DPW Facility Committee, October 13, 2016
Holden Department of Public Works Facility Committee
Meeting Minutes
October 13, 2016
Call to order
Daniel Nason called to order the regular meeting of the Holden Department of Public Works Facility Committee (DPW FC) at 7:06pm on October 13, 2016 at Holden Senior Center, 1130 Main Street, Holden, MA.
Roll call
Daniel Nason conducted a roll call.
Committee Members present:
Chair Daniel Nason
Mark Johnson
Dawn Michanowicz
Eugene Stirchak
Jim Kempton
Committee Members absent:
Jack Cross
Others present:
Timothy Ethier, Board of Selectmen
Jacqueline Kelly, Town Manager
Peter Lukes, Assistant Town Manager
David White, Finance Committee Liaison
David White, Finance Committee Liaison
John Woodsmall, Director of Public Works
Ryan Mouradian, Water & Sewer Superintendent
Isabel McCauley, Senior Civil Engineer
JP Parnas, Weston & Sampson Engineers
Isabel McCauley, Senior Civil Engineer
Timothy Ethier, Board of Selectmen
Peter Lukes, Assistant Town Manager
Jacqueline Kelly, Town Manager
Bill Randell Arrived at 7:25
Review and Approval of minutes from last meeting
Mr. Stirchak made a motion to approve the minutes from September 29, 2016 with edits.
Ms. Michanowicz seconded the motion. Vote approved by majority vote.
Discuss Results of Board of Selectmen October 3 Meeting
Mr. Nason reported that he was surprised by the tone of the meeting and how things went. Based on the questions that were asked, hHe was not prepared for the questions that were raised, and because he did not bring the information for the questions that were asked. He felt a little bit blindsided. Going before and making a presentation to the Finance Committee was discussed. Since the meetingn he has had discussions with other individuals and he believes it is in the best interest to wait to bring the land acquisition to it before a Special Town Meeting. He welcomed Ms. Kelley to the meeting and asked for her opinion.
Ms. Kelly stated that she thought originally the board was going to go with one project bringing the land/property to a Town Meeting. Sometimeewhere during the summer she met with the current owners of the Reed-Rico building and they made a very favorable offer regarding the acquisition of the property. Further discussion led to the idea that regarding the acquisition could this fall at a special town meeting, and once that was accomplished, the committee could come back with the full project proposal this Spring/Full Town Meeting. Her impression was that the Selectmen would schedule the Fall tTown mMeeting. The DPW FC would then go to the Finance Committee and start doing outreach about the land and proceed from there and go to Town Meeting. The Selectmen came back with more detailed questions regarding the scope and details of the project itself and not necessarily the land purchase. The Chair stated he wanted answers to those questions before setting a date for the tTown mMeeting.
Mr. Ethier stated he was surprised as the agenda item given to the select board was to decide whether or not to schedule a Special Town Meeting to acquire the land. He can understand Mr. Nason’s position, as . Hhe didn’t attend with information needed to “sell” the project itself, just the purchase of the land. He Mr. Ethier stated that they went “way out” of the agenda. He felt that the questions asked were for the most part answered. Mr. Ethier offered that he feels strongly that the Town Meeting should get scheduled as Berkshire Hathaway could sell it to someone else. He also asked that the request to remove the request for the Special Town meeting on the next select board agenda be removed orbe reconsidered. He feels the vote will be approved.
(Bill Randell Arrived at 7:25)
Mr. Nason acknowledged that more information is needed (additional project information from Weston and Sampson, the insurer, operation and monitoring costs) but this was not available when he went before the board. The DPWFC had agreed to hasten the process because of the short time frame to try to get the Town Meeting scheduled. It is his opinion that more PR, education and outreach to inform the townspeople is needed before going forward and should to be presented as one project.
Mr. White stated that Ms. Herlihy very specifically said in the previous meeting that the Select Board members would have questions that would need to be answered. She brought up electricity, monitoring and heat. These were some of the things the Committee felt blindsided by. His Ssecond point was regarding the Finance Committee. He stated that it isn’t up to him to sell the project to the Finance Committee. He feels it is a good idea to bring the project it to them for support.
Mr. Stirchak stated that he also felt the scope of the questioning was extended beyond what he believed was asked for. He said Mr. Nason gave a timeline of what was expected of the DPW FC. He recalls that it said to acquire land for the project in 2017 and to begin to build in 2018. Mr. Stirchak felt that the Committee was on course for what they were asked to do and that the select board was asking to provide a greater share. Seems there is a mixed message being received on how/what to present. He also asked for clarification on the role of the advisors present from other Committees?
