Hey, good afternoon, everybody. How is everyone? I hope everybody will uh fill in the chairs to kind of come a little closer. We don’t have a microphone today our dignitaries speak as loudly as I do. So if you could step up, um, still in the areas here. My name is Joe Damiloviz. I’m the town

manager here in Hamilton. I am very, very excited to have, uh, this event start today. Uh, the town of Hamilton started investigating, uh, making improvements to this building in 2016. That was 2 years before I got hired. So, uh, it’s been a while, been a minute as the kid said. I want to tell you

a couple of things about the building because Cindy did a great job of giving me some facts that I didn’t know. Uh, this building was built in 18. 96 by uh architect Ernest Miguel Antonio Machado. Uh he’s done some other buildings like the Manchester Yacht Club and uh the building that now houses one

of the biolabbs, uh. His designs are predicated upon the idea of community and uh this has certainly been a community building since it was built. When it opened in 1896, the American flag that hung up there only had 45 stars on it because Utah had just become the 45th state. So it’s been here for

a long time. It’s done a lot for our community. Our goal here is to make the building ready to do another 150 years. And we’ve got a lot of more people to help us out with that. I really quickly wanna say thank you, some of the people are here. We have our health and environmental impact meetings

here. We have folks from DOER National Grid, um, that much of our staff is here. They’re very much excited and looking forward to doing this. We have our partners in campus construction. We have our partners from DSG, and, uh, we have Senator Guard and Representative Kristen Kasler,

and of course Janet, I mean. Joanne Mata from DOER. I don’t want it, um. That’s fair. Uh, I’m gonna let, I’m gonna stop speaking. I think it’s much more important to hear from the people that helped make this project happen. Um, LLBR architects, I don’t wanna forget our architects, LLB, sorry.

Um, our first, uh, speaker today is gonna be Joan Besseta, the director of Green Community division at, uh, DOER. Thank you. Yeah This is great.

I 00:02:27,500	All right, I will project. Um, good afternoon. Um, I’m really thrilled to be here with you to celebrate the hardworking commitment that all these team members have endeavored to bring this 19th century building into the 21st century. The Green communities team along with the rest of the Department of Energy Resources, is highlighted was excited to highlight this

type of work that the cities and towns across the state. We’ve worked hard over the years to partner with Hamilton, Wynham, and uh we have 298 green communities now, so we’re very, very happy to continue to support. I’ve been with the program since it began 15 years ago, starting uh in the position

that is currently How Held by Dylan Patel, who’s our Ry regional coordinator, so it’s one of the OG, uh, green communities. I work with, uh, Fiy and others and volunteers in the town to help the town become a green community in 2002. It was one of the first cohorts, and since then, the

town has kept moving forward and embarking on additional energy conservation measures in town and school facilities, uh. I always point to Hamilton and Wenham as two towns that play well together with the school district coordinate grant applications and funding opportunities to really get the most out of um of state jobs. Once the town became

a green community, they were awarded a grant of about $140,000 and just kept going. Over the years, um, the town was awarded 7 competitive grant. And awards including this one that we’re commemorating. So again, kudos to leadership, volunteers and everybody. I Since the town became a green community, it’s reduced its energy use by 15% of its

municipal facilities, despite having additional operational, uh, intensities at the water treatment plant and other places. Um, highlights also include, um, the street light retrofit that reduce energy use by the street lights in half. Uh, so on landfill, uh, and a couple of years ago is another demonstration. Before taking. You. And then lastly, uh

, a municipal electric aggregation program to allowing citizens to uh purchase a 100% removal energy for their households. This project here is ambitious. It’s one of the first of its kind that we’re aware of in Massachusetts that, uh, we’re helping to support. We’re very happy to help support. So by updating its electrical systems, it’s lighting, the

energy management system that operates the heating and cooling, and then of course, the, um, utilizing the constant heat that’s underground to heat and cool this building will be amazing. Keep it operational for diversity. I can’t wait to come back when the project’s done to have. Uh, these are,

um, so I, I want to also, um, call out the town manager, uh, all the town staff, uh, Tim Olson, Vicky Mason. I know there’s 2 committees in Hamilton. I can’t remember what what they are, but I know that they advocate mightily to have these projects happen, and I want to thank you all for

your vision. Applying for our grant and succeeding in getting it. because of the hard work that communities like this and Massachusetts that really able to drive down carbon emissions or energy use. Leave the place a little better for the kids. So thank you all and congratulations. Right, um,

