TOWN OF LYME
Town Offices Building Committee
December 11, 2006
MINUTES
Present: Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, Frank Bowles, Don Metz, Tish Smith, Jane Fant, Dick Jones, Tony Pippin, Sr., Michael Woodard, Acting Chair, and Architect Geoffrey Thornton, and Selectman Judith Lee Shelnutt Brotman.
Absent: Chair Peter Bleyler (on vacation), Patty Jenks (acting as tax collector & having a state audit), Freda Swan (on vacation), and Tom Hunton.
1. Michael Woodard opened the meeting at 11:34 AM. He informed members of the committee that Jim Nichols had passed away over the weekend. Everyone expressed their dismay and their sympathies.
2. Dick Jones moved to approve the minutes for December 4th, both public and nonpublic sets. Frank Bowles seconded. The committee voted unanimously to approve.
3. Michael Woodard asked for any additional information that could be shared in public session.
4. Carole Bont informed the committee that the window of opportunity for holding the required public hearing was between Friday, January 12, 2007, and February 26, 2007. She cautioned that the hearing needed to be held earlier rather than later because of the deadline for the town report to go to the printers. After some discussion the committee decided to aim for a Wednesday evening, January 31, 2006, hearing date with posting required by Saturday, January 20, 2006.
5. The committee asked Dick Jones to report about the meeting of the architect, Geoffrey Thornton with the Conservation Commission for a site visit. Geoffrey Thornton informed the committee that Conservation Commission Chair Lee Larson had asked for copies of plans. The inclement weather on Friday impeded the site visit and the site visit has been rescheduled to this Tuesday at 9AM. Geoffrey reported that he visited the site. He believes that we only need to build a little closer to the road to skirt the whole wetland issue. The committee also asked about the status of a site visit by the planning board. Dick Jones informed the committee that the Planning Board does not really make site visits.
6. Michael Woodard reported that he and Tony Pippin, Sr., went to the school board meeting. The school board is in the process of developing their 5 year strategic plan. The State of NH Department of Education wants the town to put the school library in the school building and has wanted this to happen for a long time. At this time the Lyme School is operating with an official waiver, but the Superintendent has indicated that the waiver may cease in the near future. There are 5 or 6 other schools in New Hampshire who share the town and school libraries. However, the State of New Hampshire is less flexible about the idea that a Media Specialist will need to be in place at the school. Although the school presently has
an “experimental media specialist in there right now”, the number of hours will have to be greater than is presently scheduled in order for the school to meet the necessary requirements for an in-house media specialist. The school board was very enthusiastic about the idea. They think that certain funds would be available. Someone mentioned that there might be 30% state aid available for library construction. We already own the land. It would be great to have the town/school library located in the actual school building.
7. Tish Smith, Library Trustee and committee member, reported that the Trustees of the Library were open to talking about the possibility of moving the town library to the school and keeping the two libraries combined. Their general feeling is that they presently have a nice attractive building, however, if they stay in the present building and the library building is two stories they would have to have a minimum of two full time librarians, one upstairs and one downstairs to adequately monitor the library. If they moved into the school they would need to have parking on the little common. Right now there is already a problem with parking at the school. The conservation commission has informed them that the drivers at the school
should not park under the trees so they will not interfere with the root systems of the trees. This further restricts the already greatly restricted parking at the school site.
8. Don Metz expressed his opinion that if we added to the footprint of the present school building that we would reduce the parking further and aggravate an already unpleasant parking situation. There would be no place to grow. The problem with putting the library on the school site and using the present library as town offices you are not addressing the need for town offices with a 50-100 year solution. There will be absolutely no room to grow.
9. Michael Woodard opined that it is just a matter of time before we need to park on the little green anyway. Dick Jones opined that it is reasonable to have employees and users of the town offices to walk a ways to a parking area. At some time in the near future the town may have to buy a building and tear it down to provide for parking for the downtown area. According to Dick Jones, that is one of the problems you run into when you insist on putting the town offices right in the town’s center.
10. Frank Bowles suggested that it would be a shame to cut into the present limited parking at all. He feels that putting the library on the school lot would have a profound effect on the look and feel of the downtown. You would want the library in the school, not in an addition tacked onto the present school. We would have to revise the whole end of the school. If we want the library in the school the school’s footprint should not be added onto. Rather, you should move the functions presently in the downstairs into a created space upstairs. The displaced services and school classes would be moved upstairs. For this solution we would need an elevator. You would need clearly-defined access to the library that
did not interfere with the school functions. There would be school security issues that would need to be addressed. The school is facing the need to address the in-house media specialist and in-house library requirement now or within the next couple of years.
11. Michael Woodard suggested that we look for a short term solution for the town offices by moving them into someplace like the second floor of Green Mountain Studios. Carole Bont reminded Michael Woodard that the Green Mountain Studio space is not handicapped accessible. We would need an elevator. Michael Woodard suggested that we could use a wheel chair riser to take care of that problem. He suggested taking a 2-3 year lease. Judith Lee Shelnutt Brotman reminded them that the Board of Selectmen had had a building inspector look at Green Mountain Studios and had serious concerns about access and weight loading among other things. Other members of the committee asked about what kind of credentials the person who inspected
Green Mountain Studios had. Was it an engineer? Judy Brotman said the inspector was a building inspector. Other members of the committee expressed their opinion that the building would need to be looked at by an engineer and not a building inspector.
12. Judy Brotman asked why Michael Woodard thought the town offices would have to move right away. Carole Bont informed the committee again that this week we had just learned that the ozone machine we are presently using is not safe for people with asthma and other respiratory ailments. The EPA had strongly cautioned against using these machines for air filtering. The problem with turning off the ozone machine was that some of the workers have severe allergies to whatever is in the town offices. The ozone machine gave them significant relief from their allergy symptoms. As soon as we turned off the ozone machine after learning about the dangers of the ozone machine, their allergy symptoms were reactivated – congestion,
runny noses, itchy eyes, sinus headaches, etc.
13. Michael Woodard reminded the committee that the charge from the Board of Selectmen did not require the committee to have a solution to present to the 2007 Town Meeting for a bond vote. The charge was to report back. He commented that Scott Veracka is no longer considering buying Tuckaway Timber because the cost is way too high, suggesting that Tuckaway Timber might still be in the running.
14. Michael Woodard then informed the committee that due to a foreclosure, the Alden Inn may be available and that a number of the committee members have just looked at the Alden Inn as a possible town offices site.
15. At approximately 12:30 PM, Frank Bowles moved to go into nonpublic session in accordance with RSA:91-A2,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 11:36 AM. Motion was seconded by Don Metz and approved unanimously by roll call vote.
16. Don Metz made a motion, seconded by Frank Bowles, to exit Non-Public session at 12:55 PM. Michael Woodard made a motion to keep the minutes of Non-Public Session sealed under RSA 91-A:3,II(d) as divulgence of the information would likely render the proposed action ineffective. Voted in the affirmative by roll call vote.
17. Don Metz made a motion to adjourn at 1:00 PM. Dick Jones seconded. Vote was unanimous. The next meeting will be next Monday, December 18, 2006, at 11:30 AM in the Lyme Fire Station Training Room.
Carole Bont
Recorder
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