Minutes of Town Board Meetings
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Minutes 12/06/2016
December 6th, 2016
Town of Carroll Building Committee Meeting Minutes
December 6, 2016 @ 10:00 a.m.
Carroll Town Hall
Members present: Tadd Bailey, Paul Bussiere, Christopher Carley, Greg Hogan, Michael Hogan, Brad Houston, Ed Martin, Bonnie Moroney, Jeremy Oleson, David Scalley, Imre Szauter, and John Trammell
The meeting was recorded.
A draft agenda was distributed and a sign-in sheet was routed around.
Attendees stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Attendees introduced themselves and stated their role in the town.
Although listed on the agenda, review of the November 18 draft meeting minutes was deferred until the next regular meeting of the Building Committee.
Bonnie arranged for Christopher Carley of C. N. Carley Associates, Architects and Planners, to attend the meeting to discuss his design of the Franconia Public Safety Building.
Imre thanked Mr. Carley for traveling from Concord to meet with town employees and members of the Building Committee. He provided a brief background on the structures currently occupied by the Police and Fire Departments, and the Town of Carroll administrative offices. Imre stated that most attendees have had an opportunity to tour the Franconia facility and thought it would be a good starting point for opening a discussion on the needs for new quarters for the town’s public safety and administrative services.
Mr. Carley asked a series of questions about our building site and spoke about some of the challenges faced at the Franconia building site. Jeremy provided his observations about the Franconia facility and noted that the drawing being circulated was not the one used in its construction. Mr. Carley stated that a copy of the final stamped drawing would be needed for him to evaluate the structure and better answer our questions.
Mr. Carley explained that Franconia had requested a design-bid-build process, but may have opted for a design-build process to speed up construction of the new facility. He stated his firm discouraged building a pre-fabricated structure. David stated that the Franconia building is a stick-built structure.
Tadd offered to contact the Franconia Police Chief about obtaining a copy of the final Franconia plan, then excused himself from the meeting to do so.
While waiting for a copy of the final plan to be faxed, Imre asked Mr. Carley to address design considerations related to energy efficiency, space utilization, and public access.
With regard to energy efficiency, Mr. Carley stated that any new structure would be more efficient than what the town has today and depending on site and orientation considerations, may offer significant savings and opportunities to generate power onsite using solar panels. He stated sufficient insulation and air sealing are critical factors in reducing heating and cooling energy losses. Mr. Carley addressed thermal bridging and moisture control, and methods to minimize them. Mechanical ventilation to supply fresh air and exhaust stale air is a must in tight buildings. Gathering and analyzing energy usage data help determine if design parameters were properly implemented and provides feedback to the community on the efficiency of the structure.
Asked if he had ever designed using ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms) in a structure, Mr. Carley stated he had not, primarily due to cost and the space they take up. Asked about the use of SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels), he stated that they present durability and off-gassing challenges, but significantly reduce thermal bridging. With regard to life span, Mr. Carley stated that with proper maintenance and periodic replacement of mechanical systems, any properly designed and built municipal structure can be expected to provide over 100 years of service. Mechanical systems and roofs should last between 20 and 25 years, and replacement with more efficient systems could yield additional energy cost savings during the lifespan of the building. Quality windows can provide up to 50 years of service.
Mr. Carley stated that changes will occur within public safety departments’ requirements during the lifespan of a building and those changes should be anticipated in the planning process. For example, firefighting vehicles have gotten larger (both in length and height), resulting in movement and storage problems if equipment bays are not sized properly. When asked to address the addition of the administrative offices to a design such as Franconia’s, Mr. Carley asked about other space requirements, such as a meeting hall, that would be included. Bonnie stated that a multipurpose meeting area would be desirable. Mr. Carley stated that regular public access would add complexity to a police and fire department design because of code issues and the movement of people and vehicles in and around entrances and equipment bays.
Mr. Carley suggested that other design approaches may better address combining public safety and administrative offices on a single parcel of land. It would be in the best interest of the Building Committee and the town if a set of structural plans that meet a large percentage of the town’s needs could be located and then used going forward. The Franconia facility, housing only the police and fire departments, may not turn out to be a good plan after adding administrative offices to the design.
