HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-03-23-CEC-min
MEETING MARCH 23,2000
1) The Chairman called the meeting to order at 8:36pm. All members were
present: Narain Bhatia, George Burnell, Tom Griffiths, Charles Hornig,
Shirley Stolz.
2) The meeting was primarily a joint meeting with the Appropriation
Committee to hear information on the Senior Center and ambulance proposals.
The Town Administration was represented by Rick White. The Selectmen were
represented by Jeanne Krieger, and the COA was represented by Jackie
Davison, Nancy Freed, and others.
3) Before beginning action on these items, both finance committees voted in
favor of seeing an elementary school building study that brought forth two
new schools and two renovations. The estimated cost for this study is
$1.2M, an amount larger than the $1M budgetary place holder for the study.
4) Rick, Jeanne, and the COA representatives spoke in support of granting
the COA $50,000 in study money to put together a coherent proposal for nest
Town Meeting:
o The COA favors the use of the Laconia Street site currently owned by the
School Committee.
o Rick Bechtel is doing a quick estimate of needed space that will be
based on a program needs list developed by the Senior Center Staff
and volunteers. Rick will have this for Wednesday night's Town Meeting.
o The money requested would be used for two site studies at $8,000 each
and schematics at $36,000, actually a total of $52,000.
5) Members of the financial committees commented on several things, among
them:
o That they supported the overall goals of the COA.
o That they were unclear that COA's thinking had gelled sufficiently
to warrant funding of schematic design.
o That they were uncomfortable that the number 36,000 sq ft (or 30,000
sq ft net) keeps coming up without a clear cut definition of precise
needs.
6) Rick and Jeanne spoke in favor of the replacement of the backup
ambulance this year. Rick pointed out that fire department personnel were
uncomfortable with extending the use of the backup ambulance beyond 6
years. If the backup ambulance were temporarily out-of-service, Armstrong
would be asked to cover.
7) Various members of the financial committees commented that they wanted
to get replacement of the primary ambulance on a fixed three-year cycle,
rather than an alternating two-year, four-year cycle. The reliability of
the primary ambulance was of greater concern than the reliability of the
secondary ambulance, though the committees agreed that both were important.
8) George Burnell offered to talk to the Fire Chief tomorrow, and Rick
accepted the offer.
9) After the joint meeting, the Capital Expenditures Committee moved to an
adjacent room to consider positions on the COA and ambulance. No formal
votes were taken.
10) Senior Center: One member expressed a preference for shifting the
Committee's position to support of the $50,000 study. Two members wanted to
take a position when COA made its presentation at Wednesday night's Town
Meeting session. The general feeling was that the Committee would probably
then support the study.
11) Ambulance: The Committee will await the outcomes of George's
conversation with the Fire Chief. Sentiment seemed to be that a change in
position was unlikely.
12) Meeting adjourned at approximately 10:30pm.
Notes by Tom Griffiths.