Project History

2013 ATM funds $24k for a Facilities Study of town buildings
 
• Found existing building “undersized for modern equipment, lacks space required for safe operations, and includes spaces that, as currently located, require excessive movement for personnel when responding to an emergency”
• “The existing Public Safety Building is approximately 4,400 gross square feet. A right-sized Public safety building for a town like Princeton should be approximately 18,000 square feet, to meet the needs described above for these two departments.”
 
2017 ATM funds $100k to conduct a buildings study for the functions of Bagg Hall, the Public Safety Complex, Town Hall Annex, and Princeton Center
 
7/2017: Facilities Steering Committee Formed (Chris Conway, Karen Cruise, Steve Mirick, Larry Todd, Mary Jo Wojtusik with liaisons Edie Morgan and Judy Dino). Jones Whitsett Architects (JWA) selected for study.
 
3/2018: JWA Final Report summary on Public Safety Complex:
  • Building not worth investment.
  • Poorly supports police and fire in an inferior building.
  • Major life safety and functional issues.
2018 ATM: Authorization sought to spend $7m ($6.5m from borrowing) for design services, construction documents, and all constructions costs for new public safety building – passed with 2/3 necessary at ATM, debt exclusion failed at ballot
 
9/2018: Facilties Steering Committee 2 (FSC2) formed  (Richard Chase, Rick McGowan, Noelani Chase, Dennis Moore, Larry Todd) with goal to try to understand, reduce, or justify the cost. Richard Chase and Rick McGowan selected by Selectboard, in part, because of their skepticism about the cost. FSC2 concluded that the town should look for and engage an architect with recent experience in the design of public safety buildings for small towns to take the work JWA provided to the next step in the design process. The goal would be to design a building that meets the long term needs of the Fire, EMS and Police Departments while exploring ways to reduce the costs. 
 

5/2019: Town Meeting approved $28,000.00 (in addition to $22,000 transferred by Advisory Committee in February) for design and engineering services for floor space design and conceptual elevation design. 

6/2019: Interim Town Administrator Rick White formed a working group with Selectboard member Karen Cruise, former Facilities Steering Committee member Ian Catlow, Chief Powers, Chief Bennett, and Deputy Chief Tim Kelly. They began preparing an RFQ to go out to hire a designer/architect. The goal was to find an architect well versed in public safety buildings for towns similar to Princeton. The group planned to come before a Town Meeting with three design options and cost estimates. The Town would be asked to vote on one of the three designs and to approve the funding of design and construction documents. Caolo & Bienek chosen Fall 2019.
  • Town Administrator asked group to make recommendation to Selectboard
  • Selectboard approves of recommendation to move forward with Option B11 (all new building) at 2021 ATM

2021 ATM: Though the group presented a strong case for approving design and documents costs for the new building, a significant number of voters were convinced that the building could be built for significantly less and the article did not pass.

July 2021: Selectboard appoints a Public Safety Building Committee to work with Caolo & Bienek on reducing the building costs by cutting unnecessary space and investigating alternative building methodologies. Committee reported to Selectboard at a joint meeting in October 2022 that they had reduced the square footage by approximately 3000 square feet but, because of rising prices, the cost estimate had increased by approximately $800,000. The Committee recommended asking for funds for design and construction documents.