~ The inside was small and rather disorganized with few windows which made things seem cramped and confining. The Police Station portion had a much better lay-out than the Town Offices.
3. Joanne Coburn, Tax Collector wanted to point out her observations, having been tax collector for close to 20 years. She believes that much of the stress of the current town office space comes from having too much archival information filed on-site.~ If there could be a more efficient way to manage the old records and dispose of those which are not legally mandated to be kept at all, this would free up some much needed operating space.~ She also believes that the number of employees have not hugely increased since the time she started her position as tax collector.~ She wonders if the proposed space allocation of 5000 square feet is really necessary.
4. Pete read a note he received from Geoff Thornton (absent today due to illness).~ Geoff outlined an assortment of ideas he learned from the aforementioned site visits, but concurred that Newbury was by far the site which was most attractive and efficiently operational.
5. Mike Woodard indicated that the Lyme Timber property (on the back side of the Common) may be a site for consideration.~ He will pursue a conversation with co-owner Roy VanVleck and report back to see if we can view the property at our next scheduled meeting.
6. Mike has also spoken to the UVLT representative, Doug Rexford about obtaining a “hold harmless” agreement which will enable the town the right access to the site so that testing and a site visit may be done. This is still being worked out.
Our next scheduled meeting is Monday April 10th. Pete will be in touch about the field visit to Lyme Timber.
This meeting was adjourned at 12:50 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Patty Jenks
Recorder
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