Village Planning Committee

Meeting 12-10-08

 

Present: Howard Mansfield, Dennis Rossiter, David Drasba, Mary Covington, Kurt Grassett, Jim Gamble

 

 

Wires report

Kurt: things going well. Just have to make runs to individual buildings. Depends on storm coming. If ice storm, could slow down work.

 

Meeting House Lighting.

Dave: doesn’t know if John has done anything. Solution to put light on pole opposite Meeting House seems to be best solution. Just a matter of choosing fixture and attachment.

 

Registering survey

No report. Have $1,000 left over in warrant article & some left over in budget that could be carried over.

 

Meridian Proposal

Kurt: scope of proposal is adequate. Question is how much do we need to get project going. What we need for construction, what state needs, what people need to buy into it. Town’s share would be approx. $21,000. We should try to get it under $20K and get whole package under 60K. Kurt went back to Meridian and said we like the proposal, but they should go back and try to tighten up the dollars. They suggested cutting meetings, but we need meetings to properly inform the public. Meridian asked to talk to DOT. A lot depends on what DOT wants, e.g., how much of a study do they want? May not need one that detailed.

 

In summary: think it’s a good proposal. Good time to get the project done. But recognize economic conditions and wonder whether the town will support.

 

Proposal includes: traffic calming, walkways, curbs & parking, road profile, pedestrian safety

 

Dennis: 63K is not to exceed. Amount allocated to work with Robert Todd seems like a lot.

Kurt: some conceptual work in proposal that they have to turn into design. Like any budget, things will move around. Everything is an estimate. Any discussion with Todd would be to clarify a note. Otherwise, they already have the file.

Dave: understands how they get to all the hours. But seemed like a lot.

Kurt: if we go with the cheaper firm, VPC will have to do the presentation graphics.

Consensus of the subcommittee is that the proposal is good, we should move on it now, but work with Meridian to bring down the price some.

Mary: Kurt and his crew could design this, but if we did it ourselves, then we wouldn’t qualify for the DOT money.

Kurt: we should move forward, but do so cautiously.

 

Dave:

Preliminary schedule. Need to decide if we’re going forward this year because first deadline is end of Dec. – budget advisory committee. Need to present to them. Then need to present to select board (early Jan). Board would have to set up public hearing (mid Jan). Budget hearing (late Jan). Then town meeting.

Dennis: should have a go or no-go between special public hearing and budget public hearing (mid-late Jan)

Kurt: we should present after the budget public hearing.

Consensus of committee: we should move forward, but be prepared to make a decision based on public hearing.

 

Next: how to get message together. Big question is why now? Howard and Jim to work on a flier to address this.

 

Dave: This is the next logical step based on what we’ve been doing. Plus, we are lined up for DOT money and need to take advantage of it.

Kurt: there were funds in state aid to highway for design. Also, when it comes to construction, we can use workforce as part of our one-third of the project (rather than dollars)

 

Next Meeting: Dec. 17 @ Library

 

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