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TOWN OF LYME
Town Offices Building Committee
January 23, 2007
PUBLIC MINUTES
Present: Pete Bleyler, Dick Jones, Carole Bont, Frank Bowles, Tish Smith, Freda Swan, Patty Jenks
Geoff Thornton, Professional Services
Absent: Tony Pippin Sr., Mike Woodard, Jane Fant ,Tom Hunton, Don Metz
1. The minutes of 1/10 and 1/17 were approved as submitted.
2. The Budget Committee meeting held on January 17, 2007 was discussed. Pete, Tish, Carole, Freda, and Patty were able to attend. Pete and Geoff made very good presentations to the Budget Committee on behalf of the Building Committee, advising them of the proposed plan for building on the Upper Valley Land Trust property and all other information available at this time.
Although this issue has been a topic of discussion on many levels throughout the past year at least two members of the Budget Committee said they were not familiar with the history and abstained from voting. The remaining Budget Committee members appeared supportive of the proposed project and indicated they would not oppose the bond if the Selectmen chose to support it.
Pete and Geoff were congratulated on clear and informative presentations and replies to questions.
3. The next step is preparing for the Public Hearing scheduled for January 31st. Carole is in discussion with town counsel to get the wording correct for the postings. Once the wording has been determined for this, a letter will be drafted for bulk mailing to invite voters to learn more about it.
4. Although he will be away for the hearing, Frank Bowles offered to create a 3-D (isometric) display for this.~ In addition he’ll try to create a good-size scale model for display at Little Town Meeting.
5. Pete feels, and Freda reiterated that it’s important that voters understand that the issues prompting the creation of this committee are still present and more urgent. The goal of finding larger, safer, more efficient office and function space is no longer optional.~ As each day passes we learn more and more about the hazards that are compromising the safety of personnel in the current locations and to postpone this will only become a more costly and difficult problem. Not the least of which will be the inability to find land even close to town for the location of municipal offices.
6. As an exercise to ascertain the costs associated with renovating the existing locations to upgrade safety and storage issues for the sake of argument, Pete had created an Excel spreadsheet to prioritize and assign estimated costs associated with the quick fix.
7. In summary, Frank Bowles and Architect Geoffrey Thornton agreed that if we do not build town offices/police station this year we can count on an escalation in the price of the project of between $150,000 to $200,000 per year, or about 10% or greater per year. Freda Swan confirmed this, by explaining how the town was negatively impacted by the marked daily increases in the cost of steel used in constructing the Lyme Highway Garage which significantly increased the cost of the project while they were working on it. The result of the increase was that we did not have enough money to construct the salt shed which had been part of the original project.
Freda Swan asked: Can we work this so we can still buy the Upper Valley Land Trust land if the bond fails? Can we present 2 alternative warrant articles?
Dick Jones responded that we presently have two separate warrant articles: one to buy the land, the second to float the bond for the project. The Board of Selectmen put in two place holders in the budget for adding funds from the floor of town meeting if the bond article fails. The Board presently has $5,000 under the “General Government Buildings”. In addition, the Board is asking for $15,000 from the capital reserve fund entitled “Town Buildings Major Maintenance & Repair Trust Fund” established in 2005. (On December 31, 2005, there was $5,007.06 in that account. We added $5,000 in 2006 and expect to add $5,000 in 2007.) This means there would be a total of approximately $15,000 in that account. Add the $5,000 from
“General Government Buildings” to that to get $20,000. Dick Jones opined that an increase in the budget on the floor of town meeting would be allowable and within the parameters of the 10% Rule. (The 10% Rule is the rule that applies to Municipal Budget Act Towns - of which we are one - which allows the Town Meeting to vote to increase or decrease the budget at town meeting up to 10% higher or down to 10% lower than the figure recommended by the Budget Committee.
Freda Swan reiterated her concern that if the bond issue fails, we are going to have to come up with a substantial amount of money (perhaps up to approximately $182,000) to make the two offices safe for the employees.
8. Peter Bleyler reminded the Town Offices Building Committee that they will meet again next week, on Tuesday, January 30, 2007, at 11:30 AM in the Fire Station Training Room. He also reminded the committee that the Board of Selectmen is holding its public hearing on the bond and that at that time the Town Offices Building Committee will also present the project to the public. Following that hearing the Budget Committee will hold its second public hearing. That meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 31, 2007, at 7:00 PM in the Lyme School Cafeteria. It is critical members of the committee attend those two meetings. At our next meeting we should have an estimate on the cost of a portable office. It is critical that we have the cost of fixing the
spaces ready for going to town meeting, particularly if the safety issues are so serious that we are going to have to move out anyway.
9. Freda Swan moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded and voted unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 PM.
Patty Jenks & Carole Bont, recorders
Minutes approved with amendments: January 30, 2007
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