2013 NOV STM CEC Rpt - Laserfiche WebLink

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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2013 STM(Nov 4th) improvements (now identified as Phase 2 or, perhaps, multiple phases) which would expand the functionality as a Community Center. (See this Committee's Report to that STM, released March 15, 2013, for the analysis it did at that time.) There are two buildings on the approximately 10-acre portion being acquired: a historic Colonial Revival mansion and its addition that contained the Scottish Rite's offices and training center (together ±31,500 gross square feet (GSF))—all of which has been deemed a historic resource—and another historic building known as the Carriage House(CH) that the Scottish Rite used for storage (±8,760 GSF). On April 22, 2013, the Board of Selectmen (BoS) created an Ad hoc Community Center Advisory Committee (AhCCAC)with a Charge that included: To provide recommendations to the Board of Selectmen of how to best serve the intellectual, physical, cultural and social needs of our diverse community by identifying services to be delivered in the Community Center, to be located at [39] Marrett Road and as voted at the March 18, 2013 Special Town Meeting. Consideration must be given to the timing and sequencing of providing these services, along with the implications for staffing. Proposals to upgrade the facility should be made in a manner which is sensitive to the historic nature of the site and to maintain the Town's relationship with the immediate abutter(s). Interim recommendations to the Board of Selectmen that will allow the initial operation of the Community Center and relocation of appropriate Town departments, shall be provided. The Committee will have completed its charge when the Community Center is fully operational as defined by the Board of Selectmen. To do the above-cited schematic-level D&E, Lexington engaged Steffian Bradley Architects (SBA) to assist the Town and the AhCCAC—including the initial recommendations to the BoS. A primary objective was to identify those improvements needed to facilitate and allow occupancy of the primary building as soon as practical after closing; however, as the evaluation of that building progressed, the AhCCAC agreed that there was substantial merit in accomplishing more than the absolute minimum work in the first phase as there are significant structural and other improvements which are better done before the building is occupied. (See Appendix B for a description of that evolution of scope for what is now identified as Phase 1.) The AhCCAC met, in public sessions, with SBA, Town staff, and other stakeholders to establish a Phase 1 plan. The AhCCAC has provided its recommendations to the BoS of the Town staff and the functions that should constitute the initial occupancy under Phase 1 and they include: • At least all of the Human Services Department's staff that is current located in the Muzzey Senior Center. • All of the Recreation Department's staff with provision for at least its extra-office storage requirements that are currently being met in the Cary Memorial Building as funding the renovation of that building is contemplated to be a request at the 2014 ATM. • All the functions presently conducted at the Muzzey Senior Center (excluding a commercial kitchen as one is not provided in Phase 1). At the 2012 ATM, under Article 8(c), $561,518 was appropriated from the CPF for the first of two stages of improvements to that Center, but had not been spent. The second-stage appropriation of$526,818 from the CPF was originally planned at the 2013 ATM, under Article 8(d), but was Indefinitely Postponed as relocating that Center's functions to the new Community Center is now planned for the earliest date practical. For the same reason, the earlier-appropriated funds now have been returned to the CPF. Together, that represents an avoidance of a $1,088,336 expenditure that was planned as necessary if the functions had remained at the Muzzey Senior Center. • Creation of flexible spaces that can be shared for multiple purposes for community programming and assembly use. 6