Washington Planning Board
Washington Planning Board
Working Meeting Minutes - DRAFT
June 20, 2016
0.0 Assembly: 1:00PM
0.1 Members present: Crandall, Kluk, Dulac, Schwartz and Williams
0.2 Alternates present: Terani
0.3 Members and Alternates Absent: Hatch and Russell
0.4 Visitors: None
Crandall opened the meeting at 1:00PM, at Camp Morgan Lodge.
1.0 Minutes from June 7th meeting, June 14 work session and June 15 site visit:
June 7th meeting – Williams had one change to make to his Corvus comment, Schwartz will make the change. Kluk made a motion to approve the minutes with changes, Williams seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
June 14th working meeting – No changes were requested, Williams made a motion to approve the minutes with changes, Dulac seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
June 15th site walk – Dulac asked that Schwartz change the comment on the size of the spaces in the Fire/EMS building, Schwartz will make the change. Kluk made a motion to approve the minutes with the requested change, Williams seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
2.0 Structural Engineer proposal:
Crandall said that Frank Lemay had sent a recommendation for a structural engineer and he had talked to him and got a copy of his rate sheet. Schwartz asked about an existing report on the Town Hall structure. No one knows if one was done. Crandall doesn’t think the Schoolhouse is the number one priority at this point and we should concentrate on the Safety building. He doesn’t think there is money to pay for this right now. Kluk feels it is important to have a structural engineer look at the Schoolhouse, she feels it is a priority and the money can be found to do it. She would like to get prices from other structural engineers to compare. Terani asked about the Schoolhouse roof condition. Williams said the guy who did the Town Hall roof looked at it and felt it is fine for now and there is time left on it before it needs to be done. Dulac wants to have a structural engineer look at both buildings as soon as possible. Crandall thinks we need to clarify with the BoS on the Town Hall foundation. Williams stated that the BoS think that the foundation is needed but not a full cellar. Schwartz asked about where the archives will go, if not in the cellar and Williams said they can go somewhere else, they are in the Library and can stay there. He thinks the issue to be considered is the full foundation, a partial foundation or just shuring up what is there. Dulac said you could do a full foundation with a dirt floor to be finished later. Schwartz said the partial or full foundation discussion has been had, Crandall agreed saying the 4 foot or 8 foot issue has been settled, the cost differential was found to be minor and a full cellar is forward planning. Dulac said the BoS don’t want to deal with the full cellar, we need a report on the structure of the Town Hall and Schoolhouse. Terani doesn’t think the Town Hall needs to be raised, there is danger in doing that. He thinks there was a report that said it didn’t need to be done.
Crandall doesn’t think the BoS will cough up the money for a structural engineer. Kluk wants to use an independent structural engineer and talk to the one that Langdon used on their Town Hall. Kluk thinks the recommended engineer will cost $3500. Crandall said no it would be closer to $1500.
Williams said we need to list the priorities on the Schoolhouse, he feels it is a chicken and egg situation, we need to come up with a ballpark figure to do the work and then take it to the BoS and ask for money to look at it. Schwartz doesn’t know how we can come up with a list or prices without knowing what the structural condition of the building is. Williams thinks we looked at the building and have an idea what we think the problems are. We will search for a structural report on the Town Hall. Kluk feels that if there are existing reports on the buildings we can use them to determine priorities. Williams said that the BoS, at their meeting on Thursday, said no to spending money on this. We didn’t know that Crandall had visited them on Thursday and had a conversation about hiring a structural engineer and they said no.
Dulac asked if we could consider three questions: What are our priorities in order of importance? What are the major PB needs in each category? and What report do we need to support our decisions made on our stated priorities? Williams said there are priorities in town today; the Public Safety building and the Town Hall, the Schoolhouse hasn’t been looked at, lets get going. He thinks we need a plan to move forward. Dulac asked if we all agree that the Public Safety building is number one? Kluk said we just learned that the Schoolhouse is off the table, we need to stick with the agenda.
3.0 BoS latest alternatives for Public Safety Building:
Williams said he sent seven plans from Anthony Costello to board members, the first five were done and then the last two were done in reaction to the BoS’s comments. The plans were done by Costello to try to avoid the wetlands on the property. The BoS feel the last two are viable options. Costello felt that the building, as designed, didn’t fit on the site, so he used blocks to come up with some ideas to stay out of the wetlands.
#1 – has parking that impacts the wetlands
#2 – contains a path across the wetlands
#3 – has the equipment garage spanning across the wetlands
#4 – has the administration section spanning across the wetlands
#5 – fronts on Old Marlow Road with the equipment garage lengthwise
Williams said that the BoS thought they could take this last idea and use the existing building for bays, add a long bay and the administration added in the rear (#6). This would require moving the well and would not fix the inadequate size of the doors. Dulac asked about having less bays.
#7 keeps the Ambulance (or another small fire truck, forestry?) and Police cruiser in the existing bays with the rest of the building as administration space and adds a 5-bay equipment garage to the northwest end of the existing building. This fronts on Lempster Mountain Road and you would have to move the well and septic and encroaches on the piece we don’t own and. Williams said you could possibly do just a 4-bay barn. Schwartz asked if we could have Kyle Barker look at this. Williams said it is worth researching, there could be grade challenges to overcome. He feels that having trucks come out on Lempster Mt Road is preferable. He said the new building priced out at $268 per sft. Willams mentioned some square footages and that you could possibly have just one ADA unisex bathroom and separate showers. Dulac said that just looking at the numbers and square footage you won’t have the savings you are looking for. Williams said with these options we could do the building without using a general contractor firm, we could build it ourselves and manage it ourselves saving $150K. He feels local guys could beat the prices from BPS. Schwartz said that BPS was willing to use local contractors and would vet them. Williams said the Town doesn’t have to get competing bids for work done for the Town. Kluk thought they did need to get 3 bids. He said that out of the $1.2M price on the equipment barn, around $120K was for them. Williams thinks using rough math - $1.3 to $1.8M will get it done with all elements included. Dulac asked about other savings. Schwartz said a possibility would be wood frame for the equipment barn/bays.
Schwartz said we need to engage Kyle Barker to look at the idea, get him to do some drawings and them show them to the fire/EMS guys. All agreed. Williams will call Kyle and bring him up-to-date and ask him to come in and talk to us about the possibilities.
4.0 How to proceed:
Kluk said this begs the question – Is this the only piece of the project we are doing? Dulac said he would love to have this conversation about the other two buildings. Crandall said we have a schedule with prices for all the parts of the Town Hall project (concrete, electrical, etc). Williams has he schedule from the MBAC committee that he will email to all members. He said this prices out the annex at $600 - $650K. We decided we will hold a meeting at Camp Morgan Lodge on that with the construction drawings. Kluk asked if they looked at the price of doing an entrance on grade in the rear of the building and Crandall said it wasn’t done. We decided we will meet either Monday or Tuesday of next week. Williams thinks we need a regular meeting schedule. After discussion we decided on Monday mornings at 9AM but we will be flexible for special meetings. Crandall said we will look at the Schoolhouse maybe in mid-July. Williams asked about a “one and done” vote at Town Meeting, he feels we would have to include the Schoolhouse mainly as a vision, not a concrete project.
Adjournment: Time: 3:00 PM
Dulac motioned, Kluk seconded, all voted in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
Nan Schwartz