Borough Facilities Committee

July 2, 2008

3:00 PM; Borough Hall

Minutes

 

Members present:  Borough Manager, Joe Tempesta; MLPD, Robert Tovo; Former Fire Chief Doug McWilliams; Councilwoman Ellen Emr; Councilman Stephen Shaw (acting chair); Historic Preservation Committee member Pat Rusak; Board of Education Member, Marc Cohen

 

Absent: Planning Board Member, Joan Nix & Councilman Richard Urankar(chair)

 

I   Minutes:

      The minutes of the June 4, 2008 meeting were approved.

 

     II   Public Comment (heard at the end of our session):

Fire chief Steve Butera offered that if separating some elements of any plan would help move the project forward, the fire department is willing to be flexible.

     

     III Architect’s presentation: 

Anthony Iovino distributed a five page (11x14) handout. Page one showed existing conditions, page two had option A from prior meeting, page three had option B from prior meeting, page 4 had a new diagrammatic option C depicting a third level, and page 5 had a new option D depicting use of only the existing space with provisions for elevator access. He also distributed a “Statement of Probable Construction Values” for options A and B with estimates for relocation to temporary space.  

 

Option C, the concept of adding a third level (if structurally possible) within the existing footprint of the building would only provide an additional 3900 sq ft. Since that is far below the need, the architect did not pursue this option any further.

 

Option D  would provide enough space for borough administrative functions and Fire Department within the existing building, a small lobby with elevator would still need to be added. If anything, Mr. Iovino felt this demonstrated how short of space the current facility is when housing all of the departments currently using the building.

 

Mr. Iovino then explained his “Statement of Probable Construction Values” for options A and B and estimates for relocation to temporary space.  He cautioned that they are just rough estimates and the differences in cost are not significant at this point.  These fall into the $5-5.5 million range.

 

 

As discussed at the last meeting, option A includes all departments in the common structure but would require temporary quarters for all departments during construction. The cost with relocation is roughly 5 Million.

 

Option B takes out the fire department with a new fire facility elsewhere then renovates and expands the existing building with a smaller footprint than option A. This approach allows for staging and would take longer but may be less inconvenient. The cost is roughly 5.5 Million

 

 

 

     IV Discussion, Questions & Answers

 

The committee talked further about different ideas such as moving the fire department, or the police first and even building an entirely new building. Mr. Iovino pointed out that regardless of what approached was taken, their was no way of getting past the fundamental shortfall of space for all departments combined and that the space would have to be created somewhere. He felt that since the costs were similar with the various options that the inconvenience factor may be the most influential of all.

 

The chair asked Mr. Iovino what he thought the next step would be. He responded that he would need the committee to give direction on what option to further develop. Since no committee members were prepared to offer such direction at that time, it was agreed that another meeting was needed to evaluate the various options and study the pros/cons of each option. The committee agreed that some additional information was needed prior to that meeting. The committee asked Mr. Iovino to work up a block layout of a new building with a proposed site location. He said he had what was needed to do such a preliminary layout. Manager Joe Tempesta is to put together a simple “matrix” illustrating the costs of the options discussed and advantages/disadvantages.

 

Some expressed concern that since the costs were greater than originally expected, and in light of the current fiscal climate, a project of this magnitude may never be approved by Council. Discussion took place as to what the committee’s original charge was and if it was within the committee’s role to conjecture what the Council may or may not approve. Some felt that we were charged to identify if a need existed and to offer a recommendation on how to satisfy the need identified. Others felt that since the costs are so high that an entirely new approach may be necessary. The committee agreed that this discussion was going to have to be the first order of business at the next meeting before a discussion of the existing options took place.

 

     V  Timeline (Joe Tempesta) No new work at this time. 

  

     VI Review Action Items: See above.

     VII Next Meeting

             Monday, July 28, 2008 at 3pm

 

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:10pm