Facilities Steering Committee
Meeting minutes for 1/2/18
7:00 pm at town hall annex
Attending for the committee: Chris Conway, Karen Cruise, Larry Todd,
Mary Jo Wojtusik
Not attending: Steve Mirick
Attending for the town: Edith Morgan, BOS and Judy Dino, advisory committee.
Karen opened the meeting at 7:02 pm
The minutes of the 12/19 meeting were approved.
Next week two people representing the library will attend our meeting.
The committee received an e-mail from Nina regarding an upcoming workshop presented by the Mass Historic Commission regarding the Mass Preservation Project Fund and submissions for funding. Larry offered to attend the session in Millbury.
Karen told us the selectboard met with her and Mary Jo last week to discuss the status of the Facilities Steering Committee’s work. There was a suggestion made that a $10 million price tag was too high and perhaps we should have a plan for public safety but put it on hold and work on other projects. The selectboard felt work on Bagg Hall and community space would be less expensive.
The committee is in agreement that work on the Bagg Hall “envelope” should be the #1 priority.
There was continued discussion of public safety. Can we ask JWA to revise their proposal to lower the cost ? Can they ask police and fire to put priorities on what they have asked for ? What if the new building were just for fire and ambulance, for example.
Is there available space in station 2 which would free up space at the center ?
Bill Holder addressed the question of town financing and basically concluded a range of
$4 million to $6 million is what the town can handle.
The committee turned their attention to how to keep the community informed of the process and proposals from JWA. It was noted that Princeton has delayed spending on infrastructure, with the exception of roads, for many years.
Should we consider public presentations or surveys ? We will talk with JWA about this next week at the scheduled meeting. Do we want to float a test number of $10 million ?
We agreed on a tentative date for a public presentation on Saturday, February 3.
The next meeting of the committee is on Tuesday, 1/9, 5:30 pm. This meeting is with JWA.
The selectboard and advisory board will attend our meeting on 1/16.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.
Submitted by Larry Todd, secretary
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