good morning everyone today is the July 19th meeting of the elementary school building committee um seeing that we have a quorum I'm going to call the meeting to order and one of the I'm going to call everybody's name but just as I called them we have a new member of our committee uh the finance director Melissa zad if did I pronounce it correctly I to give her a very big welcome um and I as I understand you're going to be instead of Jennifer you're coming on to to the committee correct yes so okay so I will just call out names um we've just heard that Melissa can hear and be heard so Melissa each time I just make sure we can hear and be heard as I see people on the screen Bruce I'm here Jonathan good morning Doug good morning everyone rert good morning can you hear me Bo sir can even through the mask Deb Leonard uh I'll go on Allison Allison's here welcome Alicia here and and Deb when if you can hear us um just let us know that we can hear you um so I'm calling the meeting to order and I think I'm not seeing if I missed anyone let me know so Margaret um uh you probably have the agenda you may have it just as the draft I did because uh yeah so Margaret will introduce the agenda and just remind us where we are in the timeline and then we have we have we should have a fairly short meeting this morning but there are some reports that are um pretty interesting Margaret I'm turning it over to you okay I I see Tammy is here Tammy can um welcome and just let us know whether you can hear us and we can hear you uh maybe not I see Tammy hi Tammy can you say hi something to let us know you're here well she's physically here so we'll just wait for that go go ahead Margaret you know what Kathy I was just thinking before we start since Melissa is new to the group Melissa has met cassen and myself but I would like to ask the denisco folks to introduce themselves as well that that'd be great hi Melissa Rick rice hi Tim Cooper great and then you Melissa also met um Connor in our uh Finance meeting earlier this week Deb Leonard has your hand up Deb can you can hi I'm on I'm unmuted now can you hear me we can yes can okay and Melissa I can meet with you separately when it works for you to describe who everyone is on the committee if Paul hasn't done that yet so I won't take time today okay welcome all right now I'm going to share my [Music] screen can everybody see the agenda yes enlarge it a little bit it's brief as Kathy said um we're going to start with my standard uh overall schedule review uh uh cassena and denisco will give an update on the construction and the bidding which is underway very exciting um we're not going to spend any real time on this but we I want to note that the um our teams the consultant teams responses to the msba are in the packet if you want to if you want to review them they they just ask they're some clarification questions uh and then we have invoices so um I'm going to any questions about that before I take that down nope okay uh so let's do the schedule update so I'm what I did this month just to be clear make it clear we're this is the week that we're in the highlighted week right so you can see some of the recent activities um the biggest one is we uh the adver the bid documents were advertised on July 3 and um that's kind of the main event right now as that process and also as we mentioned in the last meeting the early site package has mostly wrapped up so there's very little construction activity on the site at this point and then we had submitted um right after we just met last met we had submitted our response to the msba comment so here we are today um let's just talk about these lines so we've got a meeting our next next meeting this group is August 16th which is a great date because hopefully um we will have the general contractor bids due just a couple days before so that's great timing for that meeting now I will say it is there is the potential that we might need to extend the bid date you know sometimes when you're in the process of bidding you get questions that sort of you know require clarification or some something could happen but that that's the goal as we get the bids on the Wednesday the 14th and then we see you on the 16th to present the results then there's a meeting in mid-september and then there's a meeting in mid October so um the consultant team I um having gotten the bid documents out um which was a huge effort and I really want to thank um denisco Bob Karen and my team for working very collaboratively to make that happen on time um they are now responding to questions from bids and um in August they will be M submitting the lead design package to the usgbc and then we'll talk a little bit more but at some point in the fall we'll go back to concom to confirm that we are using uh coren uh as a playground surfacing so more about that later um procurement I've kind of covered this which is we have what are called file sub bids due uh at the end of July that's the the trade contractors the the big ones are uh mechanical electrical Plumbing masonry you know there's some Big Ticket items that get bid as separate items that tends to be somewhere between 60 to 65% of the cost of the project so it tells you it will give us a really good feeling for where we're headed with the GC bids then the GC bids you know as a reminder we have four pre-qualified General Contractors they're due um on the 14th then we have some work to do to get the contract in place and the Builder's risk in place but we are expecting that the contractor will be on the site in early September as school starts up um construction meetings are paused at this point because the early site package is complete but we expect that there would be a construction kickoff meeting which is mostly administrative at the end of September and then the the weekly construction meetings would pick up again and then as far as the msba is concerned our next step with them is the ex execution of a bid Amendment so once you get the bids back you go back to them to say you know we estimated the