are welcome and thank you very much for coming this is a nice crowd we're very pleased we're also on cable television so some people at home can be enjoying this as well my name is anne marie mahoney and i am chairman of the d p w belmont police department building committee we're happy to have you here this evening our purpose in having this public meeting is to point out all of the information that we have on this building project in anticipation of town meeting next wednesday when we will vote on this project under article twenty three so this is your opportunity to hear about it to hear the numbers to see all the designs and drawing drawings to ask as many questions as you'd like we have members of the police department and the d p w present and they also will be speaking to you briefly this evening as well as mike smith from the historic district commission the line up or the way we're going to handle this this evening is i'm going to start with a brief sort of overview and some background on the project as well as an overview of the financing then i'm going to turn it over to our architects ted go on t v who will show you the drawings and explain anything that you need to know about them then i'll move to mike smith chief mclaughlin and jay market and after were done with all of those presentations and we will keep it moving along we will have plenty of time for you to ask your questions make comments whatever that's why we're here this evening ok now they've given me this really swell thing and they've promised that i can actually know how to use it  oh one thing before i start at town meeting sort of as an introduction to article twenty three i will be doing a final report from the major capital projects working group and that will actually sort of set the table for this and give you a little more of the background of how we got to the building committee so i'm not going to bother with that tonight for tonight we want to focus all our time and attention on the future  right let me introduce the members of the building committee for you and most of them are here with us this evening kathleen fitzy cowing roy epstein not here but i think he's coming shortly anthony ferrant myself stephen resolve this juror is a nany and sarno bill she is not able to be with us this evening and michael smith in addition to that are people from the town who've been working santoro for being with us now sort of the brains of the operation we have two people that the building committee hired right off the bat as you'll recall a special town meeting in november authorized the formation of this building committee and we got to work right away and by the middle of february we had hired and o p m which is an owner's project manager and our architect so our owners but he is well known in belmont for being the director of community development for two thousand following his work in belmont he went on to become the commissioner of public safety for the commonwealth of massachusetts for eleven years historic restoration of public safety buildings let me speak just for a minute on the hiring process for these two individuals because someone asked me this monday night league of women voters and i think it's important to walk through this that people understand both how we do this and the relationship of these two gentlemen to the building committee as soon as the building committee was formed we put out a request for services we got multiple responses for both services p m an architect starting with the o p m because that was the first hire this individual the role of this individual is to be an advocate for the town the o tom works for the building committee and he will oversee sort of the day to day workings of this project keeping the architect and eventually the contractors on task on time on budget are few with him was negotiated after the fact so this was not a bid process in the traditional sense and the town chose him for many reasons not the least of which is his talents but the fact that the town also has done a lot of work with davis the company that he works for going all the way back to the chattering middle school how do we choose ted architect ted was one of eight firms who submitted proposals to us we reviewed them and ended up choosing four firms to interview we weighed all of the advantages and disadvantages as well as the relevant experience of these firms again cost not a factor fee is negotiated after the fact  chose ten and we have been extremely grateful ever since that we did ok you're all familiar with the police station by now i hope you've had the opportunity to talk or call to police station in the d w if you haven't we've sent out video links so that you can view tours steve has done some of them jamie make isaac has created a video all of that has gone out through the town clerk if you don't get the town clerk's mailings we do have a facebook page and i'll give you that address at the end of the evening all right starting with the police station the present building was constructed in one nine hundred thirty  one i believe we've included well the newspaper today included jamie's photo of the front page of the old belmont citizen from one nine hundred thirty one when the police station opened looks the same today except the trees grew up the lobby was renovated in one nine hundred ninety five to make it more secure and there was some minor work done on the interior but not a lot and not any kind of major renovation in any way shape or form the present size of the building is fourteen thousand square feet which is grossly undersized for the work that the police do today eighty seven years after that station was built we've done numerous feasibility studies as a town for a new police station either on the present site on the site of the library or at the d p w site these studies have included estimates for new construction ranging anywhere from twenty million to thirty five million dollars depending on the location present location being the most problematic despite the many deficits of the building because there was never a clear consensus on a site the police station never rose to the top of the list for new construction again despite the condition that it's in let's take a quick look at the department of public works this building also was constructed in the early one nine hundred thirty s and over the years numerous additional garages and shops have been added on that site but for the main building that we're dealing with now we're back to the one nine hundred thirty s partially spruced up in hundred eighty one as mike santorum likes to say with the product they put a coat of paint on us with the promise of bass a complete replacement was in the