Town of Newbury
Municipal Building Committee
MINUTES
DATE: September 15, 2014 Approved as written, 10/23/2014
Present: Eric Svahn, Chair; Tracy Blais; Mike Doyle; John Lucey, Jr.; Richard Ronder; Martha Taylor
Absent: Steve Fram; Sam Joslin
Guests: Chuck Bear and Damon Jespersen, Selectmen
Eric Svahn, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:08 a.m.
E. Svahn welcomed Mike Doyle, a resident of Morgan Ave. and former Selectman, to the Committee as its newest member.
E. Svahn reported that he has met with the Board of Selectmen, the Planning Board, and the Finance Committee and distributed a copy of the MBC report to all members. Next he hopes to get on the Capital Planning Committee’s agenda. He also reported that a joint meeting to include these four Boards and Committees and the Municipal Building Committee is to be scheduled to discuss the Police Station/Town Hall project and reach consensus on a preferred option.
The Committee reviewed square foot and cost numbers for Salisbury’s proposed new police facility (see attached). Brief review indicated that the program and estimated costs are comparable to the proposed Newbury facility, after adjusting for differences in community size and related Police Department staffing. J. Lucey is to meet with Salisbury’s Police Chief to discuss the Salisbury project in more detail, including the space needs program.
The Board also reviewed a cost comparison sheet provided by CSS for new police stations in 15 other communities showing community name, PD staffing, building size, population, facility size, estimated and actual project cost, and cost per square foot (see attached). As requested, CSS has also provided a brochure outlining the firm’s municipal/public safety facility experience.
E. Svahn reported that he still needs to confirm some numbers in the budget comparison of the four options being considered before he issues it. He noted that the current projection for the Police Department project costs ($4.0 million) is not significantly greater than the $3.4 million estimate included in the 2012 Capital Planning Committee report, but includes a much more comprehensive program.
The Committee discussed the pros and cons of the four programmatic options listed in the CSS/MBC Committee report and of the various site alternatives that have been suggested. One additional site – the Town Forest at the intersection of Hay Street and Boston Road – was suggested for consideration. This site was considered previously as a potential location for a police station, but was dropped from the list of options when unofficial soil tests indicated that it could not support a Title 5 compliant septic system. The Committee members agreed that an official perc test should be done to determine whether it is a viable site or not.
Consensus of the Committee was that the “Band-Aid” approach of adding on to the existing Town Hall building for both the police and municipal offices would cost more money in the long run and that this option – Option #1 – should be removed from consideration.
Motion: A motion was made by R. Ronder and seconded by M. Doyle to remove Option #1 – additions to the existing Town Hall for the Police Department and the municipal offices – from active consideration and move it to “alternative” status. The motion passed unanimously.
The next steps will be to have an official perc test done at the Town Forest to and to schedule the joint Board and Committee meeting discussed earlier.
On a motion made by T. Blais, seconded by M. Taylor, the meeting was adjourned at 8:43 a.m.
NEXT MEETING:
Monday, September 29, 2014, 7:00 a.m., Town Hall
Respectfully submitted,
Martha L. Taylor, Town Planner
MBC Secretary
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