By Shelley Harms

On a recent trip to France, I was awed by the Roman amphitheatre in Nimes. This beautiful municipal building is truly timeless – used regularly for concerts and bullfights, it is 2,000 years old.

Here in Norfolk, plans are underway for a new town building. It may not last 2,000 years, but it will be around for a long time. What will we be passing along to our grandchildren?

The proposed EMS building is to house the ambulance services and the state trooper. A town committee has been working on the project since February 2006. The case for the proposed building on Shepard Road is presented on the Norfolk Ambulance website, at http://www.norfolkambulance.com/building/index.html#top, where visitors can view the proposed plans and read Committee Chair Ted Veling’s answers to questions about the proposal.

Meetings will be held for townspeople to first learn about, and then vote on, the building. Some of the issues voters will weigh are:

• Can we afford it? More specifically, can we afford a new EMS building on top of new windows for Botelle School that have already been approved, and renovations for the fire department that we know are coming?
• Is the current building truly inadequate? Would it be possible to use other town space for meetings, laundry and storage (such as Town Hall, the Firehouse or Botelle School)?
• Are there compelling reasons not to build on the current location? Should the EMS and firefighting functions be located together, or should they spread out onto additional town properties?
• Should a new building be built on the corner of Shepard Road and Route 44? Are there other uses for that space that would benefit the town? What will the impact be on the neighborhood?
• Should we have a separate building for EMS or should the EMS and fire-fighting functions be combined in one? What are the costs to build a separate building as opposed to one building for both? Could the two services save the town money by sharing an architect, a builder, a furnace, a laundry room, a kitchen, a roof? What are the costs of maintaining and heating one building as opposed to two for the next 100 years?
• Will the building be energy-efficient? Will a new building make it more difficult for Norfolk to meet its commitment to obtain 20 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2010?
• Is the proposed building right for Norfolk?

Norfolk has its own tradition of distinctive architecture for public buildings. Our noteworthy structures include our town hall, the library, the music shed, the three churches, and the many others described in the writings of Brendan Gill, Grenville Garside, Ann Havemeyer and Robert Dance. The planned EMS building would seem to fit right in – instead of the ugly boxy structure one might expect, the plans look something like The Manor House, an Ehrick Rossiter design.

Norfolk also has a tradition of open space. Attractive as the building appears, it will cover most of the corner, along with a large parking lot and two paved entrances. Currently, children have room to play and even fly kites, people driving by see an attractive open space, residents of Meadowbrook enjoyed walking over to the trial Farmers Market last September, and the Market attracted customers for area businesses. Emergency services are important, but other uses for the site offer benefits to the town as well.

I haven’t made up my mind about the EMS proposal. I appreciate the hard work and lives saved by the volunteer ambulance corps, and would like to see them in a state-of-the-art building. On the other hand, as an owner of property in the neighborhood and a Farmers Market enthusiast, I like the corner lot as it is. I look forward to learning more about the options in the upcoming town meetings.

One thing I have decided though: construction of a new building is an important undertaking. Whatever and wherever we build, we should take the time to get it right. Let’s make sure we are passing along a gift, not a liability, to future generations.