Share Your Thoughts on Middlesex Buildings

    Our townspeople care for the buildings in Middlesex. The Fire Station keeps the trucks and equipment to put out fires. Our Town Garage has trucks and equipment to keep our roads passable in all seasons, and our Town Hall has a vault, offices, and voting and meeting space.
     
    The Middlesex Facilities Improvement Team (FIT) are town volunteers looking at the condition of these buildings and developing a plan for them to meet our needs now and into the future. Our Fire Station is fairly new and in good shape. The same is not true for our Town Garage or Town Hall. Both need work.
     
    More detailed information on both buildings is here: Town Garage | Town Hall
     
    We want to hear from you, our neighbors. Help us figure out creative and workable solutions that will meet our needs and not break our bank. Our taxes are already high.
     
    Below is some background information about what we have learned, and some questions for YOU.
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    Please take 15 minutes to complete the survey below by May 15th. Your response is anonymous. Or send us an email: [email protected]
    TOWN GARAGE
    ​    The Committee has identified the Town Garage as the highest current priority. The building itself – really just a shell – is long past its useful life. It is rusted and too small to store some of the expensive trucks, so they need to stay outside. Rearranging trucks to do maintenance seems like a Jenga puzzle. Storage for fuel and other supplies are inadequate.

    The current location of the Garage at 2 Shady Rill Rd (near Rumney) is on a main road and centrally located, reducing travel for the trucks to work on roads. The site can likely accommodate water and septic needed for the Garage. The Committee’s current thinking is to look into adding on to the current garage, use the existing garage as cold storage, and update the water and septic systems as needed. 

    ​LOCATION:
    RENOVATE OR REPLACE
    TOWN HALL/TOWN OFFICES
    Our Town Offices are in the basement of the Town Hall at 5 Church Street. Following the very clear message sent by voters that funding for an ambitious and expensive renovation of the Town Hall was not supported, the Select Board and Facilities Committee are evaluating lower-cost projects and options. In addition, volunteers have worked to improve safety and energy efficiency in the current building. The Town is looking to make limited, but needed, “band-aid” improvements to the existing building to keep it safe and usable for the next 5 years while evaluating the cost and advisability of more significant improvements sometime in the future.

    LOCATION
    The Town Hall in the Village is not centrally located, but is a historic building near major roads and other businesses, and is in a location our Town Plan identifies for municipal offices. This improves opportunities for grant funding, and makes permitting simpler. The Town Plan can be changed, but that takes time and the outcome is uncertain. The Committee is evaluating whether a new Town Office should be combined with the Town Garage, and whether sufficient buildable land, water and septic are available at the Town Garage site, as well as the effect of the Town Plan on location decisions.
    Building Features. The current Middlesex Town Hall has historic features and is in a village location supported by our Town Plan. It includes meeting space (e.g. for use by town committees), office space, and limited space for voting. In the past, our Town Hall was available to Middlesex residents as a public space (often used for community gatherings, exercise groups, clubs, etc.) but in recent years due to deterioration and space constraints, that is no longer available. The Town Hall building is a sound, historic structure, but the office configurations and accessibility are limited.
     
    How important are the following features for a future Town Office building?​ Click the "Historic features" box to see the list of features. Select each feature only once.
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