LFNAC Minutes March 29, 2008

The Library Facilities Needs Assessment Committee met at the Town Hall at 9:00 a.m. Present: Martin Antonetti, Dodie Gaudet, Sue Gaughan, Harold Green, Sheila McCormick, Lynn Omasta, Mike Paszek.
Absent: Milton Howard and Mary Williams

Minutes of the meeting on March 15 were accepted.

Lynn Omasta was elected Vice-Chair.

Review of Pre-bid walkthrough: On March 27, 19 architectural firms sent representatives to tour the Library, Town Hall, and sites owned by the town which are possible locations for the Hatfield Public Library. Milton, Mary, Mike, Sue, Harold and Sheila attended. Architects were shown the Center School, but did not go inside. They took a lot of pictures and asked questions. Questions and answers were recorded and are being transcribed by Harold. There were questions regarding the possibility of building on the site of the old Smith Academy. A quick opinion is that it will be more expensive to renovate the Dickinson building than to build a new facility.

Sheila is still working on the building program. She is currently working on the portion having to do with Collection Assessment. She wrote a brief monthly report for the MBLC. The invoice for our ad in the Republican arrived and will be paid from the grant. Members agreed that while the Trustees are responsible for signing off on our expenses, we also want to keep track of them.

In keeping with our desire to keep the community informed of our progress, Dodie will draft an article for the Gazette. She will also create a blog to post LFNAC minutes and updates. We will stress that this committee is a needs assessment only. There is no building committee, although we hope there will be one in the future.

This committee’s mission is to assess all possibilities for a new and improved Hatfield Public Library and make a recommendation to the town. However, we realize that whatever recommendation we make will impact other organizations – especially the Historical Society which occupies the top floor of the Dickinson Building. If the library moves out, will they be able to maintain the building? If the library remains in Dickinson, where will the Historical Society go?

Our next meeting will be Saturday, April 12 at 8:00 at the Hatfield Public Library. We will open the bids at 9:00. There are no bids as yet. Sheila will keep a log of bids as they arrive, stamp them with date and note the time.

We will meet every 2 weeks on Saturday and schedule additional meetings as needed. The next several dates are April 26, May 10, and May 24.

LFNAC was joined by other organizations in town so that we could let them know the progress of the Committee and to discuss the implications of the library leaving the Dickinson Building.

Present: Jan Adamski, Jeff Boyle, and Darryl Williams of the Selectboard; Richard Phaneuf and James Labbee, Historical Society; Frederick Martin, Historical Society and Historical Commission; George Ashly, Historical Commission Chair; Melissa Green, Library Trustee.

Harold stressed the safety and access issues of the current library and the need for a new or renovated facility. There was some discussion of how much to consider the Historical Society collection in our building program. There is minimal access to that collection and it is subject to extremes of temperature in its present location. While a combined facility sounds good in theory, there are serious difficulties in creating a shared use building. One is that the MBLC will fund a library and nothing else – not even shared space such as restrooms. Having a separate library facility is much clearer in terms of responsibility.

We all agreed to meet in the near future (possibly in 6 weeks) to continue the discussion once LFNAC is further along in the process.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dodie Gaudet
Secretary