Alna Facilities Planning CommitteeBack to Meeting & Minutes Page Date: October 29,2007 Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location: Alna Firehouse Meeting Minutes:
Alna Facilities Planning Committee Meeting
of October 29, 2007, held at the Firehouse at 7 p.m.
Present: Tom Albee (TA), Nick Caristo (NC), John Green (JG), Fred Gumkowski (FG), Kathy Pendleton (KP) and Cliff Russell(CR)
Also present: Newly invited member, Hardy Banfield (HB), Billie Willard sitting in for Bryan Lawrence
Absent: Gordon Davis (GD) and Brian Lawrence (BL)
The first order of business was the timing of the planned public information meeting, and, after a brief discussion, the committee’s decision was to postpone it until January, probably January 7th, 2008.
Further discussion of meeting dates in the New Year produced the following schedule:
January: 7, 21
February: 4, 18
March: 3, 17.
The annual town Meeting is scheduled for March 22nd, according to Billie Willard.
The committee then turned to an analysis of alternatives, with the first topic the space needs of town administration. Early on, one member said that the Bowers committee had done all this. Unfortunately, whatever had been done has not, so far as anyone knew, been shared with this committee. So, at the possible cost of reinventing the wheel, the committee plunged on. NC was, however, in possession of a report from a study of the current town office arrangements, done early this year. This suggested the possibility that the addition of a modest “ell” of 500 sq. ft. to the existing building, containing meeting, storage and office space, would allow the town to stop using the second floor of the house. At a cost of $56,000 the addition would save (as yet not estimated) costs of bringing the second floor of the Webster House into compliance with a variety of requirements, including providing a second exit and additional bathroom, and probably installing an elevator. (Later, the committee returned to the topic of modifications to the existing town office and discussed the possibility of a larger, barn-like addition that could provide both for the needed storage and office space, plus a much larger meeting (and voting) space, subdividable for small and large meetings. This option might be paired with having the VFD take over the existing firehouse completely, allowing them to move material and training equipment upstairs, out of the bays, leaving more room for maintenance and other activities in the vicinity of the trucks.)
The rest of the meeting was devoted to discussion of specific space needs of the fire department and for the town’s emergency housing obligations. This part of the session was organized around a pair of tables, one of which was for a stand-alone VFD building, more or less as proposed this past summer, and the other for a multipurpose building, containing town office and meeting space, as brought to the March Town Meeting by the Bowers committee. Considerable time was spent on options for dealing with the town’s need for a large (1650 sq. ft. was estimated, roughly 50% larger than the space now available in the firehouse) meeting hall, a smaller selectmen’s (Planning and School Board) meeting space, and the space to house perhaps as many as 50 Alna citizens if they had to leave their homes, for example because of an ice storm or other event that cut off power for a long period. In the course of the work, several questions came up that will require answers from the VFD, but the bones of “programs” for the two buildings were established. These will becomes the bases for detailed cost estimation as we go forward.
Actions agreed to at the meeting include the following:
- KP will discuss with the VFD and provide “footprints” for significant equipment, other than fire trucks, so that JG can add that information to the notional stand-alone VFD and multipurpose building floor plans.
- Billie Willard and JG will contact the Maine Municipal Association and request information about the space needs (for uses such as office work, storage and vaults) of towns similar in size to Alna.
- KP will ask Mark Webber of the VFD if it is a regulatory requirement that a dedicated radio room must be provided.
- KP will ask the Alna EOC, Cole Pendleton, about regulatory requirements implied by having the VFD or multipurpose building designated as emergency housing. A particular concern will be bathroom size, design and numbers.
- NC and JG will discuss goals for the November 19th meeting and provide an agenda.
The committee adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Cliff Russell
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