project as this it's been bid as this and they we execute a bid Amendment to the funding agreement so any questions about all of that looking good okay so Margaret I I just have one on the msba pro that final we do we carry the uh the contingency that's what I call it above the line um in that final bid package you know so that you know it cend just gonna answer so just can is is the expert on this Cass there will continue to be contingencies beyond that point I want to make sure that I I'm understanding a question correctly so if I'm not answering as you intended it please let me know if there is a substantial buy out savings which would be delightful um the msba in that bid Amendment reassesses now that we know this is your construction value um everything else reimbursables and everything else above and below so soft costs um and contingencies are an the caps in for reimbursement in all those categories are a percentage a function of a construction cost in many instances it it's it's more intricate and complicated than that but that's the generally true so they go back through and reassess right so that when they talk about in the original Project funding agreement when they talk about the grant amount they determine being the maximum Grant amount this is the first place where we would feel it right right they would what they would call right size the reimbursement amount to the actual project that we've got based on construction cost at that point again I if there was a substantial uh buyout savings they would give the town the option to be documented decision to be documented in a very formal letter to say what do you want to do with extra money do you want to keep it in contingency or do you want to just disappear it from a project um it's not a time well we'll we we'll get to it when we get to it but it's it's even if we get a a huge bid savings it will be that moment will be way too early to start celebrating or thinking of new ways to go shopping for scope yeah I mean the the Nugget is you're GNA want to keep it in the project but it's it it increases the contingency the construction contingency that's in the budget is or already above what the msba will reimburse for but it's protection it's it's risk management so okay thank you sure okay any other questions okay so construction and bidding update so first of all I want to uh Melissa is new to this so Melissa you know we happy to answer questions for you um about this but there's for as background um there are material there was a material identified as a result of public comment um that was proposed as a substitute for what was in the what was in the design documents that denis's team so in this case it's the landscape architect who specifies the playground surfacing um the playground surfacing that was specified which is a kind of form of bonded rubber um is commonly used the public comment suggested using foren this issue went to the Conservation Commission who came down strongly against the use of the of the bonded Rubber and um denisco had expressed uh several months ago that they if they were going to be asked to include it in their documents that they would need a waiver of liability from for the from the town so I see that Bob parent is here this morning Bob um I feel like either you may probably you on behalf of the Town should sort of should briefly describe the the how this has been concluded now do you feel comfortable doing this so so I mean Bob you can if you're doing it for me I I have the background no okay it's the rest the rest of the committee you're probably the only one you and barber the only ones where this landed the rest committee does not know okay so given that Melissa has the background I won't go back through the background and I think the committee has the background as well yeah where we stand today is the town and denisco have executed an agreement uh relative to liability for that that product and the town has agreed to accept the responsibility for the procurement of that material and any liability associated with installing that material um so what the game plan is is that once we have a Contractor on board we have a better understanding of what that contractor's schedule looks like uh we'll be working on putting together a procurement document to be able to obtain and have installed the coren product that would be on a schedule that works with the general contractor schedule and the town will be doing that directly as opposed to having it be done through the general contractor or through with the assistance of denisco so so everyone just heard this for the first time and I just want to see whether there are any questions about that so there's a coordination issue as I understand it but um uh Bob and company that the towns side will need to be working closely with the general contractor to make sure the the surface goes in when it should be going in um correct that's correct once um we'll procure it and then it's a matter just it's really the same thing that would be done um normally it's just that the responsibility for that shifted now from the general contractor to the town to coordinate that I see Cena's hands up thank you I just want to briefly mention that this is one of several uh chunks of scope that are being bought separately from the general contract um so it's not it's not unusual um the electrical the major electrical gear and Generator are being purchased pre-purchased early uh we as you know we've bought and and and completed the early site work separately um and then I believe uh the Communications internet infrastructure and Equipment will be bought is not yet being bought and will be bought later Furniture as well so uh this is one piece out of many and it's going to be important to remind ourselves of that fact when the general bids come in because it will not be a 100 penny % pinning down of all cost because there will still be some moving pieces beyond that point Thank you there any questions on on any of that I don't see any okay um so I think um the other piece