00:06:56,000	For those who don’t know, the Green Community’s grant for the for this project is $500,000 half a million dollars is gonna help with our energy efficiency, uh, program in the building, and in a minute we’re gonna have the folks at ESG speak to that. Uh, first, I also want to recognize Jay Butler from

our CPC. He’ll be speaking at the end of our program. He’s the chair of our CPC, and the CPC is given over $4.5 million 6.5 million dollars, 6.5 million. $6.5 million and I also wanna thank, uh, Tom Myers of our select board for being here today. Having these events in the middle of the day makes

it hard for us to look for works full time, but Tom was able to sneak free for a few minutes, and we appreciate him being here. Uh, next up, uh, is Jonathan Taylor of LLB Architects. LLB has been on this project, I think, since before I became To manager. So we’re, we’re happy that

they’ve been persistent. Jonathan, come on. Joe, um, Tim, Jay, thank you. We remain excited and and have been chosen to work with the town on this town hall project since 2018, 2017, 2018 when efforts to save a town hall even began in earnest. The partnership with the town as we all strategize

how to best advance the project has been greatly appreciated. The full LLB team also includes some consulting engineers whose efforts complemented ours and made for a well-rounded project effort. The team includes civil engineer De Vang Incorporated, structural engineer Roma Guarranchino, MEP and fire protection engineers building engineering resources, and

finally Energy Systems Group we will hear from shortly. The renovation, addition and preservation of Hamilton Town Hall is a special project for a myriad of reasons. I, I’ll touch up on a couple of them, others do um different ones. But before I talk about the preservation scope, I, I,

I would be remiss, and I appreciate Joe mentioning that um. The original architect, um, and the, the high level um of what we’re trying to preserve um and here, which is particularly the heritage of this 1895 to 198 colonial revival edifice designed by architect Ernest um MA Machado

and built by Pittman and Brown. The first town meeting was held here on March 8, 1898. An early town library was established in one wing. The town hall is a central feature of your historic district established in 1972. Surprisingly, the building has seen little significant renovation in its

125 year plus history, which makes working on it even that much more special. The project’s interior and exterior repair restoration and preservation scope includes deferred maintenances and reversing prior modifications such as a restoration of the north end on on to my right or left, removal of the non-historic uh side wall exhaust and related

chimneys back outside. Exterior woodwork repair to the rest of the light of decay. At corner boards, which you can see some on this elevation, column capitals, dentals, the buildings and tablature, and potentially replacing upwards of 25% of the lap siding if needed. Exterior painting. A roof including roof insulation, gutters and downspouts, cupola

restoration. Restoration of existing wood flooring throughout the building. Sistering of 2nd floor framing below the meeting room to enhance its loading capacity and reduce movement, which everyone will appreciate. In the historic 2nd floor meeting room retaining and repairing original detail work, such as the historic wood flooring currently under carpet is gonna be exposed and restored. The plastic

ceiling is to repaired. Historic steal structural walls which are owing will be stabilized in some cases. The project has accessibility focus also to remove barriers to full access and further comply with 521 CMR which is Massachusetts Accessibility code and ADA. Included in this work are site accessibility improvements including sidewalks, crosswalks,

curb cuts, paint striping, and handicap work. Removal of the 1992 ramp and restoration of the north entrance, removal of a non-accessible lower level engine, removal of non-accessible exterior fire escapes on the backside, addition of a new ramp that wraps the building from east to the north, and in addition, which will include an elevator

and stairs. On top of all of this, there are some additional building site improvements, a new septic system, including a tank, a pump and a leaching field, new cedar and chamber fencing. New mechanical gate to the DPW lot, some some exterior paving, new landscaping, particularly along the southern entry to the property drive, which includes

a total of 19 trees, 5 October glories and 4 lights, 20 yard lights, removal of an existing chimney. New interior finishes including wood flooring, paint, acoustical ceiling tiles, renovated and new accessible restrooms, fire suppression system, and new MEP systems, including LED lighting throughout, including exit signage. Overall, the project

sets the stage for the next 125 years, providing refreshed town offices with a reimagined layout within the historic town hall and a reimagined accessible central meeting room for the 21st century. The project’s come a long way since 2018 or Jay’s email in 2016 when the design the design phase may

officially be complete now. The project is funded, but the work really now begins. We look forward to the upcoming team effort over the next year with Campbell Construction Group, which will get us to that completed project that we envisioned, and we’re celebrating today. So congratulations to all to the town of Hamilton on today’s most

significant and important milestone, and thank you.

