Milton Fire Station Building Committee established to design and build fire stations

I’m pleased to announce the following appointments to the newly created Milton Fire Station Building committee:

Brian Walsh – Chairman – former Town Moderator
Frank Agostino – Engineer – President Cousins Construction
Ellen Anselone – Architect – Finegold Alexander Architects, Milton Library Building Committee
Daniel Clark – Building Envelope Structural Engineer – Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Webster Collins – Commercial Appraiser – CBRE
Philippe Genereux – Architect – Perkins & Will
John P. King – Engineer – CIREES, Inc., US Naval Reserves
John Sheldon – Architect – Northeastern University
Eugene Sullivan – Construction contract manager – Hynes auditorium and Boston Convention center

The May 2017 Annual Town Meeting authorized the appointment of this 9 member committee to incorporate the recommendations of the previously formed the Fire Space Needs Committee in order to site, design and build fire stations to meet the needs of the town for decades to come.

The authorizing article was silent on the specific composition of the committee, so I used the following guidelines when considering appointments:
1) registered voters of the town of Milton
2) experience with all phases of building construction
3) specific experience in constructing public buildings in Massachusetts cities and towns
4) as much diversity as available
5) experience managing Milton’s political process

I am particularly pleased that our most recent Town Moderator, Brian Walsh, volunteered early for the Chairman role, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Charlie Winchester, who served as the first Chair of the School Building Committee. As readers of the Milton Scene will know, Brian understands how to incorporate the views across the town including those of the firefighters who will use the building, the neighbors who reside next to the buildings, Town committees who will need to review and approve the articles authorizing the buildings’ siting, finance and construction, and lastly, the Town Meeting Members and citizens who will ultimately approve all the phases of the project.

The appointment philosophy I follow to make sure that all views are heard and represented is to appoint individuals without a particular agenda. The committee will face decisions balancing cost versus speed, new construction versus historical preservation, one site location versus another, etc. These individuals in their professional lives have each constructed public buildings where just those issues were raised and addressed. I am quite confident that they will be able to bring those prior skills to this committee to build great fire houses of which our citizens and employees will all be proud.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the citizens who volunteered for this work. The response from articles on Facebook’s Milton Neighbors and the Milton Times provided me with over twice the volunteers as available positions. There was so much talent available, that Brian Walsh and I have discussed creating an advisory committee where this deep bench of additional talent will be available to the committee so that they can achieve the best possible outcome for the town.

Chairman Walsh has informed me he intends to hold the first meetings in September which of course will be announced in advance and open to the public. We are very fortunate in Milton to have so many talented individuals willing to dedicate so much of their skill and time to us free of charge. I would like to publicly thank them all in advance.

Bob Hiss, Town moderator.