Selectboard Special Meeting Notes – NEA Our Town Winner and Almost A Police-Fire Update

After much work to reduce costs of the proposed Police and Fire facility projects, the new price tag for the three projects has a price range, depending on the path chosen, from $12.5 to $15 million. The options and corresponding price tags were previewed this week at the Brattleboro Selectboard’s special meeting, and will be discussed in more detail at their next meeting.

Brattleboro’s connection, or lack thereof, to the Connecticut River was the recommended art project chosen as the winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town public art competition. “From the River, To the River” is a multi-artist, multi-media, multi-site installation with numerous opportunities for the community to become involved.

Preliminaries

After some remarks about downtown projects, impending rain storms, and good news regarding the funding and fixing of the Elliot street bridge, the subject of traffic lights came up. The short discussion led to the scheduling of an upcoming meeting to formally discuss the pros and cons of blinking downtown traffic lights.

Sharon C., who said she was downtown often as both a pedestrian and driver, said that “its been quite wonderful in the ongoing flow,” with the lights blinking. She said she did some informal studies of turning traffic at both High and Elliot, and saw that most cars were able to turn in under 25 seconds, and sometimes as quickly as 5 seconds, during the daytime. She said she heard no honking, and didn’t see any pedestrians have a problem when they used the crosswalks. 

“I have had less trouble crossing since lights have been blinking,” said Brenda Seigel. “People in cars are respectful, and can move more freely. I’ve noticed the opposite of having trouble.”

John Allen suggested it be a formal discussion of the board, within the next few meetings. David Schoales agreed. “I’ve seen that studies show people are paying more attention when they have to watch out.”

Liquor Commissioners

The Brattleboro Selectboard, acting as liquor commissioners, granted a special events permit to the Strolling of the Heifers for a beer, wine, and liquor tasting to be held October 17th from 5 to 8 p.m.

Appalachian Gap Distillery, Inc., Saxtons River Distillery, LLC, 14th Star Brewing Co., Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, Honora Winery, J’ville Brewery, Putney Mountain Winery, LLP, and  Vermont Distillers, Inc. are approved to participate.

The board approved Hermit Thrush brewery for three Gallery Walk tasting events, in October, November and December.

The board granted a First Class liquor license for West Brattleboro Pizza. The restaurant, formerly owned and operated by Steve Nelson, has been sold to Anatolia, LLC, and the new owner is Cengiz Karagoz, formerly of Village Pizza. The West Brattleboro Pizza name will remain the same.

National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant

Town Manager Peter Elwell praised the work of the NEA Our Town Selection Committee as he described their all-day Friday session to consider the 13 finalists and come up with a recommendation for the selectboard.

Finalists for the Our Town grant included Jon Gitelson, Andy Reichsman, Yetti Frenkel, Michel Moyse, Tess Lindsay, Andy Wasserman, Jeanne-Marie Eayrs, Dan Snow, Liz LaVorgna, Deb Lazar, Brenda Siegel, and Scot Borofsky.

Elwell said that the committee made a single recommendation, but the town pressed them for an alterative back-up plan, just in case.

That single recommendation was that the proposal from Andrea Wasserman, Elizabeth Billings and Evie Lovett, three established artists, and their proposed “From the River, To the River,” a project collecting voices and images from the community to bring the notion of the Connecticut River and the diversity of the town into a collective visual narrative, receive the grant.

The back up projects, in the event they are needed, which no one thinks will happen, but just to be safe, are a $46,000 movie and a $10,000 dance performance component of another proposal.

“This will open our eyes to new ways to see and interact with the river and views of it,” said Gordon Hayward, on behalf of the Selection Committee. “This state-of-the-art, multimedia project is a seed being planted,” he said. “It could redefine a new area of town and improve engagement with that area.”

The artists took turns introducing themselves and their experience, and explained aspects of their winning proposal.

Part of the inspiration for the project was that while Brattleboro is on the Connecticut River, it isn’t connected to it. By using the under-appreciated spaces of the archery building and parking garage, the team hopes to invite the community to reconnect with the river through a number of installations and activities.

