TOWN OF LYME
Town Offices Building Committee
September 27, 2006
MINUTES
Attending: Chair Pete Bleyler, Don Metz, Tish Smith, Patty Jenks, Town Clerk, Carole A. Bont, Administrative Assistant, Jane Fant, Selectman Dick Jones Tony Pippin, Sr.
Guest : Bob Coyle, Denby Coyle, David Mather, Lindy Mather, Geoff Thornton, Frank Bowles.
Pete Bleyler called this meeting to order at 11:32 am.
A. Dick Jones moved to approve the minutes for September 18, 2006, for both the public and nonpublic meeting. Motion was seconded and unanimously approved as submitted.
B. After speaking to Don Metz this morning about their proposed plans/ideas for Nichols’ Hardware Store, Bob and Denby Coyle were invited by Don Metz to come to our meeting to let the Town Offices Building Committee know what proposals they had been making to Lloyd and James Nichols (who own Nichols Hardware) and to see if the town and the Coyles could possibly combine forces and share the space. The Coyles, after learning of our interest in Nichols Hardware Store, also wanted to touch base with us to see if our interests were compatible. They have been discussing their plans with the Nichols for quite some time. They have proposed a dizzying number of alternatives to the Nichols – lease, lease-buy, buy – but nothing they had suggested had tipped the
Nichols in one direction or another to date.
1. Background: The Coyles just sold their store/restaurant – “The Bagel Basement”. They would like to start up some kind of business/restaurant operation here in Lyme where they live and are now raising their family. They would like to operate a kind of Restaurant/Brick Oven-type Pizza Place with a liquor license. They envision it as a kind of community gathering space for eating and lingering with a small market up front where they could sell prepared foods. They would like to operate a place where kids and families could go after school and “hang out”. The operation they envision would be open 7 days per week from 10 AM to 10 PM. They thought that maybe the town could share the space with them. They would
want and need the very front of the downstairs portion of the building. The town could use the back. They would need about 4,000 square feet. The downstairs at Nichols Hardware is about 8,000 square feet. He was not sure how much of the square footage was involved with the two rental spaces – The Ledyard Bank and U.S. Lyme Post Office. The town could use the rest – upstairs and in back. They assured Tony Pippin, Sr., that they would not really be competing against the Lyme Country Store. According to the Coyles, the Nichols said they would be getting rid of the gasoline tanks. That would add to the parking spaces to accommodate the multiple operations. He would like to hear from the Committee about what we think about our possible co-existence in the Nichols space.
2. Members of the committee expressed their desire to see a commercial operation in the Nichols Hardware Store space and thanked the Coyles for sharing their ideas and plans.
C. The committee will ask the Board of Selectmen to amend the charge for the Town Offices Building Committee to up the membership from 11 to 13 and then recommend that the Board of Selectmen appoint Frank Bowles to the Committee.
D. The committee discussed the pros and cons of the four sites e-mailed earlier to Pete Bleyler. Pete Bleyler gave everyone a copy of the list of Pros and Cons of Potential Sites for new Town and Police Offices. The list is attached to these minutes.
E. Dick Jones expressed his concern that the location of the town offices seemed to be the paramount concern of townspeople and the participants in the public meeting wanted to have little if any discussion about whether the sites would actually work well as town/police offices. Geoffrey Thornton expressed his opinion that what he took away from the last public meeting was that the townspeople had great antipathy to new construction even if it would work better.
F. Geoffrey Thornton showed the newly revised Tuckaway Timber plans to the committee. Frank Bowles then showed concepts #2 and #3 that he and Geoffrey Thornton developed using his AutoCAD program. The committee’s consensus was that Option #3 worked better.
G. The committee then discussed the Coyle’s proposal for use of the Nichols Hardware Store. The available space for town offices would be very restricted due to the needs of the pizza business. The police station would have to be in a separate building somewhere on the site. Concerns were raised about parking problems and architectural compatibility, the sense of the town offices if it were located in the back of a pizza parlour, persistent food smells, liability-safety issues, parking issues, and whether it would be better to keep the whole building a retail space.
H. Dick Jones made a motion to reduce the number of options from four to two, with Tuckaway Timber being our first choice and Lyme Timber being our second choice. Carole Bont seconded.
1. Discussion was held about how to rate the two sites. The primary problem with the Lyme Timber site is that the property is limited in size. The site would be able to accommodate the town and police offices right now at their present size, but there would be absolutely no room for expansion. Two members of the committee again discussed “chopping” off the police station and sticking it elsewhere – like on the fire station lot. This has been discussed a number of times. The fire station lot is not big enough. The configuration of the lot is not amenable for putting a separate police station on it. The police department deals with the Selectmen’s office at least as often as the fire department. The police department
deals with the fire department and fast squad at the scene of the incident, but not at the fire station. There are safety considerations for the town offices that make putting the police station with it a good symbiotic relationship. Furthermore, the police department’s need for safe space is at least as great as the town offices’ need for space. Does anyone know the location and capacity of the septic system at the fire station? The suggestion was discussed again and dismissed.
I. The committee voted unanimously to approve the motion to reduce the number of options from four to two, with Tuckaway Timber being our first choice and Lyme Timber being our second choice.
J. Dick Jones made a motion to enter non-public session under NH RSA :91-A:3,II(d), in consideration of the purchase, sale or lease of real property which if discussed in public would likely benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community at 12:10 PM. Seconded by Don Metz and approved by roll call vote.
K. Based on motion made by Dick Jones, seconded by Tish Smith the committee reentered public session at 12:45 PM.
L. Dick Jones made the motion to keep the minutes of non-public session held 09-27-06 sealed under RSA 91-A:3,II(d) as divulgence of the information would likely render the proposed action ineffective. Motion was seconded and voted in the affirmative by roll call vote.
M. Carole Bont will try to get more updated information from the NH Municipal Bond Bank about what the tax rate increase would be. Also, she will try to find out what the loss will be to the tax base, depending on which option we choose.
N. Next scheduled meeting is Monday October 2, 2006, same time, same place. Our public hearing is that same night, Monday, October 02, 2006, at 7:30 PM in the Lyme School Cafeteria.
Carole A. Bont
Administrative Assistant
Filling in for Patty Jenks, recorder
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