After an initial disagreement over the intended responsibilities of the Town House Building Committee subcommittee, the group's position is clarified and members are ready to move forward.

Co-chair of the subcommittee Robert Lane was at the Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday night, and objected to some of the language about the purpose and responsibilities of the committee.

Specifically, he was worried about a section that said the group would provide the public with finished architectural plans for the building.

The subcommittee was designated $34,000 at Town Meeting. According to Lane, that is not anywhere near enough to get full plans and designs made. He was worried that residents would be expecting full plans.

“Our work is to provide an independent alternative at the VFW site and then let the town decide,” Lane explained. “Our concern is independence and the fact we won’t be able to do architectural work. We are not going to do building designs.”

Selectman Steve Gonsalves agreed with Lane’s concerns, and advocated tweaking the language to make the purpose more clear. However, Selectmen Jody Dickerson and Norm Hills were wary about changing the words of voters, as the wording came directly from the motion made at Town Meeting.

“We have to respect the legislative body of the voters,” Dickerson said.

Planning Board member Steve Kokkins suggested adding the word "conceptual" into the charge to clarify that there would be no blue prints.

“I was at Town Meeting and I think the sentiment was quite clear that with whatever resources might be available, a conceptual level of an alternative was desired,” he said.

However, Planning Board member Jennifer Francis thought the language was already clear enough.

“I think the key word is 'feasibility study,'” she said. “[A] feasibility study is not plans. It’s a possible solution. It seems the wording we have is not about making plans, it’s asking if this is a feasible solution.”

Ultimately, Town Administrator Paul Dawson suggested removing the word "design" from the first section of the charge, which had been taken from the original charge of the Town House Building Committee.

“It does talk about the feasibility study and it takes out the design issue,” he said.”If someone interprets a feasibility study to include pretty designs, that’s beyond our control.”