At this point, Tadd distributed copies of the current Franconia facility. Mr. Carley reviewed and commented on the drawing, contrasting it with the original drawing distributed at the beginning of the meeting. He noted that in the final drawing, they flipped the police and fire departments within the building (mirror-imaged them), removed storage facilities from the apparatus bay, and the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) access from an exterior wall (not from the fire department administrative offices area).
David asked about placing a multipurpose meeting area in the center of a structure with restrooms for the police and fire departments and administrative offices all backing up to each other. He reasoned this could reduce costs and better utilize space and personnel flow throughout the building. Mr. Carley indicated he may have proposed a design that placed people on one side of the building and equipment on the other, but that didn’t work for the Franconia site. One of his considerations is to provide windows in every space occupied by people.
Mr. Carley suggested that a good exercise for this group would be the collection of the likes and dislikes of the Franconia facility from police and fire department personnel and a list of the needs from the administrative offices’ staff. Imre agreed to collect this information and provide it to Mr. Carley.
Mr. Carley asked if property information was available for the town’s land. David offered to obtain a topographical map with property lines and existing structures shown on it.
Michael mentioned that the town library should be taken into consideration. Imre mentioned the Historical Society may need space.
Bonnie mentioned the immediate goal should be drafting a warrant article to cover the cost of planning, preliminary engineering and consulting services for a new facility. Mr. Carley stated that knowing the scope of the plan is critical to estimating this phase of work, as just a police and fire department design is less complex than one that includes the town’s administrative offices and possibly other functions, such as accommodating the library and the Historical Society.
Mr. Carley stated that he could work up a rough estimate for the scope of the project, based on the functions to be included in the building and site considerations.
Brad asked about two-story structures. Mr. Carley outlined the pluses and minuses of multi-story structures for municipalities, including code and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance. Mr. Carley stated he designed the Franklin Police Department two-story building on a sloped site.
Greg asked Mr. Carley if he had designed any nearby municipal buildings with all three functions (police, fire and administration) in them. Mr. Carley stated that he had not, but he felt the Franconia facility was a good design and one closest to us.
David asked if Mr. Carley can stamp drawings. He stated he could, but the various disciplines involved in a project, including architect and civil, mechanical and electrical engineers, must all be involved to develop a final set of documents. Mr. Carley suggested that Franconia used a full set of stamp drawings to seek competitive bids for construction (design-bid-build process).
An alternative to this approach is to develop a schematic design with outline and performance specifications to submit for design-build proposals. In this approach the contractor is responsible for final construction drawings and the design-build of the civil, mechanical, and electrical systems.
Mr. Carley stated that there are advantages and disadvantages to both design-bid-build and design-build processes. In design-bid-build, the process is clean, arms-length, and the client has complete control over what goes into the building. In design-build, someone with complete knowledge of the design, installed equipment and construction process must oversee the project to be sure the contractor is doing a quality job. Design-build is cleaner overall and may take less time to completion.
Mr. Carley suggested that he could provide a full-service proposal for the Building Committee to submit as part of the proposed warrant article. Bonnie thought this would be a good starting point.
Mr. Carley asked about the history of proposed new municipal structures in the Town of Carroll. Bonnie outlined the various proposals that all failed.
Mr. Carley concluded his participation by providing his business card and his firm’s website (www.cncarley.com). Imre offered to be his single point of contact for the town and promised to follow up with the information outlined during the meeting.
Following Mr. Carley’s departure at 11:15 a.m., the remaining attendees discussed a variety of issues related to a new facility and the fate of Town Hall under various scenarios.
Discussion took place on potentially closing down the gymnasium portion of Town Hall to reduce operational and maintenance costs. One concern is the age of the older boiler that heats all of the building except the administrative offices. Another is the lack of proper life safety systems, fire suppression systems, and ADA-compliant restrooms makes continued use of that portion of Town Hall a potential liability to the town should something go wrong. Many attendees were not in favor of spending taxpayers’ money to bring the current Town Hall into compliance.
The next meeting of the Building Committee is scheduled for Friday, December 16 at 9:00 a.m. in Town Hall.
Meeting adjourned at 12:20 p.m.
Minutes prepared by Imre Szauter.