VPC Minutes
7-23-08

Present: Howard Mansfield, John Jordon, Mike Fallon, Tom Pisaturo, Mary Covington, Dennis Rossiter, Jim Gamble, Kurt Grassett

1)     Howard reported that he presented the rationale around the warrant to the Budget Advisory Board meeting on 7/14. Will be back to explain more once we have the numbers. Howard is going to the Select Board on 7/28 to give them a briefer version of RFQ process.

2)     RFQ Review – Committee reviewed the draft prepared by Mike & Kurt. This is a request for qualifications only. The point is to lay out the key points of interest – everything we want the chosen firm to be concerned with. Edits: add mention that village is listed on National Register of Historic Places. Mike recommended limiting distribution. Kurt said we should at least invite firms we previously talked with, including Holden and Underwood. Meridian was also mentioned. Need to get to Select Board – Howard will take it to the meeting on 7/28, and Kurt will also attend.

3)     Warrant – Howard asked when we tentatively would like to have the public meeting. John/Mary asked whether we should have a separate meeting. Discussion was that we may want to have an informational meeting. But Kurt pointed out that there will be a public hearing, and that should be sufficient. Howard reminded everyone that we will to a Q&A for public distribution – why now? Etc. Email questions to Howard.

4)     Select Board Survey follow-up – John reported that board understood something needed to be done about the beach title. Dennis clarified that issues regarding title came out of the survey. Board sees importance, but not urgency. Tom brought up issue of getting the survey recorded. John will bring this up with board. Committee agreed that if the survey issues are not considered urgent, then it should be recorded now. But if there’s any way to make the corrections first, that would be preferred.

5)     Lighting – John presented lighting options. Lights for steeple: metal halide. Provides very even light over long distance. Possible placement of smaller units on platform, one shining up on clock & one down on rest of steeple. Other option would be a larger fixture to light both the clock & the steeple. Mary asked about lighting the whole church, not just the steeple. Current ambient light will be lost when the poles come down. Kurt asked if there is a housing that would protect the new light, so it could be placed on the ground and light the whole building. Mike expressed that he would not like to see the light fixture on the building itself. Current illumination is ambient, so there is concern about putting in major new lighting. Need to consider the Simpsons. Kurt said we could consider a smaller watt bulb. John suggested we get the fixture mounted on the building and test it out. Consensus was that the lighting has to be subtle; not a lot of light. Kurt asked about lighting from the outlying wings. John also presented a light for lighting the common pathway. Light is an LED and shines very subtle light. Kurt asked if it could be solar powered and John said a solar model should be available. Fixtures would be embedded in the posts and not visible. Mike pointed out that VPC would just make recommendation to Common Commission and that they would follow through on implementation.

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