Facilities Steering Committee
Meeting minutes for 4/24/18
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 and Richard Bisk, town administrator Nina Nazarian
Not attending for the BOS: Jon Fudeman
Attending for the advisory committee: Judy Dino
This meeting was posted as a joint meeting with the board of selectmen
Karen opened the meeting at 7:00pm
The minutes of 4/17/18 were approved.
Before we began on the agenda, Steve commented that if the town opted for a design-build, with approval from the state director general, the town could probably save some money on the proposed construction projects. Information for future consideration.
The committee and the selectboard discussed the articles for the town warrant and their sequence. We agreed the Bagg Hall stabilization should be the first building article.
There was a question regarding contingencies for hazardous materials in the Bagg Hall work and it was noted the requirements for a town hall are the same as for a school. After discussion the group concluded the estimated cost should have adequate funds to deal with any required work.
Nina noted at this point, if there is a debt exclusion the ballot vote will be on June 26.
After lengthy discussion the group agreed to put the annex repairs 2nd and the public safety repairs 3rd. The 4th article will be the design and construction of a new public safety building.
Nina commented at this point the board of selectmen intend to pursue a lease on the former Sonoma space and will put an article on the warrant. The selectboard members present felt this article should come before the building articles.
Mary Jo suggested if we take the Bagg Hall addition article off the warrant we can take additional time to hold meetings and gauge community support. She thought the only town groups included in the JWA study were the council on aging and parks and recreation.
Steve said we could leave the article on the warrant and then vote to pass over.
There was lots of discussion about this article. There was a feeling that the FSC needs to keep the Bagg Hall addition on the warrant to maintain credibility as it was one of the conclusions of the JWA report.
We need to have the numbers for the tax impact of the articles that will involve borrowing.
Richie noted we need to be able to clearly answer questions, ie. is the Bagg Hall stabilization amount of $1.25 million included in the $6.1 million ?
The FSC reaffirmed the Bagg Hall stabilization must be done soon; it is not possible to delay this work for 3-5 years to combine it with the construction of an addition.
Richie asked what will happen if the article for a new public safety building fails but the Bagg Hall addition article passes ? The FSC also has raised this question. We did not have a definitive answer.
Steve said he will work on the explanations to be printed with our warrant articles.
There was a comment that the FSC needs to be sure of the accuracy of the numbers we present. They need to be in line with information in the JWA report.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.
Submitted by Larry Todd, secretary
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