The Library Facilities Needs Assessment Committee met at the Town Hall 9:10 a.m.
Present: Martin Antonetti, Dodie Gaudet, Susan Gaughan, Harold Green, Milton Howard, Sheila McCormick, Mike Paszek and Mary Williams
Absent: Lynn Omasta
The meeting was devoted to preparing for Town Meeting to be held on May 13. The Committee expects there will be resistance to selling the Center School and that some residents may suggest the Town keep the building and move the Library into it. Since we toured the building we believe the old Center School is not a good location for the library for the following reasons:
· It is too large and if we share the building with another organization we jeopardize our funding from the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners since they will not fund any shared spaces.
· The building was not built to house a library; it is not well configured for that purpose; there is a question about its load bearing capacity
· The building is in poor condition inside and would require a lot of money to renovate
· In order to be used as a public building it would need an elevator, ramps and other accessibility features adding to the cost
· The Committee is planning a community room that would hold 100 people. There is inadequate parking for even 50 cars
· The library planning process will take another year. After everything has been approved by the town and the MBLC, we will be placed on a waiting list for MBLC funding. It is likely that the library will not be in a new facility for another 6-8 years and in the meantime the Center School will continue to deteriorate.
Harold will write up these talking points to distribute to Committee Members. One or two members should be ready to speak at Town Meeting if necessary.
Next meeting: Saturday, May 24 at 9:00 a.m. at Town Hall (later changed to the Library)
At that meeting we will discuss the qualifications of the 8 architects who are semi-finalists and narrow the field to 3 or no more than 4.
Meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dodie Gaudet
Secretary
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