MINUTES
PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2007, 7:00 P=
.M.
PRESENT: &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Elaine
Adams
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Carl
Mancini
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Joseph
Pawlak, Chairman
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Paul Rinaldi, Vice Chairman
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Jack Walton
ABSENT: &nb= sp; = Antonio Guerrera
=
; &n=
bsp; =
; &n=
bsp; Robert Kane
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Suzan
Plowman
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Raymond
Primini
OTHERS PRESENT: = ; Charles Frigon, Town Manager
1.&nb= sp; Convene Public Information Meeting - 7:00 P.M.
Mr. Pawlak, Chair= man, called the Public Information Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Mr. Pawlak, Chair= man, read aloud the following Notice of the Public Information Meeting for the record:
PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING
November 1, 2007
The
Watertown Town Council will hold a Public Information Meeting on Thursday, =
November
1, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. in the Watertown High School Technology Room,
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 2
Dated
at
____________________________
Charles A. Frigon, Town Manager
Mr. Pawlak: We will have a detailed presentati= on by Steve Whitaker, our architect and we have a slide show, we have costs, and = we encourage you to ask questions at any time during the presentation.
Steve Whitaker, Ames & Whitake=
r
Mr. Whitaker: I see a lot of familiar faces =
in the
crowd. This is the existing <=
st1:place
w:st=3D"on">
&= nbsp; 1. = Is there sufficient parking on the site.
&= nbsp; 2. = Is the present building large enough to accommodate the Town office needs for = both the Town Administration and the Board of Education.
&= nbsp; 3. = Approximately how much is it going to cost?
&= nbsp; The answer to the first is yes.
&= nbsp; The answer to the second question is no, the facility is not large enough and an addition is necessary.
&= nbsp; The answer to the third question is about $18,000,000, and I'm going to tell you why.
&=
nbsp; First
of all as you see here the entrance is oriented to
Tom Lambert, Board of Education Me=
mber
Mr. Lambert: One of the complaints that I heard =
already
about this design is that this going to be a long way for people to walk.
Mr. Whitaker: It's expected that employee pa= rking will be the farthest from the building.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 3
Mr. Lambert: And #2, most of those front spaces = will be for people going in and out so there won't be a need to go way away to p= ark way away from the building except maybe in major events, correct?
Mr. Whitaker: No. There are approximately 75 employees between the Town Administration= and the Board of Education. This parking provides about 140 parking spaces, that's more than sufficient and I think enough that the Planning and Zoning will look favorably on this, so I think with that140 parking spaces, 75 employees, that puts about 65 parking spaces available for visitors and parking for the athletic events that would occur on there, so I'm really envisioning that we're providing parking not = only for the building but for the athletic facilities here. We've also provided a way to come = down and provide an additional 40 or so spaces at the lower level in case there = is a need for more parking, so we have a way out, but I think what we provided w= ill be more than sufficient for the parking.&n= bsp; I think the parking right around this area here would be really quite sufficient for most visitors on most days.
As
far as pedestrian approach, I doubt there will be a whole lot, but there wi=
ll
be a pedestrian access off of
Mr. Lambert: Will there be a handicap approach f= rom that side, upper level?
Mr. Whitaker: Yes, I think the building would be accessible to people with disabilities from both elevations, there should b= e no issue there, because there will be some parking provided up at this level a= nd then the other disabled parking is right in that area there, so there will = be plenty of parking for that immediately to the entrance.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 4
The building is organized in the following way: it is organized principally around getting those departments which have the greatest public need close to the entrance. For this reason, as= I said, we constructed a new entrance which would be at the level of the parking. The building has a beautiful stairway and colonnade out front but that's really not conducive = to making a building that is available and accessible to everyone so it will provide a suitable statement of sort of what this building is all about, but really a new entrance close to the parking easy to get at with a lobby ride= off with an elevator and stairs providing access to all the building is what is necessary. So at this first f= loor level we locate those departments which most people will come to see, that = is the Tax Collector, the Assessor, the Town Clerk and Park & Rec, all of these things which people need to come to pay bills, get dog tags, whatever= , so this is all accommodated with a new vault which is constructed outside of t= he building. Again the vault is = very specialized construction, the State requires that this have a protection a 4 hour fire rating and if it's built within the building, not only the fire rating but it has to be strong enough to have the building collapse around = it, so for many reasons it makes a great deal of sense to put that outside the = area of the existing building.
