NEWTON MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
COMMITTEE MEETING
August 18, 2014
In attendance, in alphabetical order: Jim Doggett – Chairman, Roger Hamel, Bill Landry – Vice Chairman, Trisha McCarthy, John Meserve, Mike Pivero, Jim Ryan, Ron Saunders, Joe Simone,
Jim White, and Nancy Wrigley. Mary Allen, Larry Foote and Dale Putnam were excused.
Secretary Barbara White recorded the minutes.
- Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
- Acceptance of Minutes: Mr. Simone motioned to accept the July minutes as presented; Mr. Landry seconded. Unanimous approval.
- First Review of Final Report: Board members had been provided with a mock-up copy of the report with the information received to-date. They went over the report section by section and noted changes, additions and deletions. All title pages will be eliminated to conserve paper. The second paragraph will be dropped off the cover page and page numbers will be inserted.
Introduction: The title Introduction will be inserted above the subtitle “Newton Looks to the Future”. There was one grammatical correction in the first paragraph, and titles were eliminated from the committee list. As review of the sections moved forward, there was other information deemed pertinent to be included in the Introduction. Mr. Doggett will incorporate this information and email an updated copy to the Secretary.
Fire Department: Information was moved around from section to section in this category and some strategic wording was added. Mr. Ryan submitted a proposed hand-drawn floor plan sketch; Mr. Doggett asked Mr. Landry if he could replicate it on his computer.
Mr. Ryan reported he and Mr. White had visited both the Brentwood and Atkinson fire houses and noted they had similar set-ups to what was proposed in Mr. Ryan’s floor plan. It was noted that each had a mezzanine area over one of the bays where they stored their emergency response vehicle which could be used to store equipment. An elevator was included in Mr. Ryan’s proposed floor plan. Mr. Doggett noted that the detail of the floor plan would be the function of the next committee and suggested the elevator be left off the floor plan in the report.
There was discussion whether or not a function room to be used as a meeting room/emergency shelter/voting area could actually be attached to the fire department building. The Committee ascertained the next committee would decide whether it was feasible or not.
Library: The Committee read the Library Section of the report and basically left it as proposed but for the insertion of a few words. Mr. Doggett asked Mr. Meserve if he could include a proposed floor plan for public visualization and to be consistent with the other sections.
Town Hall: With the exception of asking the first section to be rewritten to include history of the Town Hall, the rest of this section was left as presented. Floor plans for the 1st and 2nd floor were attached.
Mr. Saunders mentioned residents were inquiring when the Town Hall was going to move to 8 Merrimac Road as preliminary discussions were for a Community Complex at that location. He suggested it be mentioned in the Town Hall section they were not moving from the present location.
Summary/Conclusions: Mr. Doggett will assemble information from the results of each section and format into a Summary. He will reiterate the consensus of the Committee that the fire station is the top priority and that there would need to be a new meeting room/emergency shelter before any work on the Town Hall can be done. The Committee also agreed the summary should state they strongly believe the Selectmen should support a warrant article.
Mr. Doggett noted that a silhouette of the proposed new buildings (Library and Fire Department) would be inserted onto the overall plot plan for 8 Merrimac Road to give residents an idea of the layout. This page would be inserted after the summary page in the report. Mr. Pivero will update the plan.
Next NMCC Meeting: The final committee meeting will be on September 15 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall meeting Room.
V: Adjourn: Mr. Hamel MOVED to adjourn; Mr. Landry seconded. Motion was unanimous.
Chairman Doggett adjourned the meeting at 8:30 pm.
Barbara White
Respectfully Submitted,
Barbara White
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