Fire House Building Committee (FHBC)

WINTHROP FIREHOUSE BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING Sept 7, 2023 at 6:00 pm DeLeo Senior Center Present: Scott Wiley (SW), Jim Letterie (JL), Karin Chavis (KC), Paul Flanagan (PF), Larry Powers (LP), Jill Dorr (JDorr), Tom Chiudina (TC), Chuck Flanagan (CF), Tony Marino (TM) ALTERNATE, Josh Castallano (JC) Absent: Joe Aiello (JA) ALTERNATE, Jonathan DiMauro (JD), Kim Dimes (KM), Frank Constantino (FC) Public: 2 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:01 2. ROLL CALL 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Skipped accidentally, done later in meeting) 4. MINUTES Approval of Minutes, August 28, 2023, as circulated Motion by JL 2nd by LP No discussion - unanimously approved, ABSTAIN: SW, CF 5. COMMITTEE REPORT 6. PUBLIC COMMENTS PF: we missed the pledge (pledge recited by all) 7. CORRESPONDENCE SW: email from Scott Mahoney Wright (p.3) asking about FAQs – add LEED certification re: tax incentives; will be showing firehouse toured that is LEED certified, part of mission statement 8. OLD BUSINESS FAQ-Brochure JL: distributed @ Winthrop Farmer’s Market (WFM) on Sunday, will be there with a booth at the next two farmers  markets LP – JC did good job with website & FAQ SW: Visits at the Firehouses, 9-12 at both stations, come by to see existing conditions JC: do you need RSVP for tours? SW: No, there will be additional staff at both stations **Pictures from toured stations** SW: went to Lexington and Waltham to tour inside stations. LEXINGTON: 3yrs old, 26K sq ft, cost approx. $20M 3 years ago; in metro fire district (33 communities.), gold standard of stations; meeting room used for metro fire meetings, 80’ deep bay, CO detection through building – if detected anywhere doors open automatically, fans in ceiling kick in in the winter to bring warm air down to help heat; traffic control station for light outside building; dedicated turnout gear station - we store hanging from poles on the apparatus bay. Turnout gear storage room has separate HVAC KC: just for Fire, not EMS? SW: Yes, training mezzanine on 2nd floor above apparatus bay; repelling training station; Solar system on roof – all hot water generated by solar, single use gender neutral bathrooms WOBURN: exterior doesn’t fit what we’d want for Winthrop St., had some nice features, individual Bathrooms outside dorms, deep enough apparatus bay for piggy back parking; need to go through air lock to get to living space; nice washer for bottles, hard gear, etc. turn out gear is damaged by UV light – all motion activated LED lights in turn out gear room; SCBA fill has compressor outside which is much quieter; mezzanine floor has interior bail out training. TECTON architects – Lexington fire is gold standard for stations; First radiant apparatus floor in world Compared to Lexington’s layout, our plan would be flipped, with the apparatus bay on the left KC: was the look of the façade incorporated with old building? SW: building had to look like downtown Lexington LP: ours could be somewhat similar with peaks and gables SW: On front of our brochure is nothing like the building will actually look; a building ours this would be $35M – the longer this is dragged out, the more expensive it will be. JC: people don’t understand how important the airlock is. JL: encourage people to take ride to see Lexington fire station SW: full solar, full radiant heat system – entire apparatus floor CF: in 2015 wet floors were an issue KC: stats on Woburn? SW: $22M, 27k sq. feet JL: Woburn was $21K KC: asks TM if architect is selected through a bid process TM: yes, but not necessarily to the lowest bidder, put out RFP 9. NEW BUSINESS Website Launch JC: born from brochure; wanted to be able to communicate easier; email from today was from website. Questions added are going to PR subcommittee and chair; point is to provide as much info as possible - has all the events on the calendar; on Home page have a “host a coffee hour” to answer questions on a more one-on-one basis; if clicked, PR subcommittee is alerted – just for Winthrop residences FAQ: same info as brochure – will be adding as more questions come in to be as transparent as possible. Video of conditions of current building JL: “how we got here” clipped from meeting and PF soliloquy clipped as well Mass Mailing SW: JL working with local company to send out postcard to every resident in town JL: should go out Monday, be out by Thursday. Will be addressed to “resident” SW: questions comments? KC: if questions from website going to just PR sub., how do we answer? JL: don’t answer, distribute to committee. Issues with email directly from site, so it was easier to send to just the subcommittee KC: coffee hour piece – how do they respond? JL: no response, people request to have a certain house/area if people can’t make to meetings, etc. KC: Can DPW put signs at bridge/coming into town? TM: will talk to DPW KC: also hardware store could put up sign SW: these are the FORMAL open houses; these are your buildings, can come by any time PF: if no huge crowd, the town’s in agreement that the stations are needed; opposition isn’t there to the FF looking for new buildings TC: might get developers coming if vote fails and buildings are not purchased by town SW: want to reiterate the immediacy, can’t be kicked down the road KC: Jim did great presentation on Tues about middle school site, and there is revenue; leasing the property to someone coming in with sports complex, everyone benefits JL: biggest piece for middle school presentation related to this is that THIS is the plan for the firehouse – if you want a firehouse built in next 5 years, this has to be the plan that we go with. Lexington cost 30% less three years ago; cost of major projects has increased drastically over time; 1997 plan was 3.5M, we’re up to 34M and its only going to go up; never ever going to find a project that checks every box for everyone, but this is close; doing everything we can for Wadsworth tenants; plan has never gotten to this stage, we have great opportunities. JD: are people still questioning about the meat market? JL: in a couple weeks we’ll reveal the plan, they’re going to be happy JD: once that’s answered people will be able to move forward KC: is that all the tenants? TM: talking to all tenants, but specifically the MM has specific needs KC: woman here was concerned about Kirby. I don’t know how to alleviate that. Used to have 5 funeral homes, now there’s 1 TC: if Kirby wants to enter into this, nothing we can do TM: if they close, the state has a process for returning funds, etc. TC: at some point, he’ll be closing regardless, and people will have to deal with it PF: cost will continue to go up - look at house prices, up over $1m often TC: municipalities need to upgrade their buildings. FH needs to be done first. JL: will be adding finance tab that lets people find out their tax increase based on actual property value KC: Would it be inappropriate to have a synopsis of middle school site? TC: need to show WHY this site is better than middle school JL: at this point MS is NOT an option TC: as someone who thought that was a good solution, after seeing the program, believe it’s not the right site anymore. Public safety building does not work there JL: do fire houses have basements? SW: no TC: our Police station does; don’t want to put shooting range on the 1st floor; would cost a fortune to waterproof basement at middle school site – site is too big, missing opp. To use for something better SW: would leave 30k sq ft and won’t know what to do with it KC: just a little about the revenue potential SW: Any further discussion? None 10. ADJOURNMENT Motion to KC, 2nd by JD @6:58 The listing of matters is those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.