Pepperell Planning Board orders Fitzpatrick Collaborative to submit professional proposals before earmark release

PEPPERELL — March 20, 2023 — Pepperell Planning Board continues Fitzpatrick commercial kitchen review, sets April 18 deadline for professional proposals. The board heard a status presentation from Craig Hanson, president of the Fitzpatrick Collaborative, and Steve Temple, its chief financial officer, on plans to open a shared-use commercial kitchen in the former Peter Fitzpatrick School using a $60,000 MassDevelopment matching grant that must be spent by June. A recent equipment evaluation found three of four ovens functional and capacity for 18 to 36 users within the existing footprint at a starting rate of $19 per hour. Chair Al Fadnaud told the collaborative it must return April 18 with formal proposals from an architect, MEP engineer, civil engineer, and equipment vendor before the board will advance any recommendation on the town's building earmark to the Select Board. In a separate vote, the board unanimously appointed member Brooke Ransom as its representative to the newly formed Community Preservation Act committee, and continued a Heritage Estates subdivision performance bond review to May 1 pending independent cost verification by town engineer Ken Kalinowski of a roughly $50,000 sidewalk-removal estimate submitted by the applicant.