“NEWTON MUNICIPAL COMPLEX COMMITTEE”
MEETING MINUTES
April 21, 2014
In attendance in alphabetical order: Leonard Beauvais, Jim Doggett, Larry Foote, Roger Hamel, Bill Landry, Trisha McCarthy, John Meserve, Mike Pivero, Dale Putnam, Jim Ryan, Joe Simone, Jim White, Nancy Wrigley.
Mary Allen and Ron Saunders were not in attendance. Nancy Wrigley, Town Administrator recorded the minutes.
1. Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM.
2. Acceptance of Minutes: John Meserve made a motion to accept the minutes dated January 13, 2014. Seconded by Len Beauvais. Unanimous vote.
3. Discussion of NMCC’s Future and Proposed Goals: Trisha stated we need to educate the community and suggested that we do a “drip campaign” and write articles in the newspaper explaining why we need what we need and what this committee is all about, because clearly there has been a misunderstanding. There was some discussion about giving some history of the town buildings by putting articles in the paper showing their evolution over the years with a follow-up article of how these buildings no longer fit the town’s needs.
Nancy stated the problem with the town meeting vote was two-fold: 1) the two Selectmen didn’t agree on recommending the article and a “not recommended vote” sent the wrong message. 2) a lot of discussion was taking place on Face Book where residents were saying they didn’t know the town would be asking to raise more money to build new buildings if the Capital Reserve Warrant Article passed.
The NMCC Committee agreed to stay together with the goal of getting more information out to the residents all year long to help them understand what is happening and to help them make an informed decision when voting on town issues in the future.
Mr. Foote suggested that we just focus on one building at this time such as the Fire Station to get that approved rather than to overwhelm the townspeople with all the town buildings. Nancy asked if we know anyone that would be willing to help us create a conceptual plan for 8 Merrimac Road without charging us. Mr. Pivero said “yes” and he would make some calls. He also offered to take the plans we currently have and do a field layout of the land as a whole, to see what will fit now and in the future. The committee was in agreement and once this is done, will work on preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP).
NMCC Minutes April 21, 2014
Mr. Putnam suggested that we invite someone from the Carriage Towne News to our next meeting so they can write an article about our group and what we are trying to accomplish. The committee was in favor of this and Chairman Doggett agreed to contact them to come to our next meeting on May 19th.
4. Other:
Part-time Secretary: Mr. Hamel asked if the Board of Selectmen will give this committee money for the part-time secretary to attend the meetings and complete the minutes. Mr. Doggett said he would bring this up with the Board of Selectmen and explain how important it is to continue.
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Mike Pivero will make some phone calls regarding conceptual plans.
2. Mike Pivero will look at our building plans and do a field layout of 8 Merrimac Road.
3. Jim Doggett will contact the newspaper and ask a reporter to come to our next meeting on
May 19th and get a picture for the paper.
4. Fire Station Sub-Committee needs to decide who they are going to meet with in the Fire Department to go over the plan with the idea of scaling it back a little, and to include the Chief.
5. Any sub-committee that wants to write a little history about their building to put in the newspaper should start now. Chairman Doggett thought it would be good to put continuous articles each week in the paper starting in September through October in order to educate the townspeople.
5. Adjourn: Mr. White made a motion to adjourn at 8:25 pm. Seconded by Mr. Landry.
Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy J. Wrigley
NMCC Member
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