Facilities Use Committee Minutes 07.18.24

The meeting came to order at 8:30 AM. Present were Karen Hambleton, Scott McCaskill, Bruce Gezelman, and Chip Meany (Select Board representative). Also present were Andrew Pinard, Tracey Quigley, and Marlene Freyler.

The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted.

Andrew volunteered to join the Committee as a member. The committee voted to accept him, and will recommend his membership to the Select Board.

The Committee is in need of a chairman. While Karen has been fulfilling this role, she felt that someone other than the Town Administrator should hold the position. Bruce volunteered, and the Committee voted its approval (Bruce himself abstaining).

The remainder of the meeting consisted of a long discussion of how to manage the rental of the Town Hall and BACC facilities, how much to charge, and how to block out the rental times. Andrew described how Concord handles the rental of its various facilities, and how the Hatbox Theater handled rental of its facility. Tracey sketched out some of the operations of the Red Barn in Wilmot. Andrew also covered how KRSD school facilities are rented.

There are already two or three possible renters interested in the theater space, and possibly some others interested in space now available in the BACC. Andrew recommended that the Committee put together rental application forms and a fee structure as soon as possible, as some renters want to start in September, which leaves us little time. The Committee agreed to meet again on Wednesday, July 31st, to approve applications and fee structure for submission to the Select Board, and it was further agreed that Bruce, Scott, and Tracey would meet on Tuesday, July 23rd, to develop the application forms and fee structure. Bruce will look into the rates that Warner currently charges for rental of its facilities, to give us an idea of what current rental fees are, so that we can be competitive.

An item to be added to the next meeting’s agenda, is how to use the income from the rentals to improve the facilities.

The meeting adjourned at 9:47 AM.

Minutes submitted by Scott McCaskill