near future mike has spent his whole career in that building there hasn't been anything done to it since one nine hundred eighty one multiple feasibility studies indicate that the building must be replaced immediately with new construction costing anywhere from twenty eight to thirty six million dollars all right let's fast forward to where we are today our more recent history starts in two thousand and twelve with the capital budget committee saying to the board of selectmen look you starting to move forward with the plan for the high school the library has the board of trustees and they want to do their project but there are there is no constituency to push forward either the police or the d p w and the capital budget committee was willing to be that constituency and actually formed a plan for prioritizing and sequencing those four major projects and as i said d p w i'm pleased rose right to the top of the list moving along to two thousand and fifteen the financial taskforce capital subcommittee reinforced all of that information and said police and d p w are at the top and we have got to address these buildings finally in two thousand and seventeen major capital projects working group was formed and attempted to create a plan for the high school the library d p w and police and that culminated last november a special town meeting with the formation of a building committee for the library the high school was already going forward and the formation of our building committee to address as one combined project the d p w and the police ok last november what we presented to you as proposed solutions for these two facilities was a two pronged attack approach for both of them one short term solutions that totaled four point four million dollars solutions that could be done very quickly to provide accessibility code improvements gender equity and safety and then a long term solution which would be permanent construction of new facilities that had to take place within ten years that's what we showed you last november where are we now our final recommendation that we will present next wednesday for the d p w includes interior renovations and added modular units on both the rear and the front of the existing building this renovation addition combination would include locker rooms and showers for both genders flexible space for training and quiet rest now you say yourself why does anybody need quiet rest at work well if you've been out plowing the streets for eighteen hours straight it would be really important if you got someone a rest laundry area because if you've been digging in the sewers we never had a sewer back up in your basement  ever had a sewer pipe in front of your house break and these guys come right out and they jump into the middle of it and they fix it for you but picture what they look like when they're done do you want that in your house if that's your spouse son uncle i don't think so but they've got no place at that facility to do laundry to change to take a shower they also need and we're providing some accessible office space and ten years we have to absolutely commis to new construction for the d p w on their site which will take place after the high school and the library have been completed police station what are we proposing here is where things changed a little bit we went into this just as we did with the d p w what can we do short term what's going to be the long term permanent solution and as you will recall from last november we were suggesting that the permanent new construction for the police station could take place at the d p w site and we held a number of public meetings and we explained how that might work as we got into this project with our architect we discovered that we actually could solve many of the problems that we considered to be insurmountable on the site and as we ticked them off one by one by one we discovered that with some additions we could provide on the size a permanent solution for the police station at roughly one quarter of the cost of new construction what's not to love so what we're proposing is a total structure of twenty fourth thousand square feet so an additional ten thousand square feet of construction this would include the elevator that we talked about ad nauseum last fall a second stair case new lockers showers for both genders new safe holding cells for both genders a sally port which we're going to explain when you see the drawings gunlock up area for safe prisoner  expanded office area expanded storage area and additional parking again what's not to what are the advantages what we get a new long term facility for the cost of renovations all safety and code requirements are addressed the police remain in belmont center they increase their parking they retain the workout area and the firing range that exists now on the lower level we are able to preserve the historic exteriors which we'll talk about more in the manage and we can potentially phase the work to minimize both the disruption and the need for relocation alright having whipped through all of that ted is going to go through all that much more slowly and show you all the pictures and you're going to love the pictures how much is all this going to cost you say police station project cost no more than seven point five million dollars we have a range for both of these buildings we are basing our plans on the highest number in that range so that we know we're covered we know we have enough money so police station total renovation and additions for seven point five million dollars d p w project cost no more than one point four million dollars our estimate last fall for the d p w was one point six total project cost no more than eight point nine million dollars and remember this is a permanent solution for the police station right where are we going to get the money it's not going to come from bake sales i have to give floyd carmen and patrice garman a lot of credit for ingenuity and penny pinching and making this work for us we are going to be able to do this with out a debt exclusion seven point four million dollars which is the maximum actual construction cost so that's not the design work the site we're the furnishings that's the construction cost seven point four million will be a thirty year bond  or four hundred forty thousand dollars in annual debt payment and that will be funded by a one time funds no debt exclusion one million dollars of that a point nine total will be for design as well as furnishings fixtures and equipment the design money five hundred ninety thousand dollars will come out of the candle fund and that will be part of our motion next week furnishings fixtures and equipment will come from capitol discretionary funds