Reminder: Next meeting: Monday, March 27, 2006 8:00 AM Fire House to go on field trip. Bring bag lunch.
TOWN OF LYME
Town Offices Building Committee
MINUTES
March 21, 2006
Public Hearing
Attending:
· Pete Bleyler Chair/former Chair of Selectmen/Communications Committee member/Energy Committee Member/Transfer Station Committee member,
· Carole A. Bont, Administrative Assistant,
· Patty Jenks Recorder/Town Clerk,
· Don Metz,
· Letitia Smith, Chair of Library Trustees and
· Freda T. Swan, Chair of the Planning Board/Budget Committee member and
· Michael Woodard.
Absent:
· Tony Pippin, Sr.
· Jane Fant
Guests:
· David Avery, Communications Committee Chair,
· Judy Barker,
· Putnam Blodgett,
· Christine Brown,
· Matthew Brown, Energy Committee member
· Simon Carr, Transfer Station Committee Consultant and Safety Committee member
· Peter Dayton,
· Don Elder, Former Fire Chief/Deputy Forest Fire Warden/Lyme Center Academy Building Committee member,
· Julia Elder,
· Pauline Field, Police Chief and Safety Committee member,
· Joanne Guthrie Coburn, Tax Collector,
· Alan Greatorex, ZBA vice-chair,
· Thomas Hunton, Energy Committee member/Library Trustee,
· Jeanie McIntyre, Director of the Upper Valley Land Trust/Planning Board member,
· Susan McKenzie,
· Mike Mundy,
· Jim Poage, ZBA member,
· Wallace E. Ragan, Director of Local Emergency Management and Safety Committee Chair,
· Colin Robinson,
· Chris Schonenburger, History Committee member/Lyme Center Academy Building Committee member,
· Allan Stam, and
· Bob Thebedo.
Pete Bleyler, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Pete gave a summary of the presentation he gave to Town Meeting. Pete outlined the safety and crowding problems with the town offices and the police offices. He explained what the Board of Selectmen had charged the Town Offices Committee to do – addressing both the short and long time issues. He listed the many options the committee had explored – all within one mile of Lyme’s downtown. He explained the current status of those options. He explained that we had hired the architect, Geoffrey Thornton, to help us with developing some conceptual plans to show at town meeting. He pointed out the feasilibility plan sketches in the room and the tax maps showing where the lots were located that had been
considered. He then opened the floor for input from those members of the public attending the meeting.
1. Tish Smith explained that in an earlier survey four years ago the overwhelming consensus was that people wanted to keep the town offices within one mile of downtown Lyme which limited the options that the committee looked at.
2. Peter Dayton had some additional ideas:
a. Because we have now set up the school to be used as an emergency management center by providing a generator to use in case of a loss of electrical power, he suggested that if we move the town hall we should consider including in the plan a propane-operated generator so that we could continue to operate town business in case of an emergency. He recommends a propane operated generator because it is automatic. A computer tests the generator every week. If there is any problem the generator turns on automatically in the event of a power failure. He has one at home.
b. He wants to make sure that we plan for surge protectors for every electronic piece of equipment. If we lose power and then it comes back on without the protection of a surge protector the power may ruin all of the computers and other electronic equipment.
c. To make sure that we consider being open on Saturdays so that people who work during the week could do their town office business on the weekend. In lieu of being open on Saturdays, perhaps we could plan to have a computer terminal in the library available to people who do not have a computer at home where they could access all of the town minutes and all other town business on Saturdays when the town offices are not open, but the library is.
d. To make sure that we provide for space to do personal business in private at the town offices. Right now there is no place for a taxpayer to have private conversation with staff.
3. Putnam Blodgett wanted to convey the ideas of Lee Larson because Lee Larson could not come to the public hearing.
a. Lee Larson would like us to seriously consider using the Nichols Hardware Store as town offices. It is centrally located. The ground floor has access for handicapped individuals.
4. Mike Woodard, committee member responded that Nichols Hardware is aware of our interest in their building. They are planning to sell the hardware retail business only at this time. If they cannot sell their hardware business they plan to liquidate their hardware assets. They are not “immune” from thinking about Nichols Hardware as the location of the town offices. If they cannot sell the hardware business they will reevaluate their options. If our primary goal is to be as close to the center of town as possible then Nichols would certainly be in the center of town. By contrast, the Upper Valley Land Trust is just
over one mile from the Lyme Common.
5. Peter Bleyler: The committee is just going to wait and see what happens with Nichols Hardware store. As of 1:30 PM yesterday afternoon Nichols Hardware Store was not for sale.
6. Colin Robinson: Is the committee adverse to leasing land versus buying land? What about taking land by eminent domain?
7. Mike Woodard: In general the committee is looking for the town to own land rather than lease land, however, the committee would consider a long-term lease with the option to buy. The Town is not averse to leasing, however it is a financial issue. Presently, the interest on bonds is about 5%. He does not think that the Town of Lyme has the political will to exercise anything like eminent domain. If the town goes along with the idea of building new town offices the town will have to raise a lot of money. The town of Lyme is very Conservative. The Town will want to see what the cost is.
8. Julia Elder: Has the town considered having the town use money from the land use change tax that is presently in the hands of the Conservation Commission? Would town offices be considered an appropriate use of those funds?
9. Don Elder: What about the field by June Travis” house and in front of the United Developmental Services? Did we look at putting town offices in that field? Answer: No. We did not take that field into account. We did inquire as to whether the rumor about the closing of UDS was true. Pete Bleyler was told that UDS had no intention of closing its Lyme facility. Who owns the field in front of UDS? Don thinks that the State of New Hampshire owns it. Couldn’t we buy that portion of the UDS land from the State and put town offices there? Carole Bont thinks that land is owned by the United
Developmental Services. Carole will have to check it out.
