MINUTES

LITCHFIELD SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

 LITCHFIELD HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM

MARCH 18, 2004

 

A Meeting of the Litchfield School Building Committee was held on Thursday, March 18 2004, 7:00PM in the Litchfield High School Library.

Present were: Stacey Kavle, Acting Chairman; William Buckley; Bob Blazek; Lynn Chapman; Gary Waugh; Mac Bramley; Kent Gilyard; John Mullen.

 

Also Present: John Tindall-Gibson, Superintendent of Schools; Diane Knox, BOE Chairman; Tim Callahan of Herbert S. Newman and Partners; Bruce Walpole and Greg Oneglia of O&G Industries; Leo Paul, Public and the Press.

 

Meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by S. Kavle.

 

Motion was made by B. Blazek to accept the minutes of the March 4, 2003 meeting, seconded by L. Chapman.

Motion carried.  All votes were in the affirmative. B. Buckley abstained.

 

Motion was made by B. Buckley to accept the minutes of the March 13, 2004 meeting, seconded by B. Blazek.

Motion carried.  All votes were in the affirmative. M. Bramley abstained.

 

Public Participation – None

 

COMMUNICATION

G. Waugh entered a copy of Dan Coelho’s comments to the BOS in to record.

 

Leo Paul as a member of the Litchfield Lion’s Club invited Building Committee members to be present at the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, March 21St to answer any questions about the school project.   B. Buckley, K. Gilyard and G. Waugh have agreed to do this.

 

M. Bramley has the Notice of the March 25, 2004 Town Meeting and read Call #2  -

They will be adjourning Call #1 to a referendum, but we don’t want to do that to Call #2.  K. Gilyard will talk to Cleve Fuessenich, moderator of Town Meeting, on that issue.

 

M. Bramley – I was called by Dan Coelho, we had a lengthy conversation and I was asked numerous questions.   B. Buckley – Dan Coelho also called me.  I asked Dan was in his proposal is he getting that we are not in this proposal.   B. Blazek – I think we should accept his communication and make a statement.   M. Bramley – There is and has been a reduction in the reimbursement rate?  The rate of reimbursement has decreases.   What is the anticipated life of the project?   Twenty Years is the stipulated age in computation of the State of Connecticut for cost and reimbursement.  WE ANTICPATE THAT THIS PROJECT WILL GREATLY EXCEED THAT NUMBER.   K. Gilyard – We have already created this plan.  Dan Coelho has not sent an official communication to the committee.   G. Waugh – We want to make sure the information is factual.  B. Buckley – The idea of renovating the existing gym and building a new one is outside this committee.  This is a School Building Committee.   M. Bramley – We had seen potential expansion space for classrooms in that area.   B. Blazek – We discussed turning the Gym, but we can’t to the north because it’s too close to the boundary line, to the west we can turn it.  But how can we do two gyms?   S. Kavle – I thinks it’s possible to put off this discussion until after the referendum.  A lot of these issues would have been more appropriate when we filed the ED 049R not two weeks before the referendum.

 

COMMUNICATION SUB-COMMITTEE

L. Chapman – We reviewed the video, it’s 21 minutes long.  Tim’s presentation and Kent and Stacey both speak.  

I thought people left the presentation meetings well informed, although there was low attendance.   We had good press coverage.

G. Waugh – We need to be very definitive that the Plumb Hill Fields project is separate from this project.

B. Blazek – We should not include the playing field project in this brochure.  G. Waugh – I thins it’s important to clarify that this is a separate project.   M. Bramley – Would those fields be built if we weren’t doing this project?  The entire committee voted not to include athletic fields because we didn’t have the money, but discussed look for corporate funding or other means to do the fields.  We succeeded.   G. Waugh – Moving the language in the brochure away from the design makes it less clear.  The closer it is to the picture the more likely it will be clarified to the reader.   M. Bramley – it should include that it has to go to a legislative body for a vote.  If it’s a lease instead of a change of ownership does the Town still have to approve the lease?   L. Paul – Yes.   S. Kavle – The pamphlet has to go to a Town meeting on March 25TH before it can be mailed.  The State made comments and I sat with Joe Fasi and edited it.  We took out mostly adjective like improve and enhance.  We will finalize draft in the next few days and go back to the State and after the Town meeting get it back to Newman before mailing.  We also produced ten boards which will be located in public buildings around Town.

 

FINANCIAL DISCUSSION – None

 

REVIEW OF SCHEDULE

Town Meeting - March 25, 2004

Referendum – April 7, 2004

 

 

Adjournment

Motion was made by M. Bramley to adjourn at 7:45PM, seconded by L. Chapman.

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

 

Kelli L. Green

Recorder