Minutes, THROC meeting 10/11/16, Town Hall
Meeting called to order by Brackett Scheffy, Moderator at 5:45pm. Committee members present were Harry Wright, Chairman, and Will Kranz.
Brackett’s letter to the BOS summarizing our joint meeting of 10/3 was reviewed. Motion made by Wright, seconded by Kranz to approve and send to the BOS was approved, 3-0.
Review ‘1 year’ vs. ‘1 ½ year’ project: At the 10/3 meeting, “The committee voted on their position re: John’s 2 year plan. The vote was 1 in favor, 2 opposed, 1 abstention. The committee’s previous commitment to a single year solution was maintained” (minutes of 10/3 meeting). At the 10/11 meeting, it was reiterated that the Committee backs the 1 year solution, with the caveat that, as we get into the project, if a 1 ½ year solution is more practical, we would support it.
Police Department in basement: after a review of Walter Royal’s commentary (see below) on having the PD in the basement, it was recognized that there are formidable obstacles to accomplishing this project. Also, funds are not available for the required architectural design work. The committee feels that this topic would be best approached as a separate project in future years, when the town PD needs are redefined after regionalization.
Walter’s comments to an e-mail request by Will are as follows:
There isn’t much in the code that would prevent putting the police dept in the basement but there are considerations that might make it prohibitively expensive. You will need at least 2 exits as far apart as possible set in such a manner that it allows everyone in the building ready access to either of them. It will need to be sprinkled and have fireproof and waterproof safes for storage of records and evidence. The outer walls and the ceiling will need bullet proofing. But the real problem is that the police should be on the ground floor with as much of a view of outside as possible for situational awareness. Putting them in the basement puts them in a severely limited tactical position.
ADA access in SE corner: The committee walked the proposed path with ADA access in SE corner, interior walls removed to restore the ‘big room’ to its original dimensions, and short hallway along east wall to connect SE corner door to ‘big room’. The committee feels that this is a very practical solution.
Getting bids for the project: The committee voted 3-0 to have Scott Mckenney begin the process of collecting (at least) one qualified bid for each of the components of the project as currently defined.
Next meeting date, Monday, 10/17, 5:30pm at Town Hall