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Heath Massachusetts
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Heath Town Facilities Task Force meeting

Thursday, February 13, 2020, 6:00 pm until 7:45 pm
18 Jacobs Rd, Heath, MA
A meeting of the Town Facilities Task Force

Meeting of Town Facilities Task Force

Members: (Quorum)

  • Absent: Sue Lively, Secretary
  • Present: Dena Briggs, Chair, at 6:00 PM
  • Present: Jim Cerone, member, at 6:00 PM

Also Present:

  • Will Emmet
  • Margaret Freeman

See original Agenda Final Minutes

Meeting opened: 6:10 PM

Meeting closed: 7:59 PM

  1. Meeting Preliminaries

    • Meeting Opened / Attendance Taken (see above).

    • No minutes to approve.

  2. OLD BUSINESS

    • 6:10pm: Approved minutes from 2/10/20 meeting - Approved with striking "She will prepare a revised copy."

    • 6:12pm: Review operating costs for buildings - Review operating costs collected by Bill Gran and validated (as well as we can) by Will Emmet. Assign someone to apply costs to any plan drafted.

      General Discussion...
      Will Emmet reported on his findings:
      *Community Hall hours of use estimate is around 50 hours/month.
      *Insurance on Community Hall if true use was reported to insurance company could be quite high. Dena reported her friend in the insurance business informed her that should we try to place a claim without the proper coverage, we would likely be denied, and if we do not want to pay the proper premiums, we could consider not insuring the building.
      *Leyden's former school is now their municipal building. Will is going to contact the Leyden Administrator to see if he can get a comparison in costs between the two uses.
      *Will spoke to Alice and Hilma about cleaning up old records and files and rearranging the office layout for greater efficiency, security and privacy. The idea for a change in layout would apply to offices should they stay in Sawyer Hall or move to 18 Jacobs Rd. Surplus office furniture is available at low cost through GSA Federal and State branches. For example, Hampden County Registry of Deeds has 9 5-drawer lateral filing cabinets for $5 each plus transportation.
      *Operating costs will be discussed more at next week's meetings.

    • 6:45pm: Review draft potential plans from 2/10/20 meeting - Review ideas formed at 2/10/20 meeting and apply updated, approximated operating costs. Measure potential plans against our BASIC REQUIREMENTS LIST. Perform SWOT analysis of each potential plan.

      General Discussion...
      *The "ALL GRANTS PLAN" was reviewed. Jim had not seen Heather Hathwell's emails on potential historic building grants, so he will review those and incorporate what he can into this plan.
      *Since the "ALL GRANTS PLAN" includes retaining the 18 Jacobs Rd property, Dena questioned if the Historical Society might be interested in occupying a portion of Sawyer Hall should space there become available. To Dena, it seemed sensible to have a Historic Society occupy an historic building, and perhaps even have something for tourists to see. It seemed a stretch to others.
      *The "ALL GRANTS PLAN" was compared to our original list of Basic Requirements of Any Good Plan, and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis was conducted on this plan.
      *Team decided Sue should speak with Charlene at the post office to discuss potential impacts if the Post Office were to be relocated.
      *We had hoped to do the same comparison and analysis with the "Sell 18 Jacobs Rd" plan, but Bill Gran was charged with that plan, and unfortunately he did not attend the meeting.

  3. NEW BUSINESS

    • 7:45pm: Create and assign action items - Based on discussion during meeting, Dena to assign action items to team members with deadlines

      General Discussion...
      *Sections of report to Select Board were reassigned to take some of the burden off Jim.
      *New sections were added.
      *Noted that proposed plans need to include framework to start with projected costs, energy initiatives and related savings over time.
      *Requested drafts of reports be ready for discussion for 2/17/20 meeting.

  4. Meeting Wrap-up

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 also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.

Minutes approved on Wednesday, Feb 19, 2020