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Date: 6/27/2022
SOUTHAMPTON – Two committees have been working to identify properties in town suitable for a new senior center and public safety complex. According to discussions at the Select Board meeting on June 21, one site might do for both.
“We may decide one property qualifies for both,” said Janet Cain, co-chair of the Ad Hoc Senior Center Feasibility Committee. “There’s no reason to say no to that.”
The two projects have different timelines, but the next steps for both are similar, to see what options are available for a site. The senior center project will need to see quicker progress due to funding requirements. A former resident, David Parsons, passed away last year and bequeathed $2.5 million to the town for the new center. The project design must be completed by May 17, 2023, within two years of Parsons’ death.
Several properties were identified as possible sites by both committee chairs, Cain and Sarah Stine, though the suitability as a combined site was not part of the conversation. Properties mentioned by one or both chairs included the corner of Moose Brook Road at 299 College Hwy., 79 Clark St., 89 Clark St., a property at map 9, lot 141 on College Hwy., and possibly the town’s highway barn. The current site for the senior center in Town Hall was also weighed. The merits of each site were not discussed.
Cain came before the board seeking authorization for the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a design firm, to be sent out this week. The RFQ includes a list of basic elements of the senior center, which include a size of about 10,000 square feet, a café, quiet reading space, reception area with reduced height cabinetry, a room for health and wellness needs, a dining and great room, and a commercial kitchen with ventilation and equipment. Every feature listed may not be incorporated into the final design of the center.
“We established a timeline,” said Andrew LaFosse, co-chair of the senior center committee, “and basically our critical task is getting a senior center feasibility study completed by the March 16 deadline … We are up against the clock a little bit.”
The RFQ establishes minimum and comparative benchmarks for a design firm. The minimum criteria for consideration is a decade of experience, state registration as a professional, completion of five municipal projects, and the firm can complete the study by March 16, 2023. The comparative benchmarks, including longevity in the industry, extended experience with municipal projects, coherence of the RFQ response, and other factors, codify how respondents stack up against each other.
The RFQ, with minor changes suggested by board member John Lumbra, was unanimously approved by the board. The RFQ will be distributed this week. Firms will have until Aug. 4 to respond.
Sarah Stine, chair of the Public Safety Building Committee, came before the Select Board to inform members of the baseline requirements for a public safety complex site, as determined by her committee, and to ask about a first contact with landowners.
“We’re requesting the Select Board send a letter,” Stine said. “We’d like to know if these folks will engage with the town … about a town public safety complex.”
Stine told the board about the different criteria for a public safety complex site. The building committee deemed that to qualify a property needs to be centrally located, preferably within one mile of the town center, and have a footprint of three acres with a building or six acres without.
The properties identified by Stine’s committee included the town’s highway barn at 8 Fomer Road, the existing fire station, and Clark Street and College Highway properties. The committee examined all of the town’s properties, of which four were deemed suitable to some degree. The property at 34 Pomeroy Street was excluded for traffic reasons.
Chair Christine Fowles, by consensus of the Select Board, will write letters to property owners to determine their interest in selling or donating land to the town.