Town Hall Restoration Committee
Minutes – June 16, 2016 5:30 pm
In attendance: Harry Wright, Brackett Scheffy, Michele Halsted, Jim Bibbo, Karen Hambleton, Marcia Keller (5:40), Claire James (6:00)
Also in attendance : Marge Cilley, Will Kranz, David Halsted, Sandy Paul, Beth Downs
Minutes from the April 21st meeting were approved.
LCHIP visit – THROC visited LCHIP on May 19th and overall it was a positive meeting. The Executive Director can approve a 6 month extension to the grant, after which the Board of Directors can vote a 1 year extension.
Jenna Lapachinski toured the building on June 8 and is content with what is being done there. LCHIP has accepted our document indicating we’d met the match and exceeded the match requirement.
US Department of Agriculture Rural Development Loan – Michele was working on this and reminded us that there is no early payment penalty, and it has a below market interest rate.
CDFA – Community Development Finance Authority – Tax credits are given to businesses that donate to the Town Hall. This would be ideal for the 2nd floor.
CDFA L5 Grant – This grant was submitted June 6th. It will provide funding to help bring the message to the voters and could help us when we apply for the larger grant.
Fundraising – The RHC has voted to suspend fundraising until after Town Meeting. They will need to see a timeline, plan and budget to proceed with fundraising. It was noted that many of their donors live outside Bradford.
There was a discussion about how the Committee could get Bradford voters to support this project. What is going to be different next year than in previous years? Marcia stated that LCHIP would like to see a bond put forth, and that something less than $1 million is more likely to be successful. She also reminded the Committee that Kelly needs to finish the plans and mentioned that Kelly suggested we may want to consider engaging a general contractor to manage the project.
Discussion moved to the basement. How much of the basement to do and how to get it done. Michele motioned that the committee should seriously consider a partial one-third basement in the rear of the building. Her reasons are: 1) the community has asked us to scale back the plans, 2) the full basement dooms the project; it will take too much time and the risks are unknown, 3) Bradford can’t afford the perfect solution (a full foundation). The architect has said the full foundation would best protect the building for the long term.
The idea of two articles was discussed – one to fix up the Town Hall (a bond of approximately $700K) and a second smaller bond or article that addresses only the foundation. It was pointed out that the back third may have finally settled, and thus the building might be best served by either a full foundation or no change to the foundation.
It was also stated that the project needs a totally new approach.
Michele’s motion was to be considered and reflected upon until next meeting.
Fourth of July – Does the committee want to have a float in the parade? Several folks offered to help, but more help is needed.
What should the committee be doing? Discussion followed about how this year’s vote went and why it failed. It’s unclear what people are voting against. It was suggested we may want to try a different approach.
Next meeting : June 23rd at 5:30.
Meeting adjourned at 7:13pm. Minutes prepared by Karen Hambleton