Alna Facilities Planning Committee

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Date: June 28,2007

Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Location: Alna Town Office

Meeting Minutes:

Alna Facilities Planning Committee:

Meeting of 28 June 2007, Fire Hall, 7 p.m.

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

Absent: Brian Lawrence (BL)

The major agenda item was the discussion of the draft “2007 Town of Alna Building Committee Charter” prepared and circulated by NC and JG. As a general change to the document, it was agreed fairly early on to reduce the planning horizon from 25 to 20 years. This “horizon” will define the period over which we will try to anticipate change in background conditions and requirements and take present values of costs. With that modification and a couple of other minor editorial changes, the document’s statement of purpose was accepted. We then turned to the Goals enumerated in the draft.

1. Considerable flesh was put on the bones of goal #1, establishing and maintaining lines of communication between the committee and the town. In particular, we agreed to:




1. Send materials such as meeting notices and minutes (and the “charter” we were working on) to Donna Wallace with the request that she post them on the town’s web site and send them to the Wiscasset and Lincoln Co. newspapers as appropriate;


2. Post notices and minutes in the Alna store and the Post Office;


3. Hold public meetings toward the end of the process next winter and before the March town meeting.





2. Our pursuit of goal # 2, the review of the experiences of other towns, will be kicked off, we hope this month, by a discussion with Sheridan Bond, a Lincoln Co. official and Ass’t Chief of the Jefferson Fire Dept., who has visited at a dozen town facilities and should be able to help us identify both problems and promising solutions. (GD agreed to issue the invitation.)


3. Goals # 3 and 4, reviews of applicable laws and regulations/codes, were discussed briefly, and it was determined that none of the committee members has training or expertise in applicable “commercial” versions of these requirements and limits on our freedom of action.


4. A new goal # 5 was inserted that will require the investigation of consolidation or dual-use opportunities involving the facilities of towns surrounding Alna or of the County.


5. Goal # 6, identifying specific objective criteria as bases for establishing “needs” or program “objectives” for town facilities over the 20-year planning horizon, was discussed only to the extent of agreeing the fire department’ needs assessment may take care of this as far as that part of town government is concerned.


6. Both goal # 7, determining building configuration to meet the identified program needs, and # 8, on costing the building options over the horizon, were agreed to without significant discussion.


7. Determining the “best” configuration for town facilities, as required by Goal # 9 will, it was agreed, be based largely, but not entirely, on the cost estimates. Other values that might be influential in the final recommendations include safety and convenience for both fire department personnel and citizens generally.


8. Goal # 10, Identifying methods to reduce the net cost of any building project to the town was agreed to be highly desirable. The sub goal of trying to identify grant possibilities will be pursued first via a conversation between NC and Peter Christine, who is familiar with grant opportunities for the fire department generally.


9. The investigation of alternative methods of construction management was discussed at length and in some detail, with areas of uncertainty about the legal and practical feasibility of the town taking on responsibility being identified. It was suggested by KP that the consulting architect to the Bowers committee should be contacted because he had apparently discouraged that committee from pursuing the idea of construction management by the town.


10. The committee did not discuss the investigation of financing options, Goal # 12.


11. Goal # 13, obtaining a professional appraisal of the town office building as a residence or business location, was agreed to be important because the proceeds from a sale would reduce the net cost of any option that allowed it. Apparently Donna Wallace had already anticipated us, for KP handed around copies of a “comparative market analysis”, done by Peter Gaughan of Coldwell Banker in Damariscotta at Donna’s request. The bottom line of this study is an estimate of the probable selling price of the building in the range $175,000 to $195,000.


12. Goal # 14, providing drawings and site plans, was not discussed in depth, but JG agreed to assess the availability and accuracy of maps available on the state web site. If the state data are not up to snuff, JG is prepared do some modest amount of mapping himself to locate the present town buildings and the applicable property lines.


13. Goals 15, establishing a multi step construction plan for whatever project is eventually chosen by the town, and 16, providing warrant articles for the March, 2008, town meeting, were both set aside for the time being.


14. The committee agreed to meet twice more before the special town meeting scheduled for august 9^th. The dates chosen are Monday, the 16^th and Monday, the 30^th of July, both meetings to be held in the fire hall at 7 pm.




Cliff Russell