Alna Facilities Planning Committee

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Date: December 17,2007

Time: 07:00 - 09:00

Location: Firehouse

Meeting Minutes:

Alna Facilities Planning Committee Meeting, December 17^th, 2007, held at the Town Office at 7 p.m.

Present: Nick Caristo (NC), Gordon Davis (GD), John Green (JG), Fred Gumkowski (FG),   Kathy Pendleton (KP) and Cliff Russell(CR)

Absent:   Tom Albee and Brian Lawrence

The first item on the evening’s agenda was an update of the VFD’s progress in assessing Les Fossel’s proposal for expansion and renovation of the existing firehouse.   As prelude to this, NC drew the committee’s attention to the listing, appended to the minutes of our December 10^th meeting, of what is and what is not included in Les’ price quote.   [The executive summary here is that, of the fire department’s needs, only the emergency generator is not included.   In particular, the revamping of the Golden Ridge Rd/218 intersection is included.]   NC also noted that Roger Whitney had asked that that the Fossel proposal be costed using the Means source to produce a number more obviously symmetric with those developed for the other two options.

Returning to the meat of the agenda item, KP reported that the VFD had had two consultants visit the firehouse in the past week to provide input on the expansion/renovation proposal.   One of these was Mr. Courtney, who did the 2007 needs assessment for the department.    The other, Mr. Holme, is a building inspector.   Unfortunately, the VFD has not yet received the written reports from these gentlemen.   When the reports are received, the members will discuss their contents and come to a collective decision about the acceptability of the Fossel proposal.

KP added that a specific, though “off-the-cuff”, proposal from one of the visitors was to consider putting new equipment bays in the existing parking lot on 218, rather than trying to expand the space available on the lower level.   This was briefly discussed in the context of the further possibility that the VFD could take over the existing firehouse in its entirety, with the town constructing a new meeting and voting venue behind the existing town office.   This could be quite a simple building and could have substantial parking, thus replacing the functions and parking currently served by the upper level of the firehouse and the parking in front of it.   This became, in effect, consideration of the third agenda item, the possibility of defining one (or more) new options in case the VFD decides it cannot live with the Fossel project.

This discussion, in turn, led back into the second agenda item, the possibility of eliminating one of the three options on the committee’s plate as of the beginning of the meeting.   NC observed that the total costs of the new, free-standing firehouse and of the firehouse-town office combination seemed to him so close, in the upper six figures area, that they would likely be seen as indistinguishable to Alna citizens.   He suggested that eliminating one or the other of these two therefore would make sense and proposed that the committee vote on this.   JG observed, however, that it seemed too early to eliminate anything, since the VFD had not yet decided on its response to the Fossel proposal.   A negative response could be seen as de facto elimination of one of the three existing options.   The net result of the above discussions might be summarized as introducing a fourth option not yet formally costed: construction of a 1600 sq. ft. meeting and voting hall on the town office lot, with the VFD to have full control of the existing firehouse, and, possibly, involving construction of new equipment bays in the current 218 parking lot.

The above work on options and the timing of decisions triggered a reconsideration of the committee’s schedule for the new year.   It was decided that our next meeting, on January 7^th, could not be a public information session as had been planned.   A meeting on January 21^st was therefore tentatively scheduled to serve this purpose, with the added intention that a second one would be held closer to the March Town Meeting.   JG and NC will begin putting together a draft Power Point presentation and will share it with the committee for comments before the meeting of the 7^th.

The fourth agenda item was an email from Doug Baston asking if the committee had investigated the possibility that the VFD currently has too much equipment, for example, too many trucks, and that rationalization along these lines might make the provision of new and larger space seem a less pressing priority.   KP responded in some detail, explaining that, because of the task specialization by size and capabilities of the current fleet, and because of requirement that a substantial amount of bulky equipment be brought to every fire and accident scene, all three trucks definitely are necessary.   She followed up by reminding the committee of the earlier email from Stephen Sheehy that asked whether the benefits to the town of a new firehouse could be quantified, so that the voters could see what they would stand to gain from approving a new firehouse.   He suggested, for example, that response time or homeowner’s insurance premiums might be lowered.   KP read Roger Whitney’s response to this inquiry, in which he emphasized the justifications for the identified needs behind the construction proposal, and their basis in unfunded mandates from state and federal legislation and regulation.

The last agenda item, Chris Cooper’s suggestion that the facilities committee undertake to draft a memorandum of understanding between the selectmen and the VFD that would put in writing the now-informal arrangements governing the relation between town government and VFD.   This would be agreed to by the parties and inserted in the Town Meeting warrant for a vote of acceptance by the town.   JG opined that Chris Cooper is in a better position than the committee to draft such a document and volunteered to speak with him about it.

The meeting adjourned shortly after 9 p.m. to meet again on the 7^th of January.