00:13:29,370	Since, uh, Jonathan shared a few facts, I’ll give you another one about this building at at their first meeting in 1898, women votes were allowed to be counted, and they counted towards the towards the total, which is 22 years before, uh, women were given the right to vote and they say that in the

United States. So that’s pretty cool at the town had taken such a forward, uh, look at that. Um, next with us is gonna be, um, our partners from ESG Energy Systems Group, which, uh, they’re, they’re helping us to update, uh, the energy systems which we talked about and really improve the energy

efficiency of this building going forward. When the project’s done, we anticipate a net zero carbon footprint from a historic town hall. That’s, um, I think one of the most amazing things that I, I could say. So Mhm Thank you, Joe. A beacon for the region. The town of Hamilton’s vision

and commitment to achieving a net zero project here at this historic town hall is a remarkable example of what a forward-thinking community can accomplish. The project not only demonstrates leadership and sustainability, but also highlights how innovation can preserve and enhance and cherished landmark for future generations. Energy Systems

is proud to be hard. We’re installing, as Joanne and others have mentioned, uh, 5 major energy systems here. At the cornerstone is a geothermal heat pump system which will provide heating and cooling to the building, basically decarbonizing it, removing the gas generated heating that was required. We’ll have a building management system, a web-based

control system to support that. You gonna have penalty, we come to ventilation, uh, to promote indoor quality uh in efficient way. A 36 kW solar project will be built on the DPW new roof and piped underground underneath to be net zero. And finally top it off, we’ve got uh uh smart lighting, LED affinity

lighting, and, and integrated controls. We found some of the funding and DOER and Green Communities has the foresight last year or so to start a decarbonization program because quite frankly, without it, some of these projects just wouldn’t be able to get done. They’re contributing $500,000. This project $1.36 million on the energy side is being funded

with 9. $500,000 worth of grants and rebates. $500,000 from green communities. We have National Grid here with $150,000 from the SAS program, um, a lot of it through the geothermal and some other things, and then $270,000 from the federal incentives for the geothermal and, uh, solar components.

So, uh, with my, uh, I have with my team here leadership at Daily, our lead engineer on the project, Christian Michel. Steve Faino is gonna be the project manager. Uh, we’ll be doing this in conjunction with this project with Campbell, uh, under LLB Design and and leadership as well. We look

forward to working with the partners and making this a very successful project that DOR can highlight in the future. And thank you for the support of Senator Tatar and Christian. I know that’s you as well. As we dealt with some things. Jay, uh, obviously, uh, key, uh, your support with CPC. So thank

you all. We look forward to working with you. And we’ve really been fortunate, uh, with all the people that have agreed to work with the town of Hamilton on this project and, and how willing they were to work together. Uh, LLB was on, on board here since 2017. We didn’t bring ESG in until two

years ago, a year and a half years ago, and their willingness to just have ESG come in and be part of the team. And then Campbell, when they did the job understanding what was gonna be needed for collaboration. Coordination. I, I really appreciate all the professionals of helping this project. I also

really appreciate the help and uh input of Representative Casner and Senator Tre because a big component of the energy side was getting solar, uh, included on, on the DPW roof and, and that solar project had been kind of stuck in a study, uh, with the utilities for we had trouble getting it

out. So the HEIC let us know what was going on. Vicky let me know what was going on. We told. Uh, Senator T and Brett Casner, and then, and they got to work working with National Grid to get that project, our project taken out of the study

so that the whole project can move forward in, in, in the same time frame. So that is, that’s huge. Uh, Kristen isn’t just our state rep. She’s one of us. She lives here in town and we wanna ask Kristen to say a couple words.

So. 00:18:04,829	Well, thank you so much, and which is an interesting answering, uh, and a net 0 1898 town hall is a huge thing to say out loud. I’m proud to be here, um, as your fellow resident of Hamilton. I know this has taken a lot of time, a lot of groups, a lot of people, a lot of conversations,

and Um, really has taken all of that consensus building to even begin to form what this project is, and I thank all of you, um, and, and thanks for communicating with us. But what are the pieces we can help support, but, um, what can we communicate in terms of grants that are out there? You guys

have all done a tremendous job, and I, I. You haven’t been in a lot of meetings in this building, um, especially post COVID with hybrid kind of working in an 1898 building, um, so I’m really, really pleased to see that that this building is retaining its historic character. Um, we’re

