The meeting was called to order at the Bradford Community Center at 5:35pm.
Present: Kris Foss, Bruce Gezelman, Pat Moreland, Bryan Nowell(zoom), and Tracey Quigley. Anne Kratz seated at 5:50pm.
Motion was made by Bruce, Second Pat, to approve minutes from last meeting as presented. Motion passed unanimously. Kris told the meeting that the sheets from our previous brainstorming session had been added to last month’s minutes online as requested by the Committee.
Kris reported that she had been before the Select Board to request funds for the asbestos, lead and septic tests/reports prioritized by the Committee to enable the Committee to have accurate, up to date primary source information when looking for quotes for the various options the Committee is investigating. The Select Board responded that they were not prepared to spend any money on this building. Kris clarified that the Committee would have to use “worst case scenarios for costings/quotes” without access to these tests/reports.
Kris also attended the first CIP meeting and presented our funding request. Based on the Select Board’s direction, two options were presented to the CIP Committee.
Option 1 would be to tear down the building, fill, level, pave and create a parking lot with landscaping. Cost (worst case) would be $120,000.00
Option 2 would be to sell the building and have the buyer move the building at their cost, to fill, level, pave and create a parking lot with landscaping $60,000.00 minus any proceeds from sale of building.
Funding for either option to be in 2024. A note was added to the application that should funding be stretched beyond 2024, maintenance would need to be addressed on the building with the roof as the most pressing deferred maintenance item.
Following these two options presented to the CIP, it gives the committee the scope to follow both options with as much information and costings as we can gather and more discussion as to whether one of both options will be presented to the Select Board and/or Town Meeting.
There was discussion round the CIP and budget procedures. Questions were asked about access to the building to allow people to look at salvage/furnishings that could be sold. Anne will check about access.
Members updated the Committee on information they had gathered since the last meeting.
Bruce has a contact coming on Friday to measure and give an estimate for paving. Kris asked if those measurements could be given to Bryan to make a simple plan of where and how many parking spaces would be possible with the building gone.
Pat met with Laura Hallahan to get her opinion on the salability of the whole parcel and just the Masonic building. The whole parcel has a tax card value of $727,000. There was the question of what use of the property would be? Is it commercial or residential? Once sold the town would have no say as to how that area looked. Laura and Pat discussed a sealed bid auction for the building with the highest bidder paying for moving costs and thought there would be interest in that. Whatever money came from the sale would offset the costs and save the demolition costs.
Tracey reached out to some building moving companies, but it is hard to get an estimate without a destination for the building. She did get information that the movers would need to know if there were asbestos and other hazardous materials in the building. Bryan suggested that we should try to get one of the movers into the building to check the stability of the building for moving.
Discussion moved on to our 3rd brainstorming sheet. What the lot will look like once the building is gone.
Discussions about a Gazebo on the site resulted in the option being removed from the idea board due to space and safety in that area. Bradford Historical Society had a plan for a gazebo on their campus – maybe salvaged items from the building could be used to make that and have the building live on in a repurposed form. It could be a community project also.
Discussion moved on to honoring the history or the area while optimizing space for parking. Signs/boards with historic photos were discussed and possibly leading to more around town and creating a historical trail. Some way to mark the history of the area before the Fire Station was there was a consensus of the Committee.
Discussion on getting accurate size of lot and boundary lines, maps online the lines are slightly off. Anne will try to get a new map with the lines in the correct place for our visual. We should check to see if either plot has a site plan and maybe the abutting properties.
Any images the Committee finds that they think would be suitable for the area, bring them to the next meeting.
Next meeting – continue discussion on what lots will look like after building is gone and start to formulate our ideas on paper for a report.
Public comment – None
Meeting adjourned at 6:50pm
Respectfully submitted.
Tracey Quigley