From left: Bill Johnson, George McKenna, and Keith Cheveralls listen as Town Administrator Tim Bragan questions the validity of polling those present if the School Committee and FinCom have not yet received a copy of the Municipal Buildings Committee report with recommendations. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
If the selectmen honor the “straw vote” of the four boards responsible for the bulk of town spending, Harvard residents will have a chance this spring to decide whether to begin renovation of Town Hall and whether to move Council on Aging programs to the old library or keep them at their current location at Hildreth House.
The three “straw warrant articles” came at the end of a more than two-hour “quad board” meeting called by the Capital Planning and Investment Committee (CPIC) and attended by the Board of Selectmen and Finance and School committees to consider recommendations by the Municipal Buildings Committee (MBC) for baseline improvements and expansion opportunities at the three town buildings. The MBC had previously reviewed the recommendations with the Board of Selectmen at that board’s Feb. 1 meeting and with the CPIC at its Jan. 27 meeting. Although the MBC had intended to distribute the final report to the Finance and School committees ahead of the “quad board” meeting, it had not finalized the draft by that time.
In view of the fact that not everyone had the same information, MBC Chairman Ron Ostberg came to the Feb. 5 meeting with a PowerPoint presentation and handouts, prepared to provide a short overview of the MBC recommendations to the four boards; however, CPIC Chairman George McKenna did not allow Ostberg the opportunity.
At the outset of the meeting, during public comment time, McKenna requested that those speaking in support of the MBC’s recommendations speak first, followed by those who had criticisms or concerns about the projects. Comments from participants related mainly to the cost of the projects, estimated at approximately $9 million over four years, with a suggestion that there might be scenarios that would meet the town’s needs at a lower cost. Ostberg pointed out that the MBC’s December 2010 draft included multiple scenarios across a range of pricing for reaching either baseline or full build-out of all the buildings and cited multiple possible sources of funding, including federal and state grants, public-private partnerships, philanthropy, as well as property taxes and/or borrowing.
Following the public comments, McKenna asked board members to give, in turn, their opinions about the MBC recommendations.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan interjected, “You can’t ask the School Committee and Finance Committee to take a stance [on the proposal] with an uneven level of understanding,” since they hadn’t seen the MBC draft proposal.
The topic all agreed on was the need to address deferred maintenance and to bring Town Hall up to current building codes, which would include, according to the MBC’s December 2010 draft, a new elevator, new egress stairs, toilets, upgrades for electrical service, transformer, generator, distribution and lighting, sprinklers and fire alarm, and a new security system, among others.
There were disagreements on the future of Hildreth House and the old library. The MBC report recommends keeping Hildreth House as a center for senior life in town. When the idea of locating the COA at the old library was brought up, Billy Salter of Elm Street replied from the audience, “No one wants that.”
Sobalvarro stated that she wanted to focus on “the actual recommendation.” What I am hearing around the table,” she said, “is that Town Hall should be renovated to meet current codes, the Hildreth property should remain the center for senior life, and a number of things about the old library. We’re spending a lot of time discussing history, but not the work of the Municipal Building Committee.”
McKenna asked the four boards to take a nonbinding vote, making a “quasi decision” about the MBC proposal.
In response to McKenna’s request for a vote, Selectman Bill Johnson offered three “straw warrants,” proposing “X dollars for the initial schematic design of Town Hall to address the existing envelope issues and provide the opportunity for expansion, Y dollars to do the initial schematic design of Hildreth House for expansion to support the Council on Aging (COA), and Z dollars to do the schematic design to do work on the old library to support the Council on Aging and a community center.”
The vote, McKenna directed, was to be “yes or no” on all three “straw” articles collectively, but some board members indicated that any vote on these issues should be on each article separately, reflecting disagreement voiced earlier in the meeting about the relocation of the COA from Hildreth House to the old library. Finance Committee Chairman Bob Thurston, Selectman Tim Clark, and Selectwoman Marie Sobalvarro voted on the three items separately, with Sobalvarro pointing out, “We have a decision by the folks who use the Hildreth House that they would like to continue to use the Hildreth House.”
BOS Chairman Peter Warren told the Press earlier this week, “The deadline for warrant articles is this Friday, Feb. 11, and there are placeholders for the three municipal buildings warrants” [discussed at the “quad-board” meeting]. Warren said selectmen would discuss the recommendations at the March 1 BOS meeting and finish the work on the warrants, scheduled to go to the printer by March 4.
The MBC has announced a series of public forums on its report and recommendations; the first will be held Feb. 17 in Volunteers Hall at the public library, starting at 7:30 p.m.
