Priorities
Step One: Ambulance and Fire Department
- These two departments have the most critical needs.
- Buildings are poorly located and in bad condition.
- New equipment cannot be accommodated in the existing structures.
- The two services, now separated, have overlapping responsibilities and should be combined at one location in an Emergency Services Facility.
- The facility needs to have about an acre of land, be in a prominent location, on a major street, with easy access to all parts of town.
- The one parcel of Town-owned land that meets these requirements is the current site of the Town Hall Annex.
However, to be relocated at that site, three issues have to be addressed:
- Since this site is directly across from the school, concerns about school safety, access and parking have to be resolved.
- A new location for the Annex has to be found.
We would need to move quickly. The Ambulance service, like the Fire Department, needs to find quarters that will handle new vehicles that are too large to fit into the existing building.
Resolve Safety, Playground and Parking Issues at the School
Vehicle circulation in and around the Tisbury Elementary School is both confusing and dangerous.
Today pick-up and drop-offs occur along Spring Street directly across from the proposed Fire and Ambulance site. Lacking adequate on-site parking, parents who drive their children to school often conflict with school busses, use the spaces across the street at the Annex and Legion Hall, or double-park. Teacher and employee parking is also inadequate; the school estimates that about 90 parking spaces overall are needed to handle the demand. The existing lot holds approximately 50 cars, 12 of which are reserved for the Superintendent's office across the street.
Remove Derelict Structures at the DPW Storage Garage
Use the site as a supplemental parking lot for teachers at least until major renovations at the school are completed.
This property consists of ½ acre of land directly opposite the school. It is currently being used to store equipment belonging to the Shellfish Hatchery. It also includes an abandoned garage that was formerly used by the ambulance service and is now used to store impounded bicycles. All these functions would be better served if they were located at the DPW where they can be combined nicely with other storage and maintenance functions.
DPW Storage Garage
West Side of the Tisbury School showing the Playground (the Annex is the upper left of the picture)
Reorganize Parking & Access Around the School
Sketch of Reorganized Access and Parking at the School
A 32-car parking lot, primarily for teachers, is proposed at the former DPW storage garage across the street from the school. This lot can serve as a supplement to the planned Emergency Services Facility. It will also help to accommodate demand at the school for large events such as the annual Town Meeting, which is held in the school gym. To construct the lot, the Town will have to remove the existing structures a relocate their contents to the DPW's main facility.
Along Spring Street and West William Street, the fencing around the playground would be relocated to approximately the line of Maple trees (plus or minus 15 feet) that line the perimeter of the playground. This provides space to accommodate a drop-off lane for parents and also to move the sidewalk away from the traffic lanes.
Within the school property, an assembly plaza along the west side of the school is proposed which would link the bus and drop-off areas to the school's main entry points. The plaza would provide a common gathering area for children, parents, and teachers and would clarify the circulation in and around the school. Currently, there is a temporary classroom structure within the plaza area that compromises the space a little but doesn't preclude it.
The playground remains in its present location, but there would be some adjustments to accommodate new sidewalks, fencing, and circulation around the school building.
The Bus loading area remains at its present location. The buses have a protected lane and a controlled loading area of their own and do not create a safety problem. The expanded plaza area should help to manage queuing and loading issues. Moving most of the drop-offs to the William St. side would help sort out those conflicts. Further study would help determine whether or not a drop-off lane on the Spring Street side is necessary.
Going forward, the school is planning to do a complete study of its own long-term space and operational needs, and we want to continue to work with them on those issues. Changes on that scale, however, would be several years away, and we need to address the current parking and safety problems in conjunction with ongoing plans for the new Emergency Services Facility.
Step Two: Relocate the Annex Departments (Building Inspector, Health Department, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals)
- Build a small office building at the DPW to house the annex departments
- Include both office space and additional spaces for archival storage of municipal records
When Annex functions are consolidated with the rest of the Town Hall functions in a permanent location, the building can be taken over as an HQ for the Water Department or used for other town needs.
DPW Area
Temporary Annex Offices and Records Storage Facilities
Step Three: Construct a New Emergency Services Facility at the Annex
Site Plan for an Emergency Services Building
The above sketch is based on standards set by Brown Lindquist Fenuccio and Raber Architects, Inc., in a report done for the Town of Tisbury March 3, 2005.
The site consists of 1.1 acres of land with a 220-foot frontage on Spring St. and 210' depth. It has a one-story building 150 feet long with five 20-foot by 65-foot drive-through bays and approximately 11,000 sq ft of floor area.
On-site parking is provided for 20 cars although this could be expanded. An expanded lot would probably not be necessary; however, since additional public parking is proposed across the street at the school (we would expect most meetings to take place on evenings and weekends; in fact, one benefit to this location is being able to make more efficient use of the Town resources).
Further study is required to determine if the site would truly meet all of the current and future needs of the Fire and Ambulance services and to see if there are any serious topographical, engineering or other limitations with the property that would foreclose its use for this purpose.
It would help to retain the services of a professional engineering consultant as soon as possible soon, so we can have a definitive opinion by the end of this summer.
Step Four: Build 24 to 30-Car Parking Lot at Former Fire Department Site
- This is a holding action until a permanent use is agreed on.
- It is possible, however, that we will want to keep this lot permanently. There is a need for more parking downtown, and this site will serve both businesses and park users.
- A parking facility here would also open up a view of the park from Beach Street, create better access to the park from Beach St. and Cromwell La., and improve the sidewalks, landscaping, and overall look of Beach Street.
- There are several long-term possibilities for this property that we should look into, but there are no specific recommendations to be made at this point.
- The property is currently valued at $1,118,200 dollars.