NEWTON MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
MEETING MINUTES
December 16, 2013
In attendance, in alphabetical order: Mary Allen, Leonard Beauvais, Jim Doggett-Chairman, Larry Foote, Roger Hamel, Bill Landry-Vice Chairman, Trisha McCarthy, John Meserve, Mike Pivero, Jim Ryan, Ron Saunders, Joe Simone, Jim White and Nancy Wrigley.
Bill Ingalls, Charles Melvin, Dale Putnam, and Larry Streeter were not in attendance. Secretary Barbara White recorded the minutes.
I Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
II Acceptance of Minutes: Mr. White noted that in the November minutes in the discussion regarding the warrant articles, the phrase “all the committee was doing was developing a site plan” should be changed to read “all the committee was doing was developing site plan proposals.” Members agreed it should be corrected to state site plan “proposals”. Mrs. White also changed the motion to adjourn to reflect it was Mr. Meserve, and that it was Dale Putnam who had noted that the meeting day of the committee was incorrect on the website.
Mrs. Allen motioned to accept the minutes as amended; second by Joe Simone. Unanimous approval.
III Warrant Article Proposals and Discussion: A copy of the warrant article proposals was provided to all the members; a copy is attached as an addendum to these minutes. Mr. Doggett reported they had been submitted to the Selectmen. Mrs. Wrigley informed the Committee the Selectmen had not reviewed them yet, but would be doing so at their next meeting on December 17. Some of the wording had been slightly changed by DRA. It was discussed that the percentage of votes needed to pass should also be included.
Mr. Hamel noted the article numbers seemed to be incorrect; Mrs. Wrigley noted until everything was complete, the numbers would keep changing, but would be correct when
they appeared on the ballot.
It was discussed warrant article #7 would need a 51% vote to pass, and Warrant Article #8 would need a 3/5 vote to pass. Mrs. Wrigley will check with DRA on the exact percentage needed to pass. She later found out that they both would only need a majority vote to pass.
Mrs. Allen asked if the tax impact would be included; Mrs. Wrigley stated it could not be shown as part of the warrant article this year. There is another warrant article to be presented this year which, if passed, will allow the tax impacts to be included as part of any warrant article.
The hope is the Selectmen will approve the warrant article at their meeting tomorrow night. If they do not, there will still be enough time to present a citizen’s petition.
Mrs. Wrigley and Mr. Landry are working on putting together a spreadsheet to distribute at town meeting which would show the figures to the residents.
The Committee talked about whether or not to change the dollar amount, but after discussion the consensus was to leave it at $50,000.
The need to request proposals from other architects was discussed. It was also ascertained it would need to go out to bid when it came time to select the final architect.
IV Subcommittee Reports:
Fire Department Subcommittee
Mr. Ryan explained at the subcommittee meeting, they had explored several options. Three scenarios and the pros and cons of each had been discussed. Main scenarios are listed below; entire report is an addendum to the minutes.
Scenario #1 - build a new fire station at the Federal City location;
Scenario #2 - repurpose the metal building at Federal City as a new fire station and perhaps
use the existing fire station as the EOC/Warming Shelter;
Scenario #3 - reconfigure the existing fire station at its present location by turning the
building on the lot.
The subcommittee had also discussed the option of acquiring grants and the likelihood of qualifying for certain grants if a true “safety complex” were to be built.
Mr. Saunders asked how much space (footage) of land was between the green building and Mr. Bearce’s property line in case they wanted to have a separate driveway either to a fire station in the green building or a new fire station building beyond it. Mr. Beauvais answered 27’, as he had measured it.
The committee had extensive discussion about the possibilities of repurposing the green building.
Mr. Landry asked if there was any mandate the fire vehicles needed to be in the same place as the offices for the fire department. It was determined there was no reason they could not be located in two places as it was not a full-time fire department.
Mr. Doggett thanked the Fire Department Subcommittee for their suggestions and indicated they would be most helpful to the architects when the project got to that stage.
Library Subcommittee Report
Mr. Meserve joined the meeting at this point and noted the library subcommittee had not met. They were waiting for the warrant article and the report from the architects on what they could do with the land as none of the existing buildings at the site could be repurposed as a library.
Mr. Meserve noted the architects had indicated if the green building was to be used as storage for public safety apparatus, codes would be much more stringent that if they were just storing highway vehicles.
Town Hall Subcommittee
Nothing at this time.
V Other:
Education for the Public: Mrs. Wrigley brought up the need to have a plan to inform the residents. Mr. Simone noted it was necessary to let the residents know what they were doing as a committee to get the funding to advance to the next step; Mr. Doggett added they were developing a plan to address space and functionality concerns.
It was recommended that someone stand up at the Deliberative Session and explain what
the warrant articles are all about to get the information across to the residents. Mr. Doggett volunteered to explain the benefits of having a structured plan in place for the Selectmen to utilize to help the town.
Discussion included placing information regarding the warrant articles on the website, and putting together some sort of video for the website and the cable site involving a walk-through of the buildings with a voice-over with descriptions.
Mrs. McCarthy offered to put together the presentation; Chairman Doggett thanked her for volunteering. Each subcommittee will take pictures of their building, identify what they were looking at and e-mail to Mrs. McCarthy by January 13th. Mrs. McCarthy will then make it into a presentation for the website and for a link to the cable site. She noted she would show the committee what she had put together so far at the next meeting.
The video would explain the issues being reviewed and that Merrimac Road and the existing buildings are all being evaluated for possible repurposing or reconfiguration and to create an appealing campus.
Next NMCC Meeting: The next meeting will be on January 13, 2014 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall Meeting Room.
VIII Adjourn: Mrs. Allen MOVED to adjourn; Mr. White seconded. Motion was unanimous.
Chairman Doggett adjourned the meeting at 7:52 pm.
Barbara White
Respectfully Submitted,
Barbara White
| 