we anticipate that the d p w will be completed quickly and will open first and then as much as a year later the police station that spreads that draw on the capital discretionary money over two fiscal years finally there is still hanging out there an additional half a million we've identified miscellaneous sources that can cover that including capital turn back money we need to see what the bids come in at before we actually identify what we need and where we're going to pull it from and finally we are more than open to donations anybody who loves the police and loves the d p w feel free to donat and i say what could be more perfect that perfect gift for the perfect loved one in your life a holding cell without the awesome are watching so think about that ok i'd like to thank our building committee who has been awesome they have been a lot of fun to work with and we have been working and meeting one and two and three times a week so we got to know each other really well our administrators who've been great who've given up a lot of their time to devote to us and that as i said chief in the assistant chief director and assistant director and we also appreciate jamie's both photography and writing skills don't miss this week's citizen herald all right that was the very very fast i'm going to go back to that at the end that was the very fast run through i am now going to turn this over to ted gandhi who is going to show you some really nice  best building committees i've ever worked with i have to tell you we have inventive committed folks who are really really thinking hard about what is going to happen here d p w in the police department have been also fantastic free there's a handful of issues that are there's a there's a number of issues but the ones that we're addressing are sort of the locker area that's currently in the kind of dirty zone within the garage and a fair amount of gender inequality that is  one of the problems the office and restrooms are not accessible to persons in wheelchairs and so those are sort of two are the main issues in the building on top of sort of the fact that it needs to be replaced we're looking at a photo from the air these are the train tracks that run along here this is the main building that we're talking about as many of you are familiar with the overall d p w yard there's a fueling station for example and so that's the building that where we're focusing on and if we abstract that into a site plan a just look at it from a technical perspective that is the where the tracks this is a future community path that's in discussion there is the building that we're talking about right there and the rest of the lines are really sanitary lines and various big infrastructure that needs to be focused on on the site so that's the building we're going to turn it sideways a little bit it's a little wider than the screen but it goes from the far left to the far right it's a two hundred thirty foot long building so it's quite a significant size building but currently one walks in the front door here there's a little lunchroom in the front an office well up a flight of stairs there's an line represents a big curtain that just gets drawn and that sort of the the sitting area the locker area and the break room for people who've been plowing snow for eighteen hours as and reported out so those are really two of the problem areas the stairs another one of the problem areas and so the renovation and expansion is really to use modulars to provide a a short term solution a ten year solution but  lockers and break area in a clean zone right that's outside of the garage solve the gender inequality problem provide accessible offices and restrooms and perhaps a bit more so again if we look on the site the tracks the building as it sits and these are just there are tilted because that's north right the top of the drawing is north in the new area is in orange and yellow area is the renovation and you'll see that on both projects as we as we advance through and so the existing building is here inside of that zone and the orange pieces are the expanded pieces and so if we turn the building a little bit we come in the door and what we're proposing is to take this area that was up six feet up the flight of stairs and lower it down so that it's at the same grade as the existing slab so a person in a wheelchair could wheel in here go to this table have a meeting use the restroom just like anyone else and function in that area quite well we expand the lunchroom a little bit and the offices are also in now this new modular that's out that's outside of the existing building so one can go in and go into the offices in this area in the rear of the building there is right now this is zone is where the  locker area is what we're proposing to do is put that inside of really a clean area clean or area behind a door and this has an adequate number of lockers for the men there's a small janitor's closet there there are restrooms and showers for the men on the outside but perhaps more importantly is this also a locker room for the women and restrooms and showers for the women on this side there is a  training room here that can also be used as a quiet break room area can hold a number of people for training providing adequate number of eeg recist out and here is a laundry machines for contaminated clothing part partly if i turn my back i talking need to talk to drawings so again lockers with privacy gender equity providing adequate women's facilities and accessible areas for the offices it starts to look like this is again abstract into a drawing this is the existing brick d p w building it looks nice and straight when we draw these lines are always straight but if you really look at that building that roof is like this the front office is the modular piece is that little guy right there added on to the front and in the rear of the building same thing that roof is more more like that but the modular piece is that one there from the side it's again a little abstract but they poke out both sides and from the other side same thing it's that piece and that piece and that starts to look like this so we have an x on that's a little fuel station right there the front door is here that is the check in area with the excess of all restrooms this is the expanded break room the offices are here and then through here we have the laundry area men's rooms on this side women's rooms on this side and that training room on that side and it starts to look like that and we just have some general views of the building that looks like that so that is a proposed solution for the departed public works that we feel will solve the tenure problem will take care and i cannot do that unsafe