Washington Planning Board
Washington Planning Board
Working Meeting Minutes
May 6, 2016
0.0 Assembly: 9:00AM
0.1 Members present: Crandall, Kluk, Schwartz and Williams
0.2 Alternates present: Hatch
0.3 Members and Alternates Absent: Dulac, Terani and Russell
0.4 Visitors: None
Crandall opened the meeting at 9:00AM.
1.0 Crandall noted that the Select Board was not in attendance as expected. Kluk mentioned that the Planning Board voted at our meeting on Tuesday to adopt the Mission statement and to move forward with the joint working effort.
Williams said that the Selectmen discussed the joint working group effort and decided not to participate, but they will support us in our efforts. He said there was some observation of friction between the boards at the working meeting and they felt they would rather let the process play out and they would be supportive. Williams said he will keep the board involved but they have differing views of where we are. They feel the Planning Board is more analytical and can do the work on our own. They feel they have already been there, done that. They would rather be involved with the larger picture.
Kluk said she had a different impression from the meeting, they stated that things have changed and the needs are different now. She feels the need to understand those changes and document them. Williams mentioned staff changes and there is no need for basement offices now. Schwartz said that the basement offices were left out of the proposal for the Town Hall since before those changes came about. Kluk said she heard from them that “the plan is not the plan” and wants to know if we look at things or not. Crandall thinks we need to do the process to bring the board members up to speed and then we can make decisions. Williams doesn’t want Kluk to think they don’t care, they want to be involved in pockets where they can help. Kluk said we are not planning to do redundant work and if the BoS is doing things they need to communicate them to us. Crandall said that we can share minutes and communicate. Williams said Deb is working on the minutes from last Monday’s meeting and will share them soon. Schwartz said there were three ways this could have gone; 1. The Selectmen joined us in a joint project to tackle the problem, 2. The Selectmen grabbed the project away from us, or 3. The Selectmen walked away from the whole thing. It seems like they opted for #3. Williams said he thinks it is a 4th way, where the Selectmen watch what we are doing and jump in now and then.
Hatch asked if the Selectmen adopted the mission statement. Williams replied no, but they agree with the purpose of it. Hatch said we will have to take the joint project part out of the statement. Williams said the BoS is supportive of the project and process. Hatch is concerned because our minutes are detailed and theirs are not. He thinks there can be amnesia if there is no clear documentation. He fears that if they feel they have already been through the process, they will let us go do all the work and then do nothing. He has a busy summer in front of him and doesn’t want to waste his time. Kluk agreed. Williams said he doesn’t know how to react, it is a risk but feels we should move ahead. The BoS said in the beginning the plan isn’t the plan and a $3.5M project is a no-go. Hatch said he is wary of this.
Crandall asked if the BoS know what happened at Town Meeting and why their proposal failed.
Kluk said she felt enthusiasm when we met with the BoS a few weeks ago then at the meeting on Monday it wasn’t there any longer. She was hoping to go through the “to-do” list and see who would be involved with what. Williams said they aren’t running away and saying they won’t be a part of the decisions, they are not saying forget it but let the process play out. They will jump in and out. Kluk said that the trust issue that was raised at the meeting, we need to know more about this.
Hatch said the Fire/EMS goes to work everyday and they know the issues with their building but the Meeting House supporters are not the ones that work there. There is a need to get an understanding of how that building is used by the people that work there. He is concerned the Selectmen don’t recognize the failure of what they put forward this year at Town Meeting. He wants the people using the building to have a say and was concerned how things went down at Town Meeting this year. He thinks a full service building for a part time use may be problematic. Kluk thinks that this is a problem with Town Hall, too. Schwartz reminded them that EMS is now full time and both they and the Police are full time in their buildings. Crandall feels the Town Hall is the most used building, by the employees and the public.
Crandall commented that some projects will be put off for sometime and the Schoolhouse should be on the plan, but years ahead. Williams said we should come up with a price to work on the Schoolhouse, whatever it is used for. Williams feels that the Police should stay in the Schoolhouse at this point. Hatch said that maybe we should start with the Schoolhouse because it is used everyday.
Williams said he thinks the BoS understand what went wrong at Town Meeting, they underestimated getting the key users on board. The warrant article was too inflexible and didn’t leave room for options.
Kluk said outreach in this planning effort is key and input is critical for a successful result. She feels any outreach should be done jointly with the Selectmen or it won’t be successful. They need to show up and she is concerned they won’t. This is a huge effort and we need them to work with us. Williams said they agree a joint effort is best, but they don’t feel they can participate. Hatch asked if it was a unanimous decision of the BoS. Williams said they felt that the effort is more of the same and they had to decide where they wanted to go, they felt there was friction and if the plan is the same with some tweaks using only public funding it is a no-go.
Crandall doesn’t see the public support changing, he said the question on the table is whether we should wait or come up with something for 2017. Crandall thinks the projects need to go together to get enough support. Hatch said this hasn’t been done before and could be worth a try. Schwartz said that Canterbury did this and was successful in doing several town building projects at once. Williams said you could raise $2.5M by bond and raise the balance by donation as a condition of the warrant article.
Kluk said that maybe the timeline needs to be longer to do a much less rushed job of this, maybe take 2 years. Williams agreed because there is so much to do, meeting with everyone and analyzing the answers. We need to look ourselves in the eye and decide what we can accomplish. Hatch said going back to lessons learned and what he has read about the perennial failure in Bradford, it is hard to get a 2/3rds vote. He asked if there was something we could do for a CIP building fund or something else we could accomplish. He wanted to know how far we could push things to do a phase. He is concerned, as is Krygeris, about the energy audit items being a priority. He said Krygeris was concerned with the full basement for the Town Hall, not doing things energy efficiently and some of the decisions made. He said there was a perception in the public that things didn’t make sense and we need to work through that. He suggested we could push the boundaries of the CIP for 2017 and figure out the bigger picture for 2018 and beyond.
Kluk felt maybe we need more time to consider because all other efforts started after Town Meeting and were rushed and failed at Town Meeting. Hatch feels we should consider our response to the Selectmen and what we might want to go forward with, he likes an 18-month process. But we should go to Town Meeting with a report and ask for CIP money for a specific project. Schwartz said that people didn’t vote for a higher CIP number because they didn’t know what it was for, the voters may go higher if it is specific to a project. Hatch thinks things can get done at Town Meeting if the mood is right, they can happen. Kluk said if we decide on a longer time frame the buy in by the Selectmen is still critical and it will be harder to hold it all together for a longer time. Williams said the Selectmen might want to move something forward sooner, maybe at the next Town Meeting. Kluk is concerned if it isn’t part of a larger plan. Hatch thinks if they are just going off and making decisions it is not conducive to the process.
The group will meet again next Friday, May13th and talk again about moving forward and a timeline to do so. Williams said we should meet again with the Selectmen after we decide what we are doing and see if we can come to an agreement.
2.0 Adjournment: Time: 10:35 am
Respectfully Submitted,
Nan Schwartz