really moving us into, uh, a modern workplace for, for our town, our community, creating a community space for us to gather. We need community more than anything right now, um, and it’s just tremendous, um, that we’re here. I think, um, here we are for really looking to invest in this idea

and Hamilton this building so we can, um, retain its significance, um, uh, to get the ground source and pump and its advantage system system in the building. Um, and Just saving, I mean, a building like this will, is not only wonderful that we’re doing all this but also will help save money for

all of us as taxpayers. Um, so we’re, we’re happy about that. Um, and I just wanted to say that I’m happy to be part of this project, happy to continue to work with you. Um, we just passed, uh, a climate bill in this, uh, the state house. Governor, which also includes a lot more we can try

to do to improve our reduce our dependence on fossil fuels that um improves through technology throughout all of. Um, Especially, um, so just want to thank you for that. We have, um, I think a lot of people citing things happening. The administration has been really great, and again, thank you,

um, thank you, we are and others for getting money out the door for these really important projects that takes so long within the community to gain the consensus to get to this point. So, um, thank you for that, um, and just hopefully we can keep doing this and anything else as you. Can you begin

fulfitting the building and renovation goes on and how we can improve technology within the building so more and more people within the community can take part in. the discussion. So thank you so much for having me here today. All right, our next speaker doesn’t really need an introduction. He doesn’t live here in town, but he may as

well. He’s here so often. Uh, Senator Bruce Star has been a big partner for the town of Hamilton at the state legislature for a very long time. We very much appreciate his efforts on our behalf, and, uh, we’d like to have him come up I said. It Well thank you very much, Joe, and I am so

happy to be here with you on this long awaited day as the town of Hamilton writes the next chapter in its history with regard to this incredible building, and I want to commend Joe. He’s even thought of saving energy by not having a microphone. He’s even added to the reduction of energy

consumption. I’ve always been impressed by Joe’s reality and that. So and I, I have to give it to him. Even I didn’t think he could get 125 years out of the municipal building, so congratulations because this building has served the town so well and it is represented an iconic structure, uh, that

serves to remind us all of the functionality and the importance of local government in our lives and that’s why it was such a challenge to be able. To move it forward into the next era of municipal buildings and it is doing that so well because it represents a creative approach or a series of creative

approaches to ensure that values are protected, values like ensuring that the character of this building will not conflict with its functionality, with its inclusivity. With its ability to accommodate all of us either in person or virtually and I didn’t take it personally that you had to increase the

weight load of the meeting room, but. But the fact is it’s a real challenge when you take a building like this and you say that we’re gonna make sure that it’s energy efficient, that it has geothermal heating, that it has electricity that’s generated by the power of the sun, and at the same time it

will still feel the way that it has felt for 125 years. It’s a real challenge to make sure that the building has its same character but that everyone can feel comfortable walking through its doors or connecting through it electronically. It’s a real challenge to be able to say that so many dimensions

of this project are gonna be woven together into a cutting edge leading initiative, but that’s what’s happened. And it’s happening because of the leadership of this town. It’s happening because we have a proactive state government that wants to partner with the town. It’s happening because the town the town meeting stepped up to the plate and invested in

this very project. So today we have a lot to celebrate and we celebrate the fact that as we in our society struggle with many of the things that are represented here today, we’re gonna have a building. That’s gonna remind us, it’s gonna remind us that the town is able to get to the net zero building,

and if the town can do it, then we can do it and it’s gonna remind us that these are challenges that we can meet today and tomorrow and the day after that and you know it’s been mentioned about the energy bill that we just passed, the climate bill. That we just passed at the state house and

the governor will very soon sign and one of the things about that bill that’s important is it emphasizes the decentralized local production of renewable energy sources and it emphasizes municipalities being able to accelerate the process for that to happen. Look what’s happening here. A process that got accelerated. I know that some might not think that it was

accelerated but by government standards. And it’s a project that produces local decentralized geothermal energy, photoelectricity, all of the things and all of the places that we wanna go. So all those years ago when this building was hosting meetings that were the cutting edge for our democracy, now this new building will again play host and play

the setting for we have to transit. This will be the setting for the next chapters, the next initiatives, the next leadership to say that we are all gonna go and we’re gonna go there together. And that’s the ultimate part of this project that is to be celebrated, the fact that we’re

going there together. We can do it here, no limit to what it can be accomplished everywhere else. Congratulations to everyone. It’s an honor to be here with you today. Hm And we’re almost done with speaking portion of our of our program here. Uh, the next person I’m gonna invite up is Jay Butler.

