Facilities Steering Committee, Phase II
Town of Princeton, MA
meeting minutes for 1/9/19
7pm at town hall annex
Attending for the committee: Richard Chase, Rick McCowen, Dennis Moore, Larry Todd
Not attending: Noelani Chase
Also attending: 3 members of the environmental action committee: Corey Burnham Howard, Christine Samoiloff and Claire Golding
Richard opened the meeting at 7:05 pm.
The minutes of 12/17/18 were approved as written.
Visit to Townsend fire stations - postponed.
Discussion of revised proposal from JWA:
Richard briefly described the history of the proposal and the budget we gave them of $4.5 million.
JWA submitted a reworked proposal in response to our questions and the budget for the project. The cost for their proposal was lowered to $19,950. The square footage has been reduced from 11,000 to about 8,300.
Richard is waiting to review the proposal with Nina and have the town hire JWA.
The members of the environmental action committee, EAC, stated they would like to have input into the review and design process for the public safety building. The FSC felt it would be best to specifically write this into the schedule proposed by JWA.
There was a brief review of the OSHA document provided by the fire chief which shows where the town is and is not in compliance. The committee felt a one page summary would be good information to provide to the public, and will work on this. This should help the voters understand some of the issues that drive the cost of public safety construction.
Rick made up a sheet showing the tax impact of borrowing and will send it to all committee members.
Rick contacted the Central Mass Regional Planning Commission with the question about having a private company construct a public building and leasing it to the town. CMRPC referred him to several sources and he is waiting to hear from a broker in Williamstown, MA.
There was a question of what other costs the town of Princeton will assume in the future and sheets showing the town debt schedule were handed out. There was some general discussion.
Richard noted written comments provided by Ian Catlow regarding the project which ask some important questions. The committee did not review these in detail.
The committee thought usage statistics for police, fire and EMS would be good information to access and get out to the public.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:47 pm.
Submitted by Larry Todd, clerk
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