Meeting with Fire Dept Officers and Les Fossel with AFPC

Back to Meeting & Minutes Page

Date: January 12,2008

Time: 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM

Location: Oldhouse Restorations

Meeting Minutes:

12 January 2008

To: Alna Facilities Planning Committee  

Fm: Cliff Russell

Subj:   Report of meeting of 11 January ’08 on Fossel Proposal

CC: Les Fossel, Mike Trask, Paul Willett, Roger Whitney         

At 7:30 p.m. on the 11^th an informal meeting was held at the Firehouse to allow face-to-face discussion between representatives of the AVFD and Les Fossel (LF) on the 30 concerns raised by the VFD about LF’s proposal for enlargement and renovation of the existing firehouse.   Nick Caristo (NC) acted as de facto chair.   Also present were:

            From the committee: Fred G., Kathy P., Tom A. and Cliff R.;

            From the VFD: Mike Trask, Herman Lovejoy, Marcy Lovejoy, Cole Pendleton, Patrick Sanborn, Paul Willett, and Roger Whitney;

And of course, Les Fossel.

During the evening all the concerns contained in the 30 “questions” complied by the VFD were discussed, some in detail, others very briefly.   To this observer it it appeared that no insurmountable difficulties or disagreements were discovered, and the tone of the meeting was positive throughout.   At the end of the meeting, the group agreed that the next step is for the VFD to decide whether it is willing to go forward with further discussions on the details of the proposal and the department’s needs with LF.   Such discussions would give LF the information he needs to prepare modified versions of the plans he presented to the town in August and to update the estimated cost of the project.   If the VFD decision is positive, the committee will decide what it intends to recommend to the Town Meeting and, if this involves the LF proposal, will consult with the town’s attorney through the Selectmen on the structuring of a warrant article and an eventual bidding process.

NC urged the VFD and LF to try to get as much of their part of the process done as possible by the end of January.

As a footnote from the writer of this memo, I think the AFPC should wait to hold any public information meetings until the future of the Fossel proposal is clear and a revised plan and cost estimate are available