By Abbey Woodcock

In a reversal of the village board’s original opinion about a joint town and village facility at the old Fennel Street Fire station, both municipalities have agreed to look into the plausibility of combining their offices.

The town and village boards created a Joint Building Committee to oversee the project and report back to the boards with findings and recommendations. The first orders of business for the two bodies were to elect representatives for the committee.

Former village trustee Alan Dolmatch will chair the committee after his extensive involvement in researching the site as a village office and police station, the village’s original intent.

Kathryn Carlson will represent the village. Ellen Kulik, who originally brought the joint building proposal to the village with Town Supervisor Phil Tierney, will serve as the town’s representative. Town lawyer Pat Sardino and village lawyer Mike Burn will also serve on the committee.

The committee formed an inter-municipal agreement subcommittee to work out the details about the arrangement between the town and the village. For now, the two will split the cost of creating the master plan and researching 50/50.

Holmes, King & Kallquist (HKK) will prepare the master plan and until all the details of the contract are worked out by the committee, the boards approved to pay the company on a time and materials basis.

The committee hopes to have a master plan by mid September and will at that time hold informational meetings on the project for the community.

In the next few weeks, HKK will meet with the staffs of each municipality to evaluate their needs and wants for the space. They estimate the meetings will take 3-4 hours for each group.

In the meantime, the police have striped the site of the old fire station and free parking is available during the day.