Jay Butler has been the leader of the Community Preservation Committee in the town of Hamilton. Jay has, uh, worked really hard on behalf of the town in so many ways to make sure that the town is able to preserve and protect its its history and its legacy, uh, but no, none more important

than what he’s done here and leading the CBC and in helping us secure. The vast majority of the funding that we needed since the start of this project, we got the money to start the original feasibility bring LLB on um. You know, This project we we started around 2016, 2017. I didn’t come here in 2018,

and the first meeting I had a one on one meeting I had with Jay Butler was uh November of 2018, right after the Veterans Day ceremony. He pulled me aside and he said, you know, I, I want us to build the whole town hall project with just CPC

money. I said, Jay, I don’t think you have enough money to do the whole town, but he’s uh. Mostly proving me wrong, uh, $6.5 million out of what’s gonna amount to about a $9.2 million dollar project pretty much the whole whole project. So we appreciate Jay and all he’s done for the town of

Hamilton. We definitely want to hear from him here. Uh, I will not be returning, so, uh, Jay will, Jay will lead us out. Thank you everybody.

00:27:22,470	Finally, we’re here. It’s been a long haul. I’m Jay Butler, chair of the Community Preservation Committee. Uh We’re charted in part to consider grants from legitimate organizations in town under the Community Preservation Act which the town adopted in 2005. Uh, the grants must be one of three eligibility criteria, one of being historic preservation.

And with that, when this project came along, it was very clear that this is an ideal candidate for a CPA. Uh Informal discussions on the need for renovation the town hall have been going on for decades. Anybody who’s worked in town and been around town for a long while, I mean, literally

decades. Uh, since its formation in 2014, 2005, the CPC, uh , from 2005 to 2016, we approved seven grants worth $1850 for town hall. Unfortunately, these were piecemeal solutions to a rapidly deteriorating building. In the fall of 2016, the special town meeting. The first proposal to do something

to renovate the whole building. It’s a $6 million proposal with a $250,000 CPC grant and then the town was gonna be asked for another $300. I had the unfortunate situation of I presented the CC grant first. Uh, it was, uh, beaten down almost unanimously, and that’s never happened. We’ve never

had a CPA grant closed by town hall. It turns out that that the subsequent warrant article to ask money from the town was even removed from the consideration. The upshot of that vote at that town meeting was that Not only did the town feel it was too expensive, but more so there was no citizen

design committee. We had, we had used such a committee for the safety building, the Hammel Woodham library, and high school, middle school project, but here we are with a large project for this building and there was no such committee. The select board subsequently appointed a town hall building

committee in January of 2017. I see Mike Toomey over there who was one of the longest serving members of that committee and uh our DPW director Tim Olson was heavily involved in sign as well. But the formal effort to make this project started in January of 2017. And as they say, the rest

is history. There’s been a, a series of uh different floor layouts and different iterations. I see Drayton Fair from LLB of architects there. I don’t know how many 10s and 10s, maybe 100 different iterations of design we had to go through in the ensuing years. When we completed the

designs around 2020. We went to the boats to ask for debt exclusion. It was turned out for 4.7 million. We went back, changed the scope a little bit. I think we found another CPA grant we could use, uh, went back to the voters again in mid 2021. Uh, for 3.7 million who shot down again. Uh, during

the time. But all this was going on, the CPC, uh, approved and town meeting agreed to approve 6 grants with $6.4 million. And so we were getting money but not enough to get over the top. At this point, uh, the total funding secured for this project is 9.8 million. Of which the 6.5 million CPA grants

represents 66% of the total. The, uh, since 2005, when the CPC was formed, Town hall has been the recipient of uh grants equal to 6.7 million of the 15.6 million grand total of all grants to approved. In fact, 43% of all CPA grants that have been approved in town went to town hall. As we ask the

construction phase, the 5.5 million or the approximate 7.4 million in construction costs will be financed by CPA grants. This will be done via 20-year municipal bonds that will be funded paid back via CPC reserves. That is barring any significant findings hidden behind the walls, the untouched still. We hope that’s not the case. In summary, use of CPA

funds for these projects has been critical to the success of the end, and the successful conclusion will no doubt be heralded as a premier example of a CPA funded historic preservation project. Since I’m the last speaker on the desk today, I’d like to thank you all for coming and let the foundations begin.