prisoner transit transfer which is a very big thing inadequate evidence storage and no second means of egress belmont town center is a beautiful little area right this the town the town the historic town center sort of cascades around this whole this whole zone and really has some gems that building really being one of them this is a building to i think really be proud of the police station is part of that historic fabric it has a gorgeous historic facade there's a few photos of it as you can see the building has been unchanged since one thousand thirty one but is not in a terrible state of disrepair it's just not adequate for the  needs of where belmont is today right it's from one thousand thirty one and hasn't changed so we're talking about this is own right here again back to the abstract insight plan that arrow  where we currently enter the police station at the corner of concord and pleasant street and many of you have gone in their paycheck it's actually i understand everyone here is paid a ticket and so so we came in there and there's a little bit of parking here but there's also a little drive back here through the belmont m building and the police station and some parking back here and there's some other facilities in there transformers and such and so if we look at the existing building right now the fitness center is down here and there is a door that goes out to great at the fitness center there's a garage here for three vehicles there's just a corridor with a staircase in this area a little bit of storage here a firing range a training facility for training with the  then the existing we've come in the front door now and you guys are all queued up paying your tickets over here dispatchers on this side there's a men's room in a woman's room office and lunch booking this is an accessible rent entrance sort of there's  ramp to get to that entrance where people come in many employees come in here as i understand it the squad room is here lock men's locker rooms all of this area over here women's locker rooms is that little corridor and that little area right there and these are the holding  transported to the police station they car is parked here the cruiser is parked here the person is brought in and brought into booking well a person is brought in while someone may be having their lunch right next door there's really no safe place to for the for the service or service weapon to placed and there's a pretty clear path of travel if i'm trying to get away i can i can run out that door pretty quickly and there's no elevator right note again we only have one set of stairs and we can't get up the elevator on the upper floor it's a small footprint seventy by thirty five chief of the chief's office is up there with admin area detectives are in a tight little spot couple of offices sort of a laboratory over there that is the evidence lab and i don't know if that's really a clause that's not really an evidence lab or that jamie's office is here and that's sort of the second floor the evidence is the toughest spot lack of access to the second floor and only one means of egress so the pozole renovation expansion is intended to address some of those issues and we think it does that and perhaps a little bit more again solving the gender inequality providing interior  solution allow for the safe transfer of prisoners furnish adequate evidence and creates a second means of egress so back to our site plan that is the existing building  and we take the what is the currently the entrance to the site from concord unpleasant and shift it down a little bit to pleasant street to get us a street shot into the sally port which i'll explain in a minute but that's there's a parking area a garage fundamentally that's right there and this holding cells right behind that but because of the great change yours and many of you probably know that know this here you drive in at grade here you drive down a big hill and you or there's a drop from here to here of some heat and so and so we're using that grade shift to expand the building in a way that might provide a little bit more space and again the orange area is what is proposed to be new but where and when modifying the parking area and we're expanding it and putting four more spots on top of the roof of what our new garage is below so where we're doubling that parking double duty for that parking zone so net increase we think of roughly fourteen spots in terms of parking in that area this is a bunch of numbers but fundamentally we get to about twenty four thousand square feet of space for the for the police station which is very similar to the number that was being used in an earlier feasibility study for a new building again the color coding the yellow is renovation and the orange is new and you can see that's the portion that we're renovating on the previous drawing and the existing conditions there's a door there but there's no stairs so that's the second means of and that stair now goes all the way up from the basement up to the top of the second floor the fitness center is really not affected very much the range is not affected very much this area corridor area is not affected very much what was a garage three car garage becomes the lockers for the men and on the side of the women on this side with adequate restrooms and showers and all the pieces that are necessary the boiler room remains largely unchanged and that becomes the new garage in this area and the new storage areas for all the evidence so oh and the building on the upper floor so now the parking lot is over here if i bring your prisoner in i can bring them into an enclosed garage so i can drive in this door is closed unlocked this door opens i can drive in this door will not open until this door's closed unlocked so i now have a secure zone right that prisoner cannot bolt there is safety i can secure my weapon here in the lockers i can then get the prisoner out of the car and bring him in into this booking interview area in a very safe zone and we're not no we're not in any corridors we have a that orange box is really the location where anyone who's pending incarceration is going to be contained and  currently a very small squad rollcall room gets to be a reasonable size there's firearm storage which are which would be adequate reports and interviews in offices it appear a much needed conference room that can transfer into an emergency operation center so a very important part of the program that is actually a dual duty piece of the puzzle right there traffic and records don't worry you can all still put your tickets in that area and dispatch is still there we're call interior extra elevator solution because we put the elevator in the middle of the