Facilities Steering Committee
Meeting minutes for 3/6/18
7:00 pm at town hall annex
Attending for the committee: Chris Conway, Karen Cruise, Steve Mirick, Larry Todd, Mary Jo Wojtusik
Attending for the town: BOS, Edith Morgan, Jon Fudeman, Richard Bisk, town administrator Nina Nizarian
Attending for the advisory committee: Wayne Adams, William Lawton, Donald Shoeny, Judy Dino, John Shipman
Karen opened the meeting at 7:10 pm
The minutes of the 2/27/18 meeting were approved.
Karen did a brief slide presentation, the same presentation as already done at a previous public meeting.
Chris made a motion to limit each person’s comments to 5 minutes. So moved. The select board agreed.
Chris noted the designs presented are conceptual only and should not be taken as finished designs.
There was discussion of option 1 and the phasing. Karen referred to the slide showing the proposed phasing, and the tax implications.
Steve and Chris noted that public construction costs are increasing by 4 to 5% per year, which explains some of the additional cost if construction is put off for a number of years (options 2 and 3).
Karen went through the four articles the committee is proposing. Members of the advisory committee (AC) questioned why we are not presenting option A, the all at once alternative.
The committee felt we should propose action that will probably pass and not options that may fail at town meeting.
AC - should we also have an article to fund the design of a Bagg Hall addition ?
AC - are the dollar figures in the four articles accurate ? The committee said yes.
Jon Fudeman said he agrees public safety is the 1st priority for new construction. There is merit to the addition to Bagg Hall but he doesn’t give it the same priority. Jon said we should offer all options to the voters although he is opposed to option C.
Edith feels Bagg Hall and community space should be a high priority.
Richard said the committee should put forward reasonable options. We should present options A and B.
AC - why can’t we push for option A. If it fails we can bring option B to a special town meeting.
Nina suggested we keep it simple. Present one option and push it forward.
The committee needs to provide more information to the AC to support what we present. We also need to continue to gauge community support for the proposals.
Larry suggested that if a group solicited contributions for Bagg Hall work and spoke at town meeting it would show community support. Nina commented on this and indicated a group like the friends of the library could pay for some work.
Steve felt we should try to get agreement on a proposal at a single town meeting.
The question was asked, how long will Bagg Hall last if the recommended stabilization work is done ? Chris felt the work could keep the building structurally sound for 50 years.
Richard asked if there is state money available for public safety. Nina said there is a bill at the
Statehouse to authorize funding, which then needs to obtain funding. There are many projects going after limited funds, so Princeton has to advocate at the state level.
Jon asked if we considered a stand alone community center. The committee expressed concern that the cost is uncertain and this adds another building requiring maintenance.
Judy said we should not put off creating community space. The groups that use it are an important part of Princeton.
Bill Holder commented we should be guided by maintaining debt service as no more than 7% of the town budget.
There were comments regarding how the town can afford option A.
Bill felt we should scale back the proposals to affordable levels and spread out the costs over time.
Karen commented the committee would like input from the AC so that we present articles they can support.
THe FSC voted to ask to the AC to consider the proposed numbers. The BOS voted to support the FSC in its request.
The committee will make the JWA draft report available to the board of selectmen and the advisory board. Nina will also get a copy to the police and fire chiefs and building maintenance.
We asked for their responses by 3/16.
We need to know how the major stakeholders will react to the articles at town meeting.
The warrant articles need to be finalized by 3/23.There was some discussion regarding citizen’s petitions and Nina gave some specifics.
The public forum on Sunday, March 11, will begin at 1pm with a building tour and the slide presentation by JWA at 2pm.
Several questions for JWA: have we asked for a do nothing cost ? And we should check on the accuracy of the public safety design cost of $400K.
Our next regular meeting will be on March 13, 7pm in the annex.
Meeting adjourned at 9:25 pm.
Submitted by Larry Todd, secretary
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