The second floor is dedicated to the building construction services, Public Wor= ks occupies the central area here, Planning and Zoning and the Building Official, the Health Department have a wing of their own here. At the westerly end of the buildin= g a new entrance will be constructed here and what is now the gym will be conve= rted into an auditorium seating about 150 people and then other conference rooms will be spread out on other areas on this floor here so it will be possible= to hold virtually any public meeting without having to go into the schools and have to have the go through all of the gymnastics that sometimes has to hap= pen with going through the schools, but the schools have always been made accessible to folks, so it will be much more convenient to have all town ac= tivities occur at this location. It wi= ll also be possible to have more than one committee meeting at once, because t= hee will be plenty of space to have a very large meeting in here, and we can ha= ve 2 or 3 other committee meetings happening simultaneously and there will be pl= enty of property for everybody.
Mr. Lambert: That front left corner of the build= ing, what is that?
Mr. Whitaker: I'm again suggesting that a new vestibule be constructed at that point to . . . .
Mr. Lambert: Lower (inaudible)?
Mr. Whitaker: No, it will be at grade.
Mr. Lambert: At grade of that little side s= treet . . . . .
Mr. Whitaker: This is at the grade of all of= this in sort of the chartreuse, and then this would be the second floor as you c= ome in from the building at this entrance right here. The top floor is set aside for administrative purposes, Finance, Town Manager, and then the Board of Educa= tion is given its own wing here on the easterly side of the building.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 5
This study is somewhat, what I've done is something akin to a doctor's physical exam, the doctor can check your pulse, take your blood pressure, and observe any obvious symptoms you may have, but can only generally give you a creati= ve opinion as to your health. Mo= re tests and studies are obviously required, and the situation is similar here. I've looked at the space needs and provided general areas that in my experience are sufficient, but clearly from this you can see that ultimately more what needs to be done, b= ut I think it will generally prove this out.
Similarly with the cost, this is very early in the design process and we've made a nu= mber of gross assumptions, but not trusting in my own judgment, I enlisted the services of 3 other well known contractors in this area who are builders of buildings of this size to get their opinions as to probable construction costs. These construction cos= ts ranged in value from about $11,000,000 up to about $19,000,000. As you can see the architect was n= ot the low bidder, but it seemed to me to get to a reasonable idea of what this bu= ilding could cost would be to average all of these costs together and in doing so I came up with a construction cost of about $14,900,000. When the reset of the construction= costs are factored into this, it comes out to a construction cost of the building= and for the site of about $15,500,000. <= /span>Now that's not the end of it of course, we have what are known as soft costs, t= he infamous soft costs, architect fees, furniture and equipment, other tests a= nd things that have to be done, and inflation to cover the point at which construction will start. These taken together bring us up to a cost of about $18,300,000.
Now that seems like a lot of money, and of course it is, there's no getting aro= und it. It is, however, I believe= a safe number and one I think will be actually more than what the ultimate co= sts will be, but even standing, we had to be conservative in doing our cost bec= ause again we're talking about a construction timeline which is at least 2 to 3 years out before this building is ultimately occupied so we have to do our = best to say okay, what do we think things are going to cost when it actually gets built so we've tried to factor these costs in. But it's still a pretty good cost.= All of these costs put together co= me out for the construction costs themselves of about $257.00 a square foot when they're all put in there. Tha= t's pretty good. If the building = is taken alone without the site it's about $232.00 a square foot. So yes, $18,000,000 is a lot of mo= ney, it's a pretty good sized building, but it's still a reasonable cost scenari= o, I believe. If you built a house lately I think you would be familiar with numbers at these kinds of levels.=
This is a plan to construct a well built but not extravagant building, one that = is energy efficient and is low maintenance, a building that is going to last w= ell beyond the lifetimes of any of us in this room. In the end this building and site = offer advantages that I think none other that I have seen in the almost 20 years that I have done studies for the Town. Fi= rst it looks like a town hall. It is= much less expensive to convert this building and put an addition on than it will= be to build a whole new building. It will also be very cost effective and work better than trying to renovate yo= ur existing buildings. It utiliz= es town owned land and very importantly it provides a building that is large enough to bring together all of the town operations and departments and the Board of Education functions together for a very efficient operation for a = long time to come. It has sufficie= nt parking. And finally it has a= park like setting that will be the envy of the State. Thank you. I'm open to questions.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 6
Joseph Stankus, Jr.,
=
; Mr.
Stankus:
Karen Verrier,
= ; Ms. Verrier: If you can just explain, you said the right side of the school was an addition that was put= on the in 50's? Is that correct?=
Mr. Whitaker: Yes.
Ms. Verrier: Why, then, would you be considering tearing down that addition and rebuilding, instead of just adding to it?
Mr. Whitaker: Principally because we needed = to make an efficient building, we felt that we needed to put a third floor on = that area. It's not very cost effe= ctive to try and add a third floor to an existing building. Also that portion of the building doesn't really lay itself out in many ways for efficient use. You almost, I went through this wh= ole exercise trying to keep that, because again I don’t want to throw anything away, it's always good to reuse something, but it became clear to = me that in terms of a building that was easy to build, rather than try to put together a lot of little tiny pieces all over the place, the original 1930's building could be put to good function without major renovations easily, the work that had to be done was non-structural so in the end it becomes much simpler to simply get it out of the way and build a completely new structur= e in that location.
Mr. Lambert: Also I think you said you want= ed to get a full cellar underneath that new addition and also when you go up 3 fl= oors now you've got structural situations where you have to build from footings = all the way up through in order to hold that third floor on, correct?
Mr. Whitaker: Very important, thank you.
Barbara Carew,
= ; Ms. Carew:: I was wondering, = our lot is next to the school so I'd like to know how it's going to affect us?<= /p>
Mr. Whitaker: Actually I think that having the to=
wn hall
there would have less effect on you than having the school there because
currently everyone comes down
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 7
Mr. Carew: Will there be an access behind the building at all?
Mr. Whitaker: Yes, there will be an access b= ehind the building for a fire truck and service vehicles.
Mr. Carew: They would come back out onto Hemin= way?
Mr. Whitaker: Yes, that and there will be a = few handicapped parking spaces up there, but very few other spaces.
Ms. Carew: There's going to be no parking there where it's paved now?
Mr. Whitaker: That is correct. That area will become a pedestrian walkway.
Ms. Verrier: With the construction of the
potential new town hall, you said that is could be sufficient for the town =
for
years to come. Do you have an
approximate timeframe with the size of the vault that will be going in about
how long or how many years that the
= ; Mr. Pawlak: When we sat down = and talked about this whole project, one of the principal things I was concerned with was the longevity. This building was put up I'm guessing around the 20's or the 30's.
Mr. Whitaker: I think the early 30's.
= ; Mr. Pawlak: Our plan all alon= g was to find a building, in this case Heminway which we sort of settled on and p= ut as much planning beforehand into it so that we had enough space for future growth for the town to handle all of our departments, and I firmly believe = that with what we've proposes here, this building will handle all of our needs at least out at the very minimum 25, but I think very conservatively it will handle our needs for at least 50 years.&nb= sp; We have the space and there are additional space options which we fi= rmly believe will present themselves, not the least of which is with the advent = of technology as it continues to improve and evolve, the storage requirements = will diminish because more and more things will be stored digitally as opposed to using square footage, paper files, etc., and we have a significant amount of space, not overly but certainly substantial enough for our current needs for storage. As technology change= s we think, I believe that the space that we now have allocated for storage in t= his plan will be freed up for additional office needs or people so that all of those things coming together will not only give us the option for more space for people but if worse came to worse, the attic is significantly large, wh= at is it about 4,500 or 5,000 usable square feet up there?
Mr. Whitaker: Close to 5,000 square feet.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 8
Mr. Pawlak: So there is a second option, if yo= u will, to put additional space up there, if that doesn’t handle it. I think the projection right now is= that Watertown would have somewhere around 27,000 to 29,000 people when it's ful= ly built out with respect to housing. We're at 22,000 now and if I remember quite frankly, based on the Pl= an of Development, I think the population, if you will, the town employees, not Board of Education, in the last several years has actually declined by a co= uple and I believe the Board of Education employees has gone up but not significantly, so none of those would have a drastic effect on our space requirements, and still considering the technology changes and the less need for square footage for storage, this building should last us easily for 50 years.
