NEWTON MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
COMMITTEE MEETING
June 16, 2014
In attendance, in alphabetical order: Mary Allen, Jim Doggett – Chairman, Larry Foote, Bill Landry – Vice Chairman, Trisha McCarthy, John Meserve, Mike Pivero, Dale Putnam, Jim Ryan, Ron Saunders, Joe Simone,
Jim White. Roger Hamel and Nancy Wrigley were excused. Len Beauvois was not in attendance.
Secretary Barbara White recorded the minutes.
- Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
- Acceptance of Minutes: Ms. Allen motioned to accept the May minutes as presented; Mr. Simone seconded. Unanimous approval.
- Other:
Resignation: Mr. Beauvois is moving out of state, and has submitted a letter of resignation. He thanked the committee for the opportunity to serve the town of Newton. Wishes were extended to Mr. Beauvois on his move and appreciation extended for volunteering to serve on the committee. Mr. Landry moved to accept the letter of resignation; Mr. Simone seconded. Unanimous approval.
Mrs. McCarthy reported that the Fire Station Committee had met and along with their verbiage for a series of potential article regarding the fire station, they also felt a few questions after the articles with the answers included with the following weeks' article would peak the readers interest to come back to check the answers and to read the next installment of articles. They also had discussed the potential for making it a game. A series of related questions would be asked and answers would be submitted at the Town Offices. Each week the winners names would be submitted for a chance to win some donated prizes at the end of the duration for the series of articles.
Mr. Pivero displayed an existing plan that shows placement of a proposed fire station building. This plan was drawn when the discussion was for a safety complex. Since then, there have been several changes in discussions of the arrangement of the space and what could be included to be most functional to the town. Various driveway configurations were also discussed.
Mr. Pivero pointed out that the most challenging aspect of locating the fire department at this site was the variation in grade from the street level to the top of the existing parking lot. The grade is approximately 27%. A dip at the edge of the street for drainage would also have to be taken in to consideration, as it made the grade even steeper.
Several potential locations for the fire department building on the site were discussed and eliminated, and the committee also discussed how more than just the fire department structure could be fit into the existing space.
The committee also discussed rebuilding a new fire house at the present location and the challenges that would be encountered in doing so. Examples of this are the size of the lot, the fact the leach field is in the front of the building, and if a larger building was to be built on the present location there would be a lack of space for fire personnel to park when responding to a call.
The committee again discussed the fact that if a general meeting room was going to be located at this site, it would need to conform to the state standards if it were also to be used as a warming station and/or a emergency shelter.
Discussion also ensued about what to do with the Butler Building since it cannot be repurposed for use as a fire department as it does not meet current standards and it would be too costly to renovate it for that use. General consensus was that it could be better to rent it out rather than tear down a perfectly good building that could perhaps be used for storage of town vehicles if not used to house people.
At one point in the discussions, Mr. Doggett opined the board was getting into too much detail of how to configure the actual fire station building when that was not their function. Their function was to research how to repurpose existing buildings if uses were moved to various new locations. To find uses for the fire department, library and town hall buildings if their present uses were to move to different locations.
When this committee made their recommendations to the Selectmen on how buildings could be repurposed, it would then be up to the Selectmen to appoint a new committee to work on the specifics for a new fire station. Ms. Allen suggested that some of the existing committee members might offer to serve on that new commit-tee at that time.
Mr. Putnam suggested they could look for grants to help with the financing either for an architects’ plan for the building itself or help with financing the actual building. It was discussed that a grant writer for this specific purpose could be hired next year to help with this.
Mr. Foote suggested selling the old fire department building and putting the money towards the new building, perhaps with a 50/50 match. A warrant article was also suggested.
Both Atkinson and Brentwood will be contacted to see what steps they took so we do not have to reinvent the wheel.
- Next NMCC Meeting: The next meeting will be on July 18th at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall meeting Room.
VI: Adjourn: Ms. Allen MOVED to adjourn; Mr. Landry seconded. Motion was unanimous.
Chairman Doggett adjourned the meeting at 8:20 pm.
Barbara White
Respectfully Submitted,
Barbara White
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