WASHINGTON PLANNING BOARD
WASHINGTON PLANNING BOARD
Site Walk Minutes
June 15, 2016
Time: 9:00am
Members present: Jim Crandall, Jean Kluk, Paul Dulac, Bob Williams and Nan Schwartz.
Public present: Wayne Reissle, Chief Ryan Murdough
We met at the old Schoolhouse/Police Station.
We were shown the property by Wayne Reissle, who gave us a tour and showed us his concerns with the 1883 building. He has been doing some interior work recently on the building has noticed some structural problems that he wanted us to be aware of. He thinks there are sill issues (there is cement resting against wood in front) and he thinks the building is torqueing because the front west and rear east corners are dropping. The building sits on foundation with a crawl space. The foundation is deteriorating due to frost and water damage, bricks are cracking and are pushed out from square, dirt has built up along the foundation on the west side. The screens are in bad shape (open to animals) and the boards used to close up the foundation in the winter sit unused. There is insulation lying on the ground and ductwork sitting on the ground in the crawl space. There is a large hole in the siding between two windows on the west side and much dry rot and paint checking and flaking. There is a window on the west side that is open from the top with insulation stuffed in the gap, which has fallen out. The fire escape appears unusable from the second floor. The addition in back has a block foundation, which has some cracks but seems to be in fairly good shape. We are not sure of the age of the addition. There are no gutters on the building and many places along the foundation where water has infiltrated. There is not storm window on the rear west side 2nd story window.
We went inside. There are 3 lolly columns in the main room sitting on rock piers. In the addition we looked at the furnace room and the electric box. There is only 100 amp service coming in. Reissle discussed the issues he found with the furnace and a few changes that were made. The furnace and the water pump are controlled from the Town Hall. The handcuff chair has been removed from the main room. Dulac asked about ADA access, there is none. The ceiling is out of level about 2” near the rear chimney in both directions. The front of the building ceiling is out of level about 1 ½” indicating that the floor is sinking to the middle. Reissle showed us where the plaster is cracking indicating that the building is shifting in the front corners. The window screens need to be lowered for summer use. There are old toilets upstairs and down that are not low flow/flush. The floor feels solid upstairs due to the lolly columns downstairs supporting it.
We feel that the problems are mainly sills, foundations, insulation and dry rot. We feel we should have a structural engineer do an assessment of the building. Williams said that Marshall said that Milestone looked at the Schoolhouse.
Crandall thinks we should divvy up the buildings because there is so much work to do. Williams said the BoS has 2 ideas from Anthony Costello that they think are doable, they will share these ideas with us soon. Crandall said the structural problems in the schoolhouse don’t seem worse than the Town Hall. We decided we will ask Milestone, Kyle Barker and BPS for recommendations for structural engineers. We will have them assess the schoolhouse foundation and structure and also have them look at the Town Hall foundation. Kluk suggested that Al Krygeris talk to the selectman in Langdon about who they used. Schwartz mentioned a decision grade audit was done on the building in 2010 and she has the report. Dulac asked Williams if there is money to pay for a structural engineer and he said the money would be found if it isn’t too much.
Kluk asked the Chief what his number one need for the building is if he stays there. He thinks that he would like to upgrade the furniture and rearrange things, maybe wall off some office space. He said that he doesn’t need holding at this point because he utilizes Hillsboro and Newport. If he got a new facility he would want to look at a holding space. He thinks right now the building needs interior paint, new shades on the windows, new carpeting, interior cosmetic work. Upstairs he feels the training space is good, storage space is good, he doesn’t use the exercise equipment but Lolly and some others do. Over all he is in good shape right now.
We decided to go over to the Fire/Rescue Station to take a look around. We noted the damage done to the front of the building around the doors because of the narrow width and height. Williams said that the BoS doesn’t believe that how the services use the building has been completely looked at. Schwartz led a tour of the interior spaces and talked about their use and the problems and needs. Dulac asked why they need a training space, Schwartz explained. Dulac felt the training space is large.
Williams suggested that the new station could make due with one ADA bathroom with one separate shower, instead of a women’s and men’s rooms both with showers. We discussed diminishing monetary returns when making spaces smaller within a new building and how we need to be planning forward, not just for right now. Williams said that for the BoS, moving the Police is a no-go idea, it will never happen. Williams said that he doesn’t believe that Barker ever considered keeping and renovating the existing station for Fire/EMS administration and building a new barn for the trucks. Schwartz said it was one of the options we looked at with Barker, Williams disagreed. Willams spoke about having 2 EMS people on for 50 hours a week now at the station, Dulac didn’t know this was happening and was a new arrangement for the town.
We decided we need to have a working meeting and set the date for Monday, June 20th at Camp Morgan. We will bring plans and any studies that have been done. Dulac will contact Hatch to see when he could attend the meeting on Monday before we set the time. Schwartz will notice and email everyone with the time when it is decided.
The site visit was adjourned at 11:30PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Schwartz
Planning Board Secretary