Facilities Use Committee Minutes 11.21.24

The meeting came to order at 8:42 AM. Present were Bruce Gezelman (chair), Scott McCaskill, and Karen Hambleton. Janet Bauer was also in attendance.

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

We discussed the Bradford Area Community Center rooms and amenities. Bruce had gone to the FEMA website and found the requirements for an emergency shelter. They are:

  • A stable and weathertight building.
  • Suitable sanitary facilities.
  • A kitchen for food preparation.
  • An eating area, which may share space with the kitchen.
  • A sitting area, which may share space with the eating area.
  • A separate sleeping area.
  • A storage area (requirements are not too specific about this).
  • A generator so that electric power is always available.

Given those requirements, the BACC qualifies as an emergency shelter.

Chip Meany had suggested that we need a “director of facilities”. We discussed this idea and came to the conclusion that we need two people. The first is essentially a part-time on-call maintenance person, probably contracted by the town, to perform routine maintenance and respond to unforeseen problems. The second would be an event coordinator and facility promoter, to schedule the use of town facilities for events, and perhaps contact groups that might be interested in using them.

We agreed that we need some kind of fund-raising capability, but that fund raising requires a unique skill set. We should recommend to the Select Board that a fund-raising group be created.

We went back to discussing possible uses of the BACC, and discussed the idea of having a public forum, similar to what was done with the Masonic building. We determined that an evening in mid-January would be most appropriate, after the holidays but before Town Meeting gets too close. Karen will set something up.

The meeting adjourned at 9:25.

Minutes by Scott McCaskill