Public Safety Building Committee

Meeting date: 
Thursday, January 11, 2024

TOWN OF PRINCETON

BOARD/COMMITTEE: Public Safety Building Committee MINUTES

DATE: JANUARY 11, 2024                                     TIME: 6:30 PM              LOCATION: Town Hall Annex

Note: this public meeting was conducted in person at the Annex, with a remote teleconferencing option available for public participation. Public participation details were posted with the agenda.

 

Members in attendance: Karen Cruise, Brian Keevan, Claire Golding, Carl Soderberg

Members in attendance remotely: Daeg Brenner

Others in attendance: Paul Patriarca

Others in attendance remotely: Sherry Patch, Mike Cote

 

Votes taken in the following actions are “all in favor unless” noted otherwise.

Karen called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM.

Karen requested to serve as Chair, and the committee voted to appoint Karen Cruise Chair at 6:34 P.M

Brian Keevan offered to serve as clerk and this was also ok’d by the committee.

Karen suggested a bi-weekly schedule for meetings; Thursday evenings at 6:30 works for everyone, including folks online (Daeg Brenner, Sherry Patch, Mike Cote).

Karen said Ian Catlow is interested in serving on the committee but not yet appointed. Carl mentioned that Tom Kokernak is still interested in the last seat on the committee.

Everyone is ok with meetings being recorded, and they will be set to expire in a year and posted on the website soon after each meeting.  Paul asked if recordings could be paused if there are security concerns with emergency or sensitive calls coming in on his radio.

Karen brought up the topic of public comment.  The committee agreed to offer a public comment opportunity at the beginning of each meeting, and allow for public questions during the remainder of each meeting at the discretion of the committee.

Karen explained that the delay in starting up the committee was due to a decision by the State Supreme Court regarding sale of town owned land taken for tax forfeit.  Town counsel and TA investigated the town’s ability to spend income from recent land sales and there is still some question about whether the town may be liable for payments to former owners but the town is still allowed to spend the funds allocated at AtM.

Princeton Police and Fire chiefs have asked outside chiefs to consult (Barre police chief and Sterling Fire Chief) given their recent experiences with building new facilities and other experience.  Phil Gott has expressed concern over the number of holding cells in the current design and wondered what else we might have included or excluded that we shouldn’t have. This spurred the decision to ask for these outside advisors.

Carl commented on the scope provided by C & B and mentioned Ian had also reviewed the scope.  There is a plan to use the loft space/second floor for a fitness room and future expansion if needed.  The scope includes design and cost estimates for construction.

Karen had received an email from Ian today and he mentioned some outstanding issues with public water supply permitting and wetlands issues regarding Zone A and stormwater discharge.  Sherry will send around the old plans so we can review.

He also discussed needing to review some details regarding other site issues. 

OPM (Owner’s Project Manager) topic brought up by Karen.  Carl advised that we should try to do a lot of work in-house before hiring such a consultant as it can get expensive.

Karen asked the committee and there was consensus that meetings should be hybrid rather than just in-person.

Carl offered to review all the designs up on the big screen for the rest of the committee at our next meeting.  There is a lot of information on the town website for members to read and review before the next meeting.

C & B was described by Carl as a fairly local firm, and that they did the design for Ashburnham’s new facility.

Regarding the committee’s charge to provide information to the public, Claire recommended that the chiefs be helpful in explaining to the public the specifics about their needs and how those might be reflected in future design changes. 

Next meeting is January 25 at 6:30 P.M. We found out that at 7:11 our GTM connection ended.  Meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Brian Keevan