Ms. Kelly stated that those liaisons attend and participate in the committee. They then gather and bring back information to their committees and update them.
Mr. Ethier stated the role of the Selectmen is to set the Town Meeting.
Mr. White stated that according to the bylaws the Finance Committee presents financial warrant items. It is incumbent for any Committee who wants to do anything to have the support of the Finance Committee.
Mr. Randell stated that a month ago he wanted to buy the land and come back for the building approval.
There are 3 things that jump out of at him in regards to taking over the land/building now. 1) The carrying costs of utilities heat is (guessing) $5,000 month, electric $2,000 month and monitoring all totals about $10,000 a month. 2) There hasn’t been a formal quote on the liability insurance and he would like a quote to go to Town Counsel to look it over. 3) We haven’t seen a purchase and sale agreement. If we do it all in May the only downside is we take the chance that the property won’t be available. The upside is the town doesn’t pay the carrying costs, the insurance will be in place and the Committee will have 6 months to do PR.
Mr. Parnas asked to clarify. The estimates now are based on a cursory look and construction experience. Access to the building is needed to get more concrete costs.
Mr. Randell reiterated that he wants the P&S so access can be gained.
Mr. Nason added that he believes that exchange of property at a municipal level you can’t have a Purchase & Sales agreement without town approval.
Ms. Kelly stated an acquisition agreement would have to be ready to present at town meeting, making it public which can compromise negotiating power. She asked for entrance into the property. Reid Rico stated we could gain entry if there was an acquisition agreement in place.
Mr. Either stated the Town Manager should be authorized to go into negotiation with Berkshire-Hathaway for the acquisition of the property. This would open the door to be able to go in and do more investigation of the property.
Mr. Randell stated the Town Manager is already authorized to go in negotiations.
Discussion took place about if a Purchase and Sale agreement is needed for a donation.
Msdonation of land. Ms. Kelly stated it would be an acquisition. If it is a donation of property, and she believes it would be, then Berkshire-Hathaway would be able to take advantage of the tax breaks that a donation will provide as opposed to a sale.
Ms. Michanowicz expressed her frustration regarding the amount of time/work has been put into the Committee. She stated the charge was given to the Committee to do the research. Did the Boards expect the Chairman to come forward and spend several hours taking about all the different things the Committee has done? The Committee discussed at the last meeting that the land acquisition was what was to be discussed. Now it appears it would be for a whole other purpose. She feels that the Committee should move forward. It is the charge of the select board to start the process after we have come forward with the information.
Mr. Nason agreed but asked if we had that timeline to get the positive PR out there and sell it to all the other Board/Committee/public.
Mr. Randell stated he thought it was about the land also and in his opinion, there isn’t enough support and if we go forward with the acquisition of the land, we won’t get it. He suggested pushing it off until May.
Mr. Johnson added if the Committee wasis going to be taken to the woodshed in public over the fact that that he took exception to the fact that the Committee we haven’thasn’t “sold the project”, which is unfair. He reiterated that this very experienced committee has been tasked with the technical part of this project. People need to reach out and help. He asked for clarification on where the figure of 12-15 million dollar figure. He believes it would be difficult to replace what we have for that price and we would still be under serving the needs of the town. Where did that number come from and how is it substantiated? He also reiterated that the Committee doesn’t have the support it needs.
Mr. White discussed the loss of tax revenue and the added carrying costs involved with the acquisition of the property mid budget cycle. If we have that money hanging around, a board didn’t do its job on the budget last year. He believes there is broard support from those he has spoken to.
Mr. Nason added he believes there is support, just not enough. And pushing forward without support will tarnish the project. Waiting will allow for more time to polish and meet with boards to achieve unanimous support when presenting it at town meeting.
Mr. Kempton would like to bring it right to town meeting and if it’s going to fail, see it fail. It’s better than waiting and watching it get commercially developed. He reminded that the DPW will continues to plow the roads, fix the water and sewer from the existing facility. Without Public Works, Fire and Police don’t get there. Ambulances don’t get there.
Mr. Stirchak added that another risk and that is staying in the current facility and have something catastrophic happen while watching the equipment rot outside.