building but when we got up to the first floor it would became the top floor was exteriors of the time and so we were proposing it  first floor saul's for those items as we talked about and then up on the second floor if you remember that was the footprint of the building the sixty eight by thirty five piece where renovating the laboratory getting rid of  the evidence closet and making it a corridor turning jamie's office into a storage area and putting him where the detectives are and putting the detectives in a larger area over the course of this orange piece becomes a new  second floor piece that expands across the back of the building and down and it's supported by the stair and the elevator and they the new sally port on this side and that works out to be an appropriate use of that space and it so it really at that location and i'm sorry i'm talking a lot but this is what the building starts to look like the entrance to the building in abstract form the historic facade does not get affected the historic elements on this side stay the same looking from  sort of pleasant street is on that side of the slide but that is the sally port where one can drive in where we're trying to keep the building slightly lower than the existing building in deference to the historic piece trying to preserve the building as much as possible so that all of this is the addition that's on the on the on the back side right now there are three garage doors here that's going to be locker rooms we put windows up high that are will let natural light in but will be pr privacy likely obscure glass that door is currently there but the eager rest air goes up so people can get out of there that floor is there that's the new floor up here and then they'll be parking on top of this garage right here with some natural light into that garage there the garage doors there the repacking on top of that and so here we start to see how it comes together concord and pleasant street we enter that way or down this slope to the garages storage areas are here fitness center that's the stair that's the lockers and that zone the boiler room in the firing range there and go up a floor or kind of a floor the fitness center is still there with the top of the lockers you can see the storage loft in the mezzanine for the above the range that they're right now if we go up to the street level we come in and there's the entrance traffic and records dispatches over here roll call and squad conference an the elevators in the middle there this is the sally port coming in this way and the cells are back in that zone and parking would be on top of that we go up a level and we have the chief's office assistant chief  officers and detectives as they talk about the elevators in the middle there and we cap off the building and so that is the overall approach to the project and you can see the grade shift so pleasant street in or coming in this way to get to their preserving the building in its historic way and i think that's where we are thank you ok great three quick statements and then we'll open it up for questions and we can go back through the slides so that you can reference anything that you've seen but i'd rather get all the presentations out so i'm going to turn it over to mike smith right now family here in belmont it's listed as a important historic resource but masters of historical commission but i want to say that the preservation of the this building is not the reason we're asking for your approval we've been searching for the best ways to address the current longreach needs of the police department and the d p w as you see from the presentation that ted just made we found a way to solve the long range needs of the police department with the added benefit of preserving this important historic asset finally we have an opportunity to see a long term solution for the police station to be in agreed with both your storage district in your historic town complex moving forward we would expect to be mindful of the make certain the design and construction details for both the building and the site contribute to the beautiful character of our town complex well at the same time we are looking forward to meeting the long range needs of the long range and much needed needs of the police department  i'm very thankful to my colleagues on the committee that we've had a wonderful meaningful important relationship with each other that contributed to this overall process thankful to jay more cut and tom gets humus so thank you all very very much and don't forget to vote yes on this right i'm going to invite chief mclaughlin to come up to say a few words about the police department good evening everyone for those of that i haven't met i'm rich from law phenomena police chief before i get into deep into the subs dielike to recognize and bank you have heard about many of the people involved in this project the members as william shade who's not with us tonight but i know bill has had a lot of input and michael smith along with town i'm in a state of patrice cabin and town treasurer floyd common project manager  and women of the belmont police department as well for being the professional group that they are and for continuing to provide the level of service that they do to a lack of unity operating from a building that is extremely inadequate and inefficient for a modern day police department i would also like to thank all the members of the public and also the town meeting members that came through the station on to us to actually see the present conditions of the building and also how constrained we are due to the lack of space for those that may have missed the two updates we still have a date the twenty ninth available and just to clear up that for three hours but it's not three and i three our two of you can  take you through it but i just thought some people thought maybe it was for three hours we're not doing that but that's on the twenty ninth and i know the d p w has a from nine to noon and you can come to the police station if you want from noon to three as many of you have seen on the tours we have a beautiful lobby i really i mean that sincerely and which was reconstructed in a minor renovation a nine hundred ninety five as was noted but once you go behind that door you go into a different era and i can tell you it's not a good one as far as the prez president police station as it stands i truly believe it has served a community well and as best i could for the last eighty seven is unfortunately i also believe it has not kept pace with the times technology or the space needs that have occurred over the last eighty seven years as well when i was hired by the board of selectmen back in two thousand and seven we had