The Rochester Select Board has chosen Cambridge-based The Galante Architecture Studio to study whether to renovate or replace the Police and/or Fire stations, and Monday night’s public meeting also delivered the appointment of a full, eight-member Feasibility Study Committee to oversee the process.
The Select Board picked the firm, the members called “TGAS” for short, after recently interviewing three contenders for the contract worth approximately $10,000.
Select Board member Brad Morse made the motion in favor of TGAS, noting it was the last of the three firms to present but the most impressive. Morse said he was especially impressed by the fact the company is devoted only to public-safety buildings, not schools or other municipal facilities. He said his view of who would be his number-one pick changed over the course of the interview process. “TGAS is now my number-one choice,” he said.
The board also approved a number-two choice, RGB Architects. Providence-based RGB will be considered should contract negotiations with TGAS fail, board members said. The board then authorized Town Administrator Glenn Cannon to negotiate said contracts with the assistance of Town Counsel Blair Bailey.
Along with Morse, who will represent the Select Board to the study committee as one of its eight members, the following were also appointed to review the results of the architect’s work: Chief of Police Robert Small, Fire Chief Scott Weigel, Planning Board member Arnold Johnson, Finance Committee member Kris Stoltenberg, Zoning Board of Appeals member Davis Sullivan, Brian Porter and Melissa Dougall.
Before the appointment of the Feasibility Study Committee was made official by the Select Board’s vote, Selectman Paul Ciaburri had motioned to appoint Adam Murphy to the committee, but Morse urged the board to reverse the motion because the citizen members of the committee should not be connected to public safety. Murphy is the deputy harbormaster and shellfish officer for the Town of Marion.
The board agreed and dropped the motion, even as Murphy complained that the stipulation was “unfair.” He said, if he had understood that as a stipulation, he would have asked for it to be changed.
Prior to this important vote, the board met the new Plumb Library director, Kristen Cardoso, a New Bedford native with 17 years of library work experience.
Her appointment by the Plumb Library Board of Trustees resolves the disruption created by the sudden resignation of former Library Director Jennifer Woodward in early August after only a month on the job.
Cardoso elaborated in an interview after the introduction that she started as page at the New Bedford Public Library. After six years there, she left to earn her Masters’ Degree in Library Science at McGill University in Montreal. She then worked as an academic librarian in California before returning to New England as the branch manager at the Howland Green Library in New Bedford.
In other action, the board approved appointments recommended by the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Conservation Commission. Alternate ZBA member Donald Spirlet will become a full member to fill the seat recently vacated by retired member Kirby Gilmore, and Michelle Upton will become a new alternate member. Conservation Commission full member Kevin Thompson will drop down to an associate member, and recently installed associate member Carl H. McDermott III will be promoted to full membership.
In related action, the board issued a citation of appreciation to Gilmore, “for your enduring commitment to the Town of Rochester.” Select Board Chairman Woody Hartley noted that Gilmore has served on so many town boards for so many years that it would be too long a list to recite.
The board then approved spending $3,700 of funds recently donated to the town by SEMASS for a safety-restraint chair for the Police Department. Decisions on spending the remainder of those were placed “on hold.”
Cannon reported plans are in the works to hire a reserve officer for Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School and organize a Veterans Day event at Town Hall.
Under items for signature, the Select Board renewed the town’s $96,000 Ambulance BAN (Bond Anticipatory Note) for the current fiscal year and appointed two town police officers for Election Day duty: Elijah Vicente-Roberts and Brian Delmonte. Thirdly, the board signed an agreement to allow the producers of the AMC television series “Invitation to a Bonfire” to close Route 105 from Long Pond Road in Lakeville to North Avenue in Rochester for filming on Monday, October 17, from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
The selectmen were unable to transact much business when the Park Commission joined the meeting at the Select Board’s request. Hartley said his board wanted the Park Commission to submit “more encompassing” budgets in the future. “We want a more realistic budget,” he said.
Hartley explained after the meeting that the commission has approached the town numerous times to request funding for extra items that he says should already be in its annual budget.
During the public meeting, Park Commission Chairman David Hughes responded that his board is working out the “fluctuations” in its budget on its own. “We are an elected board and are not answerable to the Board of Selectmen,” Hughes said.
Switching hats to speak as chairman of the Finance Committee, Stoltenberg headed off further discussion by noting the next fiscal year’s Park Commission budget has not yet been presented to the Finance Committee and that budget questions should wait until then.
The Select Board’s next scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, October 17, at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, also accessible via Zoom.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco