Alna Facilities Planning Committee

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Date: January 21,2008

Time: 07:00 - 08:30

Location: Fire House

Meeting Minutes:
place. Subject: Alna Facilities Planning Committee Meeting, 21 Jan. 08, MIN

Alna Facilities Planning Committee Meeting, January 21, 2008, held at the Firehouse at 7 p.m.

Present: Tom Albee (TA), Nick Caristo (NC), Gordon Davis (GD), Kathy Pendleton (KP) and Cliff Russell (CR)

Absent:   John Green. Fred Gumkowski and Brian Lawrence

Also present:   Mike Trask , Roger Whitney and Paul Ouellette from the AVFD

The committee devoted the meeting to deciding, insofar as was possible, on actions to be taken to prepare for the Town Meeting at the end of March.   The starting point was an agenda prepared by NC listing eight topics.   In the course of the discussion some of these were folded together, but all received some attention, and actions required were noted for most.

• The fundamental chore is to finalize the designs and the cost estimates of the options to be presented to the town.   The next step here is to obtain agreement on the design details between the committee and the VFD (and, in the case of the renovation project, with Old House Restoration).   Then updated cost estimates can be prepared using the 2008 edition of the R.S. Means cost factor book for light commercial construction.

• Several aspects of the committee’s efforts to inform Alna citizens about its work and its recommendations become more critical as the Town Meeting date approaches.
  •   The first is to work around the problem of lack of town web site accessibility in the short run.   Physical posting of hard copies of minutes and other communications in the usual local places has already been decided on.   In addition, we are trying to obtain a reasonably complete list of town email addresses so that these items can be distributed electronically.
  • The second is planning for public information meetings .   The final scheduling of these will depend on progress on the first bullet above, but the goal is to hold one before the end of February, with a possible second in early March.   The material to be distributed and discussed will center on the designs and their costs, but will also include a description of the process and considerations that brought the committee to its position.   This might be contained in a “case statement” that could be distributed both at the meetings and electronically.   A power point outline presentation will be put together to help structure the meeting.   The committee also recognizes that it is seeking feedback, not just putting out information and aims to have the flexibility to respond to helpful suggestions.

• The committee, having rejected the multi purpose building recommended last year, understands is obligation to provide its own recommendations on how to deal with the housing of town office functions.   The discussion of this point made clear that there are several widely varying assessments of the current condition and future cost of maintaining the Webster House.   The committee therefore agreed unanimously that it would arrange for a professional inspection of the building. (The cost is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $250.)   It was also noted that, if either the new stand-alone firehouse or the renovation project for the existing building becomes a reality, space would be available for the EMT folks who currently use the second floor of Webster for offices.   Evacuating them to new quarters will allow the town at least to avoid having to put money into bringing the upstairs space up to code for office use (or building the addition suggested by John Hansen to achieve the same result).

• More generally, the committee will have to review its charter to make sure it has addressed its responsibilities in full and will have to seek advice on drafting whatever Warrant article(s) it proposes for the Town Meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m., after agreeing that its next meeting will be on the 28^th at the usual time and