a discussion at the time they asked what i thought about the department and what i thought was needed at that time i explained to them that i felt as a community we needed to reinvest  department and a good start would be to look at the building itself i felt then as i do today the building although a classic and i truly mean that is all as i mentioned previously extremely inadequate and not operating as it should be as an official and safe police facility for the times that we are living in presently the present police station when it was built in one nine hundred thirty one had a workforce of thirty two sworn male police offices today and two thousand and eighteen we have forty eight sworn police officers of which seven are female officers we also have three special retired officers along with ten civilian members of our public community communications division as well as four full time civilian employees for civilian packing control officers one thousand civilian crossing guards and twenty one members of the observant police schuman we are lucky they all don't come to work at the same time i believe you have heard from a number of people tonight but i would just like to reiterate a point that has been made the original charge of the committee was to look at three glaring deficiencies associated with the building in it and see if it was possible to have those deficiencies corrected first the lack of an elevator in handicapped access to the second floor second the lack of sufficient locker room lack of room space for a female  lack of a secure sally port and booking in safely and efficiently process are our arrestees for those of you that may understand risk management and what that entails those three items that were mentioned major risk factors and if not addressed appropriately they would have a very detrimental impact on the town of belmont i also believe that it is a good business model if you provide your employees will  good working environment they will be happier employees and in turn more efficient and productive i would like to share with you one of my initial meetings with ted i expressed to him that not only am i the department head  i'm also a taxpayer and i really don't want the town to be spending good money and putting in against something that we won't get a good return on to my amazement when i walked into the first public meeting ted looked at me and said you're not going to like what i have to say so i asked him what's that he explained to me that the building has good bones so i replied well show me and ladies and gentlemen he did and now you've seen it for yourself what an amazing and a beta project this has turned out to be again ted my hat is off to you buddy ladies and gentlemen i truly believe what you have seen and heard tonight in reference to the anticipated work to be completed on the police station site once completed will again and maybe less as a community to have a facility that we all can be proud of again as was mentioned eighty seven years ago by chief i would like i would ask for your support of the article and the project on behalf of not only the present men and women of the police department but those that will come after them for many years in the future thank you to thank everybody that was involved in this project peter cassidy you know told me when i first was given the opportunity to be the director public works here that one of his biggest regrets that he couldn't accomplish during his time here was to get a new facility for the p w it's been a  labor of love for the d p w for a long time working in those conditions having the ability to work a twenty four hour emergency operation for two three sometimes have a day off and then we can have another two or three day storm and not to have a area for our crews to relax take a break get some shuteye without being exposed to ted ted call that the apron is not it serves two purposes it separates the crews from the trucks but also when we wash the trucks it doesn't get them all sprayed on with us so it's like a shower curtain really  and i it was mentioned in one of our meetings that a lot of people don't realize how many functions that d p w has and i know that you guys all thought i was going to come up here and talk about trash because that's all i usually usually do is in my presentations talk about trash but we actually have fifteen different functions in public works and we this be honest it's it's dirty work we are mechanics we are sewer we  water we are cutting grass and cleaning catch basins we do the dirty work that a lot of people don't realize and it affects everybody every day so i again i think everybody involved in this entire process ted you you know the first thing i mean i think we talked about tractor trailer trailers and now we actually have a working model that will adequately give our crews the ability to have space have adequate facilities have female bathrooms and rest areas so i want to thank you for being able to make it work and i want to think everybody especially our d p w crews that showed up here on their own time and  thank you gentlemen that was excellent it really has been a very cooperative process for us every week that we would meet ted would come up with some drawings and we'd send jay and mike in the chief and jamie back to their respective departments w with the drawings and say ok go back to your people what do they think and they come back to us the next week and say all right this is good we've got to move this this won't work but you know it would really help and every week we just kept making it better and better and better and so we really appreciate their input and in fact i was stopping police on the street routinely to say hey have you seen the drawings what do you think so we appreciate all of that from all of them all right we are now officially done talking promise and it's your turn so i will questions we've got all the slides there are people are up front and there's the mike for your questions and we can get anybody up front here to answer anything that  ellen sugarman town meeting member precinct eight i think it looks great one thing that struck me in both the the police station is even with the new locker facilities and having for women and for men just as back when these things were built there weren't i don't know if any women were working and now yes there are but i noticed both the women's locker facilities are substantially smaller now i get that there are less women but is there a way to help the building grow of perhaps not having solid walls or something so that as over time if things shift you can you know make more on one side and police station and is that right seven and i think we're showing