The meeting was called to order at the Bradford Area Community Center at 6:30pm.
Present: Kris Foss, Bruce Gezelman, Anne Kratz, Pat Moreland, Bryan Nowell, Mel Pfeifle and Tracey Quigley. Assistant Fire Chief Jim Raymond in Audience.
Motion was made by Bryan Nowell, Second Mel Pfeifle, to approve minutes as presented. Motion passed unanimously.
Mel updated the committee on the availability of the recent septic inspection done on the building. Unfortunately, the recording was erased by the company and only a sketch of where the 1000-gallon tank is located was available. To redo the inspection would cost around $290. This was added to the list of items needed for costs related to all options, following the Committee’s commitment to have up to date facts and professionally done assessments about the building and not rely on hearsay. Bryan informed the Committee that the Fire Station has a septic tank to the left of the driveway indicated by 2 storm drain lids with the leach field to the right of the Station where the trees are growing. This system has been serviced and part of the assessment would be to determine whether or the 2 septic systems are linked in any way.
Bruce presented 3 quotes to check for asbestos in the building and they were all a similar cost depending on how many samples were taken.
Mel suggested we consider what funding would be needed for these assessments and the projects as the CIP meetings will be starting up soon and we should start that process.
Bryan commented that during a recent visit from the Fire Marshall, he thought we would need an engineering structural report on the building.
Pat reported that she had talked with an antique/salvage dealer about the contents of the building and selling them. All contents belong to the Town but not sure what will be transferred to the Town Hall once it is completed.
The Committee moved onto a brainstorming exercise. Kris handed out sticky notes and everyone was invited to write down all ideas that would then be sifted in the next process round. Sticky notes were separated into several large areas labelled. “Demolish & Parking”, “Move it”, “Repurpose It” and additionally “Creative ideas when building gone”. Committee members were given two votes for the larger sections “Move It” had the most, followed by ”Demolish & Parking” and no votes for “Repurpose It”.
An additional idea that was presented was to sell the two lots (Masonic Building and Fire Station combined) and use those funds to go towards building a new Fire Station on a piece of Town land. The Committee discussed the current value of the building and how much could be raised by selling.
Although the main label, “Repurpose it” received no votes from the Committee, it was discussed and agreed that reasons as to why this option was dismissed should be documented. The Committee discussed the pros and cons of each option with a view to further investigation as per our charge. There were more variables with the move it option and the demolish option could be quicker. An option with selling would raise some money to fund the parking lot.
Funding and timelines were discussed as to how long the project would take once a decision was made. We should look at funding through CIP to have some funds on hand when the project is ready to go. Future meetings would be used to flush out costs associated with these two main ideas in more detail.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm
Respectfully submitted.
Tracey Quigley