by Anonym ·
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
by John Osborn
A divided Board of Selectmen last night rejected the recommendations of its Municipal Building Committee and asked that it come back with a more “thoroughly vetted” and space-efficient scheme for the renovation of Town Hall.
Selectmen also voted not to fill two seats on the committee that have been vacant since the fall, and to limit the size of the group to five members. Both votes were unanimous, and followed an identical recommendation by the committee, passed unanimously on a motion by Lou Russo earlier that evening.
But the unanimity with which the building committee has seemingly acted until now was shattered last night when committee member Lou Russo and co-Chair Wade Holtzman moved to reconsider the unanimous decision of the committee last week to recommend a design known as “Scheme 2” to the Board of Selectmen (for a conceptual drawing of how Scheme 2 might look, see the figure in the Harvard Press story “
Building committee recommends new addition to Town Hall).
Though the motion to reconsider was defeated 3-2, Russo and Holtzman argued that not enough consideration had been given to greater use of space on the second floor of Town Hall for offices and future expansion, in spite of continuing requests for such plans by members of the Board of Selectmen and the finance and capital committees. Like other schemes, Scheme 2 preserves a large meeting hall and a stage on the second floor for both civic and cultural gatherings. Both said that neither had seen the proposal until shortly before their vote last week.
The delay in settling on a scheme for Town Hall threatens to delay the delivery of schematic designs for the building in time for the annual Town Meeting this April. But last night Selectmen sided with Russo and Holtzman, who as co-chair had made a “personal request” to the Board of Selectmen for more time.
“I believe [the committee] made its recommendation hastily,” he said, though he respected the votes of the other members. He said the committee needed time to critique the latest designs for a project that some have estimated will cost the town $3.5 to 4 million.
“If they need a week, they get a week. If they need two weeks, they get two weeks,” agreed Selectman Ron Ricci, who moved that Selectmen instruct the committee to return at a later date with a plan with total square footage that does not exceed that of Scheme 1. That motion, however, failed by a 3-2 vote, with Chair Marie Sobalvarro and selectmen Peter Warren and Tim Clark voting against it.
But later, Sobalvarro moved that the Selectmen “give direction to the [Municipal Building Committee] and the architect to proceed with the refinement” of “schemes 1 to 2 – 1.5, 1.7, 1.3, whatever you want to call it” and bring it back for final review after having been thoroughly vetted by the MBC.”
Selectmen Bill Johnson said that he thought it was a mistake to start with Scheme 2.
“I’d like to start with Scheme 1 and have [the MBC] convince me that the extra space is needed, as opposed to entrusting them to make it small,” he said. “I’m just uncomfortable with that.”
The new motion passed by a 3-2 vote, with Sobalvarro, Warren, and Clark in favor and Johnson and Ricci opposed.
After their appearance before the Board of Selectmen, the five-members of the MBC—still formally in session—met outside Town Hall to set a new meeting date and to adjourn.