TIME & PLACE:

Meeting June 20, 2001 at 7:00 PM at Canterbury Town Hall - Open Community Meeting.

ATTENDANCE:

Ken Jordan
Bob Fife
Ted West
Kent Ruesswick
Jeremy Slayton
Gordon Jackson
Beth Blair
Ann Weger
Mike Capone – Selectman Representative

Materials were provided on a side table for viewing by meeting attendees.

Materials included information, maps and diagrams collected by the committee so far, as well as a version of the committee’s website provided locally on a Mac computer.

Insert Kent’s opening remarks here…

Doug russwick asked what plans we’ve come up with for the town garage. He suggest that the Town garage be relocated to the Town Dump. He feels the garage is not in keeping with the historic spirit of the center of town.

Are there any pressing needs in terms of building garage… for instance he noticed that shingle on the town garage need repair. Committee members (Kent) and (Mike C) replied that repairs of he garage are needed, and are being addressed ib the scope of larger repairs that are needed there.

The question was posed (By Ted west) what Doug feels could be used in the place of the garage. Doug felt it might be used for the new library construction.

Suggest that more/better use of the town Hall be made.

Mike indicated that it does not look like we will receive the LCHIT grant for renovation and repairs of the town hall this year. We will have $35,000 available from the warrant article passed at the Town meeting (2001) to use towards immediate repairs of the town hall.

There is an opportunity to apply (in August 2001) for the second round/level of LCHIT funding. In any event $35,000 should be sufficient to conduct any necessary repairs to make the building safe and dry.

If made safer the town all might be used more frequently by the school.

Question was asked what Phil (maintenance) wanted to do with Maintenance building. Brief discussion was made about his preference for being relocated to the Exit 18 industrial site.

Question was asked, "what conclusions have the committee come to so far?" response was, "we are simply gathering information at this point. We have not formulated any conlcusions yet. We are only 2 months in to an 7 month project.

Mike suggested that we consider building a "reserve fund" so that we accrue monies, that can be used at time building construction/repairs are to be done, instead of waiting and having to borrow funds and pay interest.

Question was asked if the space at the dump could be used more efficiently… perhaps by capping the current open fill areas, and building on top of that.

Question was asked why the FD doesn’t relocate to exit 18 if Maintenace does. Committee discussed information from Chief Caswell about wanting to be geographically/population central to the community.

Question was asked whether we really need a fancy Police Department.

Discussion was made about the ADA compliance issues, as well as the fact that "needs" do not necessarily mean department heads expect to get what they ask for.

Question: Is the garage building "sound"… could it be re-purposed to be used to meet needs of one of the other departments?

Lisa, suggested one might re-build the town garage to increase size for large meeting area(on 2nd floor?) with other departments located below. If done properly, it could be designed to fit in with the look of the Center… perhaps looking a bit like a larger Town Hall.

A concern was raised that sometimes people don’t want to support "small, non-fancy" solutions… people only get excited about big-flashy projects. (that aren’t really necessary)

Doug feels that the committee should come in with concrete recommendations for next year’s town meeting.

Ann feels that the process is really important, especially in exploring the many possibles needs and solutions given how the times and town have changed.

Population of Canterbury is 1979 – according to 2000 assessment.

Getting toilet facilities at the recycling center has been looked into… a privvy is more feasible than a port-a-potty.

Lisa suggested putting up a list at the post office to request ideas and input, similar to the response for ideas for the New Store.

Meeting ended 8:12 PM

NEXT MEETING:

The next meeting will be in three weeks, on 7/11/01 at 7 PM at Canterbury Town Offices (Sam Lake House) to meet with Selectmen about the SLH.