fifteen lockers as a little bit of a group for growth but this area you know this portion of the wall could be built in a way or some version of this could be built in a way so that it allows for future growth so that's been something that i think the same thing in the d p w that's the been something that we've been talking about internally and that gender equity is something that that we in any type of building we do we do a lot of public safety work and and we're always trying to wrestle that in in the in the right way and so there will be the ability for those rooms to change if need be just because you know they didn't think anyone would be working i took the tour one morning and d p w and then i saw the police department and i happen to know something about architecture i think it's important to preserve buildings and the plane for the police department made sense to me i've never seen i hope i never wind up in one but i just think it's really important and what i have a question on the total cost for both of these if i understand it correctly both of these improvements is under ten million dollars is that correct yes it is and the d p w will be an improvement will is for ten years is that correct what we're doing with the d p w both the internal renovation and module units that we're adding to the structure are guaranteed to last for ten years the reality is that those modulars are actually very well constructed and could last twenty years that some of the communities he works with modulars they have been used in school settings so they get beat up by kids for twenty years however having said that we have to be aware that great those modules could last for twenty years but meanwhile the main building is just going to collapse so we need to have a play on going forward so that a brand new d p w facility is built down there on the yard ten years from now but one thing i'm unclear about  that's correct ok it's not pretty no it's not high ok thank you thank you i think there's an operating budget discussion about that but if you're referring to the present windows that are broken those windows there has been capital budget money allocated to those unfortunately those repairs have not been done that's a whole other story we will get into tonight in this year's capital budget after we present this article when we move on to the capital budget article there is additional money for window repair and overhead garage door repair so yes we figured we would do everything all at once the construction the repairs everything and they'll even have heat in all these modulars hopefully that stupid red trailer will be gone and yes there will be adequate h v ac for the facility yes but the module is themselves will have heat and air conditioning yes and in the police station is there any thought to adding any more sound  range good question we can discuss that we had that hasn't come up as an issue as far as i know just yet but but that can be discussed i think it's an issue thank you this actually is helpful because we collect information through questions exactly like that and we take notes and then as we move forward with this that's a very good point to make thank you casey williams tommy member precinct five  i'm just wondering for the police station i think this is tremendous plan i'm wondering for the existing building are there any maintenance kind of items that need to be incorporated into the overall design and construction that we haven't discussed here i think the existing building any building of this vintage could absorb a lot of money and i think we're being cautious about not spending money on the existing building unless it's absolutely necessary in certain areas i think that's that's the way to answer it i think you know the money's going to expanding the building in the proper way and making the code upgrades that's the that's the intent so all that all the codes will be met and we brought up to code also we have talked about since it is a stork facade on the building applying for c p a funds to upgrade the exteriors terms you know painted pointing and that sort of thing that could be done and so that that is also part of the plan although it's not part of this project for say it's not part of the money that we're asking for at town meeting i have one other question if i may yeah well this presentation or a shorter version with the plans be available before a town meeting we're on cable and this presumably will play several times before town meeting are we for example posting all this on a website no ok i was just prison five so you can get a stroller in the front door of the police station now it's actually really great question no you cannot and and the side door that's currently used as the excessive entrance will be maintained as that entrance but not the front door yes because of the historic nature that's part of one of the pieces were preserving yeah  town meeting member precinct three and neighbor of the d p w one of the questions i was going to ask was specifically about the c p a so on wednesday if you could include that in your remarks when you present the finances that because i know there are going to be other people that have the same that have the same question also i wanted to ask for the modulars living along that part of the rail i'm not sure what it is about that topographically but the acoustics really do carry so i'm wondering for the modulars how sound proof are they because if this is you know the objective is that for for it to be a rest area for the people that are there overnight plowing how quiet through anything but because you know because they may only get an hour or forty five minutes or something between when they're coming in when they're going back out i'm just wondering you know how how much noise from the train and from the trucks would be would be blocked well i think that i think they will it'll be an additional buffer from what's happening inside the d p w heading out in that direction and they have their own age v a c systems that are wondering it was hard for me to tell from the sketches but from the design sketches but i'm wondering for the break area where they currently have the kitchen it's you know woefully inadequate right now and i'm just wondering if the plan does call for an expansion of that kitchen area yes yes it does and how much bigger percentage you know it's there right now it's about here so a third again larger so thirty percent larger thirty percent larger yes ok and will that include installation of additional like microwaves or maybe an additional of an i know it's a good question we haven't gotten into the details of exactly what equipment will be in there but yes like that something