Public Safety Building Committee
Princeton MA Public Safety Building Committee Meeting Minutes
August 23, 2021, 5:00 PM, Town Hall Annex
Members present: Ian Catlow, John Zimmatore, Carl Soderberg, David Crowley, Felicitas Fandreyer
Others present: Ricky Thebeau, Phil Ott, Charlie Cary, Matthew Moncrieff
Others online: Holly Burgess, Linda Nash, Karen Cruise, Nathaniel Boudreau, Sherry Patch, Zachary Algarin, Chief John Bennett
The meeting began at 5:07 pm with a unanimous vote to accept the minutes from the last meeting.
Mr. Catlow then opened the meeting for public comment which yielded none.
The meeting continued with the presentation by Charlie Cary regarding alternative heating systems. His discussion was based on a wood burning furnace which would use wood chips. He described the cost analysis between wood, oil. and propane as well as the start-up costs for all these systems. Questions from the committee members included; what would be the manual intervention on a daily basis for such heating system? where would the wood chips come from? How would the wood chips be stored? Would there be a way to add this system on later on? It was also discussed that this system would not be compatible with heat pumps however it would be compatible with the hot water system for oil or propane. Mr. Carey also indicated that he would like to use the trees cut down in town as a source for the wood chips. Per Mr. Ott, WPI has a report regarding the amount of wood available in the sit town and state. Per Mr. Cary, this system uses automatic feeding. Please see 4 attached images submitted by Mr. Cary.
Reviewing of special needs continued with discussion about the EOC. Chief Bennett discussed that there may be times when multitude of representatives from different departments would need to be in the room. He also reported that there would need to be separate communication systems for all the bureaus and likely 18 people at times of disaster. Chief Bennett also reports on the training that occurs on a regular basis. He says that there are regular groups of approximately 38-40 people from the Fire and Police Departments training together weekly. Per Chief Bennett, there is no size minimum but there are required standards for a room to qualify as an EOC. Mr. Moncrief states that a smaller size EOC is indicated which would only need 12 seats and will save $2.5 million by reducing the room size by approximately half. A discussion ensued amongst committee members regarding how much cost savings could be found in such a change. Prefab construction was again brought up as an alternative to reduce costs.
The Farmington Public Safety building tour was decided to be on September 1 for the members who are able to attend. It was noted that the construction company, Groen construction, does not have the license is to work Massachusetts. The committee decided to table cutting the size of the EOC until after the Farmington tour. Mr. Allen urine question whether a command post could be used versus an EOC. However it was noted by chief Bennett that the command post is a small operation versus an EOC which is much larger and these 2 are not interchangeable.
The discussion then turned to PFAS and how towns people see the Public Safety Building project developing. The land with the current Public Safety building is located was discussed and it was noted that the size is prohibitive and removing Bagg Hall is not an option.
Public outreach by the subcommittee is developing in terms of preparing a survey for the town. Using an earlier survey, the committee is developing questions for the new survey to determine the priorities of the community. Mr. Moncrief asked that it be considered to dedicate parking spots for access to the field and the walking track.
Project financing updates included Ms. Burgess Mr. Moncrief working on financial models. Mr. Catlow questioned whether it is possible to ask the select board to use the tax money from the new cannabis operations in town for a stabilization fund for the Public Safety building which would account for approximately 25% of the yearly debt service.
Costs of similar facilities was discussed. Mr. Catlow reports that costs change over time and the numbers are not always precise. Ms. Burgess will percent at the next meeting. The alternate site was tabled as it was decided that this consideration is outside the core mission of the current Public Safety building committee.
The discussion and vote on updating the C&B contract was tabled until after the Farmington PSB tour with a representative from C&B.
The next meeting will be held on September 13 at 5 PM. At 7:02 there was a motion to adjourn which was followed by a unanimous ‘yea’ vote.
Attachments:
1) 4 photos of wood burning furnace information from Mr. Cary
2) Agenda link