Sweden
Fire Station Building Committee Meeting
DRAFT
MINUTES of the Sweden Fire Station Building Committee (SFSBC) regular meeting on Tuesday, September, at the Sweden Town Office .
Present: Members: Chairman Wolfgang Duve, Julie McQueen, John P. Smith, PatrickWood
Public& Guests: None
Absent: Wayne Miller, Bill Morrisseau
Rob Slattery has resigned from the committee effective September 5, 2007
These notes are not necessarily in the order in which things were discussed. They are loosely organized by topic.
Assignments from the July 24, 2007 meeting:
• The Committee will get together at the Bridgton Fire Station at a date to be determined (not a regular meeting) to drive some fire trucks similar to what the Fire Dept. anticipates owning in the future. The purpose of using the Bridgton fire trucks is to avoid an impossible situation in the future for getting the trucks into the station. They cannot be backed into the station from the road and will require adequate space for reversing direction. A simple analysis of how much turning area we will be necessary will be done. This will be important to be sure that the trucks can get into the station without hitting the Town Office in the tight area available.
- This has not been arranged as of the September 11, 2007 meeting.
Assignments from the July 10, 2007 meeting:
· Ted Harris to make an inquiry with Maine DOT regarding the acquisition/storage of excess fill.
- We have not received an update on this item as of the August 28th meeting.
Assignments from the June 12, 2007 meeting:
• Ron will get some information regarding the foam insulation for the committee files.
- Ron is still pursuing the information.
Notes:
· Wolfgang Duve called the meeting to order at 9AM.
· The main purpose of this meeting was to prepare for a discussion with the Selectmen tonight at 6:00 pm at the Town office; prior to the regular meeting of the Selectmen.
· The committee members present asked Julie to prepare an agenda for tonight’s meeting to include the following topics for discussion:
Outline for September 11, 2007 Fire
Station Building Meeting with the Selectmen
1. Introduction of attendees (particularly visitors)
Fire Station Building Committee
2. Steps:
1. Complete the plan and specifications. Doing as much of this as we can ourselves will be the most cost effective since any work done by a draftsman or an architect will have to be paid for at an hourly rate. It is important to be clear about what we want before approaching a professional.
2. Hire a draftsman. Roger Legoff, Jr. was on the Denmark Fire Station Committee and is also a qualified draftsman. He drew up the Denmark plans which were approved by the Fire Marshall. An architect is not required for this phase. In order to get the plan approved it requires working closely with the draftsman.
3. Get the plan approved by the State Fire Marshall.
4. Put plans and specifications out to at least 3 qualified bidders. This is a public use facility and will have to be built to code, including the Fire Marshall’s requirements. We do have information on several qualified contractors.
5. Have a public hearing to review the proposed plan or plans. It is important to make it clear to the public that once this hearing is conducted the resulting proposal is what the Town plans to pursue.
6. Will have to have a special Town meeting to raise the funds.
3. Grants:
· Julie will get the name of at least one professional grant writer (from Denmark).
· A professional grant writer will know where to pursue financing and what information needs to be provided.
· We will check with Homeland security to see if any grants are available for emergency services.
· If no grant money is available, we will likely need a bond.
· One bond option is a bond from MMA .
· Any government grant will require an income survey to see if the Town qualifies.
4. The committee would like to request some direction from the Selectmen regarding some of the
following issues:
· What portion of the above list would the Selectmen like the committee to pursue?
· The committee would appreciate some direction. At this point we are focused on getting a basic design to work on the property that we already own but are fully aware that there are other issues (financing, grant writing, etc.).
· Will the Selectmen decide how many options go before the town for a vote? The previous committee promised three options to be presented to the voters. If the Selectmen want to present three options, we would suggest something like the following since there seems to be no purpose to coming up with three completely different designs.
1. Option of a building that is approximately 50 ft. X 70 ft. with a meeting room.
2. Option of a building that is approximately 50 ft. X 70 ft. with the option to add a meeting room at a later date.
3. The option of building either of these configurations as either a stick built building or a metal building.
The buildings would not be vastly different except for minor changes in use or construction.
· Would the Selectmen consider advertising for a grant writer? If so, who will determine who to use.
5. Things to think about:
· The Denmark committee worked for about a year and a half on their design.
· Our current design is based roughly on the Denmark station. The size that we are proposing is based on the housing the amount of equipment required to be considered for mutual aid per the Fire Chief.
· The Denmark Fire Dept. has additional storage for their equipment off site so we may need a little more space than what they have.
· The Denmark station also has a meeting room added to the back.
· If we pursue a grant which the committee thinks is wise; we believe that the plans have to be at or near completion before a grant would be made. This should not prevent us from getting started on the process however.
Meeting adjourned @ 9:45AM
The next Meeting will be held on Tuesday September 25, 2007
from 9:00 – 10:30 AM at the Town
Office.