Public Safety Building Committee
Votes taken in the following actions are “all in favor unless” noted otherwise.
Karen called the meeting to order at 6:32 PM.
6:32 Review and approved minutes from the 1/25/2024 meeting as drafted without amendment.
Public Comment period offered by the Chair – no public comment was received.
6:33 Old Business: External Design review. Karen reported that the Barre police chief James Sabourin met with Paul, Sherry, and herself to get his thoughts on our preliminary design. They have one cell in their building. He thought there wasn’t enough storage in our design and there might need to be a dedicated IT room. He also mentioned that modern lockers need charging ports and outlets. Tom Kokernak (is a firefighter in Sterling and mentioned that including certain features might be good for morale in the long run. Discussion of degree of kitchen equipment that would be required by the building department. Karen sent his comments out to members via email this afternoon.
6:40 discussion regarding correspondence with DEP regarding location of stormwater and meeting Zone A regulations. Brian read and reviewed the response sent by Mia Macdonald from DEP; redevelopment only includes areas on the parcel already developed/paved. The members discussed the location of the septic field as well, which is not in Zone A. Karen and Ian recalled that the designed footprint is larger than the currently paved area and includes filling in a portion of the play field. Claire offered the idea of including pervious paved areas as a stormwater option. Brian mentioned placing rain gardens up against the building, but Karen was concerned about limited parking already on site. Talked about well location too; Ian mentioned an idea of providing water from the town hall complex to free up the area in the wellhead protection zone for stormwater treatment, perhaps siting the fire suppression tank at the Annex to provide pressure. Carl says that tank size and location was not in the current design and could be a huge cost. The site is shallow to bedrock and generally wet. There is some uncertainty about the location of the existing well at the town hall complex. Ian mentioned that we would need to treat that water for PFAS regardless.
Karen discussed what C&B is to be responsible for. They have a quote from Berkshire Design to design the water system, though the choice of vendor for that is up to us.
7:00 Claire asked about the date of the tax impact page on the website, which mentions a 4% interest rate and is that out of date. Karen says that is still a reasonable rate to consider but she will check on the date for that document. Claire asked about the section on ‘construction methods investigated’ and whether they are still options that might be used. Carl said those options were considered as cost reduction alternatives to baseline construction methods (stud framing on the office side and concrete masonry with truss roof over it on the apparatus bay side) and we concluded that those would not save any money. Claire wants to see the doc include a statement to reflect that and Karen will take care of that.
7:02 EAC comments submitted back in 2021 to the Select Board regarding energy. Karen forwarded the EAC letter to the members. Claire wanted to review the list with the committee. Biofuel for heat is included but admitted to be more of an outlier choice despite the wide availability of wood in town.
Geoff Yaglou joined the meeting and wanted to make a comment but was unable to ask it over the remote connection.
Items brought up by the EAC included biofuel boiler, solar panels, heat pumps and floor heating; concern about ability and cost for geothermal heat pump on site; cost for mini split may work out better; Ian said that we can look at oil and propane options for heating those floors; on-demand water heaters make sense? Tom said that propane on site might make it feasible; there will be a lot of water use, Ian recommended that we consider a heat pump based water heater; Karen said that we can keep these ideas in mind and talk them over with C&B when we start working with them – Claire wants to make sure we provide the town with a cost benefit analysis for these options over the long term since they cost more up front. She doesn’t know if EAC has that expertise, Ian would like EAC to carry the burden for that work rather than have the town pay C&B to do it; Karen expects a lot of sticker shock at the STM when this comes up.
7:15 Karen asked Ian and he suggested she work with Sherry to find out more about the town campus well and permitting. We can look into options for running a pipe through Dingman Park.
7:21 Karen asked if there is anything else we can be doing. To make progress. Ian mentioned DPW backhoe can be used in the spring to dig a test pit to examine soil, depth to groundwater, etc. to see what we are dealing with; perhaps do a perc test with the BOH; Carl asked about leeway for design based on the wording in the article that was passed; Karen said we authorized an amount to be spent for design and engineering; Paul mentioned there was still too little space in the plan; discussion around fully insulating but not necessarily heating the full second floor space which would give about 2500 sq ft of usable floor space and might be a good idea to bring to town meeting.
7:36 Karen asked for any comments from the online participants, hearing none moved to adjourn at 7:36.
Adjourned at 8:04 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Brian Keevan
Documents submitted:
EAC letter
Notes from meeting with Barre chief