that will provide for enough for the people that will be in there yes because the question for for me it's not so much you know what exactly is going to go in there but is the space going to be big enough to accommodate yes well the answer is yes yes and then i'm also wondering for the police station when i visited there was water in the and i know that the plan is to address really bringing the building up to code but it seemed like there were certain basic things just for yes and even that just really needed to be addressed and i'm wondering how the water issue is going to be addressed there's a there's a fundamentally there is a the way the garage is placed that's lower than the rest of the building and where it will be able to pump from there anything out that needs to be taken out of that area so if there is currently flooding which is not a common event in there from what i understand anything any any ground water can be pumped out of that basement so that it remains dry i guess that is not the answer the question i guess i'm just wondering you know if something could be done before why it was i mean i guess i'm just wondering because the when i visited the building it was sort of presented by you know these are things that can't be fixed so i'm wondering if it can be addressed why hasn't it been addressed before and if it's an easy solution if it's not a costly solution is that something that can be done immediately you know in terms of prioritizing which work gets done first yeah i mean i think adding adding pumps that get rid of flooding into a basement is a relatively easy thing to do a sump pump fundamentally to get the water out so that's that's something that can easily be done as part of the project do you want to address that in the present in the boiler room like to the left where you have when you go down the stairs and there's some evidence boxes in front of you and then this is to the  left why don't we thank you for bringing that to our attention will we'll have the chief and jamie follow up on that and i'm sure if it's dangerous they'll take care of it and then my last question i know this is and i commend the committee for finding solutions that really brought the cost down drastically dramatically that's and i'm just wondering if there is any possibility of installing solar panels on that new flat roof over the garage know i understand it's going to be parking on the extension that's in the back but on the next corner we can look into that but i don't know the answer the question we can look into that  right recommend federal action on this article in or credibly grateful in re to your leadership not only on the building committee but also major cup project working group and all the building committee members and ted of course your innovative solution here to a problem that i've been dealing with or thinking about for the past eight years i think is a great solution for the community i want to thank for treason floyd in terms of looking at the funding aspects into something we can do within the levee it's exactly what we needed to do to move forward so thank you so much really  also would like to say that since we started well steve's coming to the mike right epstein member came in and bill shape so we have a whole crew here tonight so if you have any questions of any of them feel free to take away thank you marie it's it's yes i have a question but it's not necessarily for the committee or for anybody here but for all the town meeting members and all the town meeting members that no other town meeting members who may know other town meeting members is that here's the question if we don't do this what else what's our plan b what is the other really what is the other option i've lived here's one nine hundred sixty moved in was form sixty two michael was a little twinkle almost in his parents eye when it was done then it was temporary we've gone through i'm team police chiefs have been here a long time and it's still the same to give a scope two thousand and six just for p w two thousand and six with the twelve years ago feasibility study just the d p w building twenty million two hundred ninety thousand dollars we're going to be able to get ten years out of it get rid of some disgusting deplorable inhumane conditions something i wouldn't work and your parents wouldn't want them your kids your uncles your friends nobody would want to work in those conditions where men and women for the town work it's inhumane this is an opportunity to do it for one point four million dollars on the highest in the police department it's historic i couldn't believe we could be able to do this i tip my hat to ted i think he was told you can't do this but he did it and he did it for a number at the highest end of seven and a half million dollars to give you a scope feasibility study it rings in my head to put it police station on the current site th two million dollars and when would that get built i don't know i doubt it we're talking about you know it's like dog years ten years in belmont is ninety years in belmont is so that's my question we need a two thirds vote and we can do this as if we taxpayers like the chief like myself like all of you here without adding one penny not one penny to your current tax bill to get rid of two longstanding projects that have been kicked down the road time after time after time again so you know i'm usually pretty critical of things if you know me i've never met a mike i didn't like including tonight but i'm rarely this excited about an opportunity that we have so i'm going to leave you with that question and we need two thirds vote it's hard as you know if someone said the sun i propose the sun rises in the east and sets in the west there would be opposition so you know and it's very dramatic because we've got these little clickers now so we've got a click there's no halfway but nobody's gauging it's like ok click in the three to one and then some bars pop up we need two thirds we need t thirds or else what's plan b and and with that i will leave you with that thought thanks for come and tell your friends we need to help police need to help to be doubly need the help we all need to help thank you right thank you on that note if there's no other questions like marie let me remind you if you still want to see the two wars tuesday the twenty ninth also fitzy i have to thank her for being our social media guru because some of us on the committee can barely deal with our phones but she has set up a facebook page which is belmont d p w slash police building committee check it out there's links there to all the videos there's more information and we'll get these drawings up on the town website safety ok thank you very much