Mr. Woodsmall stated that he doesn’t like to gamble with taxpayer money. Everyone agrees that they love 18 Industrial and that is the parcel of choice. We need to present a plan to Town Meeting to get the project approved. That is why we were allocated $350,000 at a previous Town Meeting to get a schematic design/partial set of plans to present the project at town meeting. We can do that, assuming the property is still available in the spring. We can go ahead and spend $350,000 of taxpayer money on a plan to say we did it all in one meeting. Only to have it pass and A) Find the land is no longer available, B)0 Have it fail because of the size of the project or C) Have it fail because the people are fearful of taking on 18 Industrial because of contaminant issues. That’s a lot of “ifs” even if we spend $350,000, and those questions won’t necessarily be answered. He would rather know what the townspeople want without spending that $350,000. We have utility costs, preliminary quotes on insurance, preliminary numbers on remediation. Additional info will be presented to Reed-Rico in order to negotiate to gain more access.
A discussion of opinions took place on the project itself, timelines and community support.
Mr. Randell made a motion to rescind the request to the Town Manager to have a special town meeting in December for the land acquisition.
Ms. Michanowicz seconded the motion. Vote was 5-1 with Mr. Kempton aopposed.
Mr. Nason asked informally for a flavor from the Committee whether they would like to divide the project in two, have a special town meeting in December, etc.
Ms. Michanowicz thinks PR is a big factor and it is too quick to do that before December.
Mr. Kempton prefers one shot in the spring.
Mr. Stirchak prefers one shot but not sure when.
Mr. Johnson would like to bring it forward together but is not sure when.
Mr. Woodsmall discussed a memo sent to Weston and Sampson asking for more information about the three weeksthings that Mr. Gendron would need to fine tune his remediation costs. Not all of the wells at the site are sampled at the same. Mr. Gendron wants to test all three sites at the same time to establish a baseline set of data that can then be he can used to design his remediation efforts. Mr. Woodsmall would like to ask the Town Manager to bring this info to Reid Rico to inform them of what monitoring we would like to do.
Discuss projected Operations & Maintenance costs of 18 Industrial Drive
Mr. Woodsmall received the past 3+ years of electrical and water/sewer costs and he has asked Reed-Rico for the past three years natural gas. They said to use an annual cost of about $60,000 for natural gas costs. The yearly average of all utilities are about $100,000.
Discuss Cost Cap Insurance Quote
Mr. Woodsmall reported that there is not an official quote yet but the most recent quote was for $1mil policy costs is between $25,000-$35,000 with a $25,000 deductible. This is if there is contamination not known on site, as owners, we would be responsible for cleaning it up. This would give some relief to that cost. The policy would be in place during construction. The reason it is so difficult to get such a specific quote because of the detail going into the policy quote. A positive is that this site has been monitored consistently. Unlike other sites.
(8:50 Ms. Michanowicz left the meeting)
Mr. Parnas passed out a handout calculating the dimensions of current work spaces used by DPW –vs- proposed space total existing is around 50,000 and sq. ft. indoor and outdoor combined. (In error, truck storage in Reed-Rico wasn’t calculated.)
Mr. Nason asked for the numbers to be updated for the next meeting to include the storage at Reed-Rico.
Discuss, and vote as needed, process to be used for project development and approval
-Tabled
Discuss, and vote as needed, any changes to recommendations previously made to Town Manager-see above vote.
Rescinded
Discuss and plan outreach efforts
Mr. Randell would like to educate people as to what the Holden DPW does. He also suggested info via short videos taken around town of water sampling, installing meters and winter plowing.
Ms. Kelly talked to Jay Brunette. He can produce great videos.
Mr. Nason suggested Interviews with people like Jim Ringgard and that work that has been done at the pool.
Isabel McCauley connected with the Mayo PTA. They would welcome anyone who wants to speak at their November 1st meeting at 7:00.
Additional general discussion took place about the Hometown Holden video, Facebook and how many likes it has (2,466) and the website www.HoldenDpw.com. Seniors are a great group to talk to. Are there any industry or watershed groups?
Old business
None
New business
Pepsi is looking to expand and they are looking for 4-5 acres but are looking to find out about contamination. It would make up for a portion of the lost tax revenue.
Set Future meeting schedule
October 25, 2016 @ 7PM.
Adjournment
Mr. Randall made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Stirchak seconded the motion. Vote approved by majority vote. Meeting adjourned at 9:17pm.
Minutes submitted by: Maureen Burke
Minutes approved by: DPW FC on October 25, 2016