There will be views cleared, granite benches situated, outdoor projections and silhouettes, interactive opportunities, community portraits, and more. The artists hope to create opportunities for pausing and reflecting.

While their proposal calls for a year-long installation, board members and public urged that the work be made more permanent.

“I really feel like there has to be something ongoing about this.,” said Seigel. “Make sure some piece, or all of it, remains for the community. Otherwise it goes away and is gone.”

The recommendation will be officially voted upon at next week’s regular meeting of the board.

Police-Fire Facilities Project Update

When we last left this story, the plans for new Police and Fire facilities were put on hold to provide time to explore the possibility of obtaining new property for a police station in a location other than the Municipal Center. Plans for two fire stations were substantially complete, but the entire project was paused for further reflection. We had borrowed $5 million, and spent about $1 million, without a clear way forward.

After months of closed-door executive sessions to discuss possible north Brattleboro properties in confidence, the Brattleboro Selectboard reached a point Tuesday where the result of their work could be shared with the public. Sort of.

David Gartenstein said the work wasn’t yet complete on the contracts, so no specific location “in the north end of Brattleboro” could be announced tonight. Nonetheless, some updates could be shared.

As things currently stand, there are three components to be resolved.

The first is easiest. The West Brattleboro fire station plans from the last round remain solid, and the project can go ahead, if desired by voters, as currently designed.

The second is a slight twist. In order to save substantially on the Central Fire Station on Elliot street, the previous plans have been revised somewhat to eliminate a third floor from the design, and make room for the programmatic needs of the department with reconfiguration of the remaining two floors. The building will be built to allow for a third floor at a later time, if so desired.

The third is a town policy question. Should the Brattleboro police be located downtown, or is it proper to move them to a new, as-yet-undisclosed north end property? To frame the discussion, three options will be considered for the police facility: moving it to the north end of town or two options for keeping it at the municipal center.

The board was in agreement that public input, and lots of it, would be required before any sort of board decision could be considered. Indeed, part of next week’s presentation will be the scheduling of public meetings for that very purpose.

Town Manager Peter Elwell wanted it to be clear that the contracts under consideration are for an option agreement, not a purchase and sale. And Gartenstein reminded everyone that “doing nothing isn’t an option.”

He said that the total estimated cost of the project in 2013 was for $14.2 million. “If we do same project now without modification, it would cost $15 million,” he explained. He continued and said that if we keep the police at the municipal center, the cost would be about $13.6. If the police move north, the cost could be $12.5 million.

Those numbers include money already expended. And Brattleboro still has $4 million in the bank for this project. We also pay about $330,000 a year to pay off the money borrowed so far, and would need to borrow more.

John Allen questioned the removal of the third floor, and suggested it would be cheaper to build now than add later. “I don’t want to stall this or put a fly in the works, but I want it out there to have it discussed more. “

Kate O’Connor said it would be a big change if the police station moved to the north end. “I want this to move forward this time, but the public is key to making it move forward.” She thought the board would need to lay out the options and be able to answer questions.

David Schoales said it was up to the public to come to meetings. “If you want to be a part of the process, you have to show up,” he said,

Allen agreed. “None of us can emphasize it enough. If you don’t become part of the process and don’t become involved, with all the meetings we’re going to have, you can’t just come in at the end and say you didn’t know. That’s not fair. You’ve got to come to meetings and voice your opinion.”

Robin Sweetapple, chair of the Police-Fire Facilities Committee said some of the statements were misleading. The committee, before being taken off task, had held public information sessions and showed a definite plan. They also saved money at every turn.

“The issue I’m seeing is that support waxes and wanes depending on… why?” she asked. “Money and power.” She said that in the design field, they usually “let the trades do what they are supposed to do, and not force a different way.” Input from police and fire staff, in her view, is most important, as is cost.

The entire police and fire project facility will be on the next agenda, and probably many more in the future.

Kudos

Before adjourning for the evening, David Schoales wanted to recognize the work that David Gartenstein and Peter Elwell did “to see a way through the NEA grant opportunity remarkably well. On nights like tonight I feel I could do this forever.”