10. Don Metz: Part of the town offices committee’s strategy was to find a place where the town offices could be expandable. That is what was wrong with the fire station site. The site was so small and oddly-shaped that it did not appear to be expandable should the town offices need to be expanded twenty years from now.
11. Colin Robinson: Sam and I measured the floor size of the downstairs at Nichols Hardware Store. Each tile is nearly a foot square. We counted five thousand square feet without the bank or the post office. I think that Nichols Hardware Store would be the ideal location for the town offices. Tony Pippin, Sr., informed Colin that the survey we sent out recommended that the town offices be in town.
12. Mike Woodard: That was four years ago and the choice was not that we exchange the primary retail space in town for municipal offices in that space.
13. James Poage: Has the committee considered what the impact on the amount of allowable building footprint? I believe that the 3.3 acre lot owned by the Upper Valley Land Trust would be limited to about 2400 square feet. The committee considered that the town would be taking a municipal exemption.
14. Colin Robinson: Were Danny Bailey’s fields considered? Yes. They were considered.
15. Colin Robinson: Danny Bailey’s fields are near the property of Scott and Heidi Nichols (the former Uline-Menard shop owned by Gerard (“Sonny”) Menard). The Nichols have a septic plan for the contiguous land owned by the Lyme Congregational Church. Wouldn’t the soils be the same as Danny Baileys’?
16. Alan Greatorex. No. The soils are not the same.
17. Tish Smith commented that it would be a shame for the whole character and feel of the town if we converted the open fields of farmland right at the entrance to downtown Lyme into a town office building.
18. Jeanie McIntyre: (Wearing her Lyme citizen hat versus her Upper Valley Land Trust Director’s hat.) Personally, I think the committee should choose the parcel that best suits the town of Lyme. Personally, I am one of those people surveyed who felt strongly that the town offices should be close to if not in the center of the Lyme downtown area. However, I value having a hardware store in the heart of town much more than having the town offices in the heart of town. I would not want to have the town offices in the heart of the downtown Lyme at the expense of the hardware store business.
19. Chris Brown: I think that if a hardware store would not be able to go into the Nichols Hardware store that the town would still want to keep the commercial character of Nichols – they would want flexible business options.
20. Sue McKenzie: I think that people who answered that survey would want the town offices in town so they could go to the hardware store after they did their town business.
21. Putnam Blodgett: Asked Jeanie McIntyre (wearing her Director of the Upper Valley Land Trust hat), does the Upper Valley Land Trust have legal right to sell this lot? Jeanie answered “Yes”.
22. Allan Stam: Did you think about or study which function has the most traffic? Does Nichols get more traffic than the town offices? What would be the impact on the downtown if the hardware store moved out versus the town offices moving out?
23. Michael Woodard: Traffic counts were done by the staff of traffic into the town offices. The committee members all agreed that the Nichols Hardware building gets more traffic than the town offices. In the old days the Nichols Hardware building was used as the town offices. The store was downstairs. The town offices were upstairs. Members of the public waxed romantically about how neat it would be if that tradition could be continued. Patty Jenks could run the lunch counter. Students and unemployed housewives could sell hardware items downstairs.
24. Chris Brown: Could the committee reduce and duplicate the exhibits in small form for the public to look at and take home to consider?
25. Thomas Hunton: I am a member of the Town Energy Committee and I would like the town offices building committee to consider energy efficiency in their design. “I would like to see a green building” versus a basement with florescent lighting space. “We could be a spec town office.” We could see if there would be any grants available for that sort of thing.
26. Carole Bont: Adair Mulligan who works for the Connecticut River Joint Commissions informed us that there may be grant money available to help us meet the criteria of providing a trail head to Upper Valley Land Trust Land should our choice be that particular land. Michael Woodard: explained the contingencies associated with the choice of the Upper Valley Land Trust land.
27. Jeanie McIntyre: Asked that we consider using some of the timber from the Lyme Town Forest in building the town offices.
28. Jim Poage: Asked how many acres the Tuckaway Timber land was versus the Upper Valley Land Trust Land. Both lots are about three acres.
29. Don Metz: Described some of the problems with the Tuckaway Timber property.
30. Colin Robinson: Has the committee considered the relative poor site distance problem with the entrance onto Britton Lane from Route 10 which you would need to use to go to the Tuckaway Timber property? Yes. Are there any records of traffic issues at Britton Lane related to Tuckaway Timber and/or Green Mountain Studios? If the town offices were off Britton Lane there would be a great increase in traffic there – particularly at night with night meetings.
31. Comments were made about the average speed of the traffic going by Britton Lane (maybe 30-40 mph) versus the 60-70 mph average speed of the traffic going by a lot on Route 10.
32. Chris Brown: How bad does the water taste at Nichols Hardware store versus the terrible tasting water at the Lyme Library/Town Offices building? Is it the same well?
33. Tish Smith: It is not water from the same well. There are now four private wells.
34. Peter Bleyler took a nonbinding exploratory straw vote of the members of the public present. Which location would they prefer at this early stage?
a. Tuckaway Timber? None.
b. Upper Valley Land Trust? All but two.
c. Nichols Hardware? Two votes.
d. None of the above? None.
35. Tom Hunton asked to become a member of the town offices building committee.
The meeting adjourned at 9:__ pm. Next scheduled meeting is Monday March 27, 2006, at 8:00 at the fire station. We will be going on a field trip to Sutton, Newbury, New London and Grantham. Bring a brown bag lunch.
Respectfully submitted,
Carole A. Bont
Administrative Assistant
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