= ; Ms. Adams: Right now we rent = space at Depot Square Mall and it's costing the taxpayers about $80,000 a year an= d it just keeps going up. That is = money that could be put towards payment of the town hall. There are other considerations too= . We have employees in town that are spread out over several different buildings. There are times that they need to = meet, so they have to get in their car, travel, and the time it takes or wasted on just traveling instead of going up or down the stairs. I think we need to look at the amo= unt of equipment that the town uses in these different offices. Copiers is like my favorite. Every office has to have a copier,= but imagine having a copy room on each floor with a nice copier that can do eve= rything that everybody need, instead of these downsize ones that you pretty much ha= ve now, that doesn’t do what you need it to do, but it's a copier and it does work. What about motor pools. There are times when w= e have employees that need to go out. Well we have vehicles at one building and vehicles at other building. Do we really need all these vehicl= es? Yea, you really do, cause you have all these different locations. If you put them all in on location= now you're looking at a motor pool, versus keeping all of these older cars. I think the list just goes on and = on and as part of this project what the employees need to do under the Manager's direction is to take a look at just what the savings could be by the consolidation. What are you d= oing now because you need to because we're all spread out versus if you were und= er one roof, cause I'm sure there's a lot of ideas out there.
= ; Mr. Pawlak: Good points. I want to add that from an aesthet= ics standpoint and also from let's say a recreational standpoint the lower section of that layout there, Steve, down below, right along the green border, the bottom of the green is basically where the Steele Brook is. Now this was pointed out the other night. The Siemon Company rec= ently donated I think 17.5 acres to the Town which is right where Steve is pointi= ng and right now most of that is a pond. The plan is hopefully in the near future as opposed to the distant future, to demolish the dam, drain the pond, reroute the stream to its natu= ral course which follows that sort of bent line there and then reclaim the bulk= of the land which is currently under water and convert that into athletic fiel= ds and recreational uses, picnicking, basketball courts, etc., so what we would have there is not only this setting that you see with the town hall in the = back and the 3 ball fields, but across the stream a nice meandering stream and additional ball fields, I'm not sure if it's one or two, I think the estima= te was we could probably reclaim enough land for two ball fields as well as perhaps a basketball court and a picnic area, just a light recreational activity so the setting itself would be enhanced even more than it is right now.
Public Information Meeting
November 1, 2007
Page 9
Ms. Verrier: Maybe I'm just putting the cart be= fore the horse but have you already (Tape #1, Side A ended - may have missed som= e) offices and the time it would take for the offices to be non-functional to = move in here should it pass or is that like down the road, once this passes or if this passes, that is something that you would consider?
Mr. Pawlak: The plan is that this building will= be released to us in June of 08, which is next year. Steve has put together a timeline = which we discussed yesterday and I would turn it over to Steve so he can bring yo= u up to date as to how we see this plan rolling forward.
= ; Mr. Whitaker: Assuming that i= t goes to a referendum and passes in February, we would begin work in March. Now the first thing that has to ha= ppen is a survey has to be done. W= e have no A-2 survey but we would need a good survey to begin work so that we could prepare to go to the land use agencies.&nb= sp; We estimate that we might go to the preapplication meeting in early = May and go to the first Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on June 3rd where they would receive the project, a week later it would go to the Inland/Wetl= ands where they would receive the project and schedule a walk through. During the next month there would b= e a walk through with Inland/Wetlands and public hearings in July at P & Z = and Inland/Wetlands. Now at that = point discussion would probably occur over the length of the next couple of month= s, while approvals are obtained from these agencies, and the earlier that I wo= uld see construction, that we would begin design in earnest of the building bec= ause we really can't design the building until Planning and Zoning has gone thro= ugh and they've approved all of this, and that's going to take about 6 months, = at that point it would take us about 5 to 6 months to design the building and = get it ready to go out to bid in March of 2009. Bids would probably be received= in May, 2009 and a contract signed sometime in June and construction, it would take about 16 to 18 months to build the building, so I would suggest that 2 years from about now we might be in the building in November, 2010. Now other things have got to trans= pire. He's got to set up bonding and all = that other nonsense, unimportant things, but that may delay things a little, but we're looking at occupying this building in about 2 years from now.
= ; Mr. Pawlak: Any other questions? Thank you very muc= h.
3.&nb=
sp; Adjournment
Mr. Pawlak, Chairman, Closed the Public Hearing at 7:35 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Joseph Pawlak, Chairman
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Town Council
A= pproved: _______________________________
Lynn M. LaF= orme, Clerk