TIME & PLACE:

Meeting October 10, 2001 at 7:00 PM at Canterbury Town Hall

ATTENDANCE:

Jeremy Slayton
Kent Ruesswick
Bob Fife
Charlie Cook
Ken Jordan
Ted West
Mike Capone – Selectman Representative

Meeting at 7PM at Town Hall

Town Hall:

Bob Fife’s thoughts on what needs to be done, we should focus on the Town Hall first. But needed to take care to not compromise design or otherwise disqualify the building for matching LCHIP funds. Bob does not want to see a metal roof as suggested by the Fifield report (March 2000)

Kent recalled Nancy Roy said she had some money for refinishing floor. Asked Mike Capone if he new anything about it.

Ted asked if the windows in the town Hall are currently historically accurrate for a 1700’s building. Some voiced oponions that they were not despite their having "wavy glass".

$27,000-$28,000 of immediate repairs are needed for the the Town Hall according to Ollie Fifield’s report (March 2000). Additional repairs would cost another $30,000.

Ken Jordan suggests we start with dealing with the smaller more immediate issues and address those first, and then move on to the longer term items once the immediate needs have been addressed. This approach would avoid constant revisitng on the less defined long-term needs (Life Safety, Police station, etc.).

The committee accepts the original Fifield Report (March 2000) report as presented with the following exceptions and addendums:

• Kent feels the building should be insulated.
• Charlie Cook feels that a 30 Year shingles would work fine, and would fit in better with the roofs of the other building.
• Basement should be renovated to improve usage of that space.

The Highway Department Building:

Can it be moved to the Recycling center? Kent has talked with Tom Roy about looking at the desired site to get a better sense of whether our site will work. Tom Roy has been in the business of closing landfills, and would have a good sense of the limitations we would be facing at the Dump.

The committee is all in agreement that the Highway Department should be moved from the town center ASAP, the remaining issues are where, and when. Kent repeated Gordon Jackson’s desire to initiate the project at this year’s town meeting to help push the process forward.

Couldn’t we present a warrant article for the amount of the project even if a site has not been finalaized, knowing that wherever it ends up going we WILL need that money.

It was suggested that it would be hard to ask for the money if we don’t have a defined place to put it. It would be preferred to start a capital reserve fund for that purpose… it would be better accepted at the meeting, and would initiate the process this year.

Kent doesn’t feel that the idea of having a "artisan’s center" in the old highway department building would work. He’d rather that the building be used as the town municipal building for town offices, and that the Fire Dept. building be expanded as needed, and include the P.D. This would leave the Sam Lake House vacant and perhaps available for rental to private individuals or businesses.

Ken reiterated that we follow the wording of the mission statements to set up an "executive overview" that lays out the over principles and ideas that guide the plan developed by the committee. Once that overview has been developed we can go into the details of the specific buildings while keeping the overview in mind to guide us.

Ken will have the "overview" fleshed out by next week.

Mike relayed that Jim Bassett felt it was not the committee responsibility to dictate the size of the library.

In general the committee supports the idea of the library going forward. Kent talked further about Jeff Leidenger’s offer for the Library committee to independently raise a sum of money to contribute to the generals funds for the library construction. This would lower the total cost to the community at large and would allow for other needs to be funded by the community.

Committee agreed that Kent should go forward in his discussions and work towards an agreement that is mutually beneficial and helps both the library and the committee meet it’s goals (meeting other community needs).

The Sam Lake House:

The back door needs installation. Suggest limiting extensive renovations until further planning is done to determine the long term use of the building… especially if the town offices might be moving to another location.

The Old Highway Department Building:

Suggested that part be provided to the Fire Department for meeting and personnel space, part me made available to the P.D., and part be converted in to town offices. This would keep F.D. from moving trucks in to the front side of the building.

Mike suggested that if persons still wanted an "artisans gallery" in town, that the Sam Lake House could be used if the town offices were moved in to the Old Highway Dept. building.

Fire Department could still be expanded on it’s current location with egress by Creamery and Hackleborough roads.

Meeting ended at 8:30 PM


NEXT MEETING:

The next meeting will be in two weeks, on 10/24/01 at 7 PM at Canterbury Town Hall.