uh and Connor I'm going to look to you to just talk say a little bit about how we're doing with the bidding on bid docs um I think we've gotten uh I mean we have a set of pre-qualified fil submitters and pre-qualified General Contractors so um we're tracking um what they're doing and I actually don't have any sense but maybe Rick and Tim could report on how we're doing in terms of request for information and other uh information that's being requested through the bid process yeah let me briefly just say that Connor's down several rounds and will'll do more of Outreach to the pre-qualified contractor subcontractors the generals the the four pre-qualified general contractors are all involved we're not concerned about that it's making sure that we have the attention of all the sub trades so we have good competitive coverage in each trade scope area um so we're reaching out to the pre-qualified file sub bids that's about half the trade packages out there the rest of them that are but we we don't manage uh the bidding process we are reaching out we don't know who is interested but we reach out to The Usual Suspects the the companies we know in these areas just to sort of promote an advertise further but this is out on the street it's a tough time summer a lot of people's attention may be a little bifurcated but we're doing what we can we can't force them to bid but we can encourage them uh strongly and I'll pass it over to Rick to talk about request for information uh sure uh we've gotten about uh oh maybe eight or nine requests for information I think the first four or five were issued by the bid doc online uh response uh protocols by addenda uh uh week ago we'll answer a few more uh this week a lot of them are uh there haven't been any substantive uh issues that have caused us to go back and and uh issue changes or clarifications to the drawings it's it's mostly uh process questions and where to look and things like that there's nothing substantive so far we did have our first uh well we had our uh pre-bid conference on Wednesday where all four General biders uh came and a good deal of other uh submits uh came and projects like this where there are uh buildings to come down you find that it's a lot of demolition contractors and espe of batement contractors that want to see the building and they will be uh giving quotes to the four General biders to do that and so we walk through the building and uh there's a lot of interest from from that t of contractors for that we'll be having another uh the agenda going out uh today catching up some more questions uh also touching up some things that the design team has found in the documents uh that needed to be made clearer or coordinated we'll probably have one more next Friday which is four or five days before the file sub bids and uh then generally after the file sub bids he issue an addenda to the general contractors uh shortly thereafter with the bid results for their information and if any other questions come up there may be one other agenda before the bids are due August 14th perfect Rick thank you um the other item on here sorry Kathy yeah so I just Rick um what you just describe would you to the extent one can talk about normal processes is that sort of a normal way um with a process uh a project of this scale I thought it sounded like a a smooth sailing to me but but I just didn't know yeah yeah that's a normal process I mean the one the one thing that we're uh bid docs have has re has revised their online process a couple of times since we last used it and the first agenda that we issued wasn't planned there were some very basic questions about what's included in what sub bids that we wanted to get out there so we had the first agenda which was a very brief one to answer those questions because there wasn't any way to answer them uh without issuing an agenda so we kind of rushed that one because we wanted to get that out there into people's hands fast but otherwise four to five addenda during the course of things I see ca's also went away in yeah this is this is smooth sailing and in a normal process I think this is a good time before we get into the next meeting the next meeting will be after the bids are in to let you know that another part of the typical part of a process that's not going to look like Smooth Sailing but is very common is that once the uh file sub bid bids are in the whole point of them being file sub bid is that they're public and they can see each other's submissions and they tend to do an amazing and thorough job of helping us review each other's submissions and letting us know what's wrong with each other submissions and letting the attorney Attorney General's office potentially know what's wrong with each other's submissions so if the next time we meet you hear us talk about a couple of bid protests I just want to set the stage that that is not that is part of the normal process um it's going to we will be reacting to each one hopefully there none but we will be reacting each one as an emergency that requires all of our attention to address handle make sure it's done properly uh but just be aware of it's very normal and it happens every single time and if we don't H and we don't have any of that I will be delighted um shocked but delighted I should say also that right now uh the assistant General's office is limited in how much help that they can give individual projects normally they are amazing and helping out respond responding you know picking up a phone jumping on a meeting right now um de berson is out on the Assistant Attorney General who handles this uh who's lovely is out on I believe extended medical leave uh so they're they are short-handed and we will navigate that as necessary when we get there thank you yeah I think that's a good point uh cassa that um did protests are pretty typical on this process um may we not have it not holding my breath on that okay any other questions okay so the we're almost through the agenda believe it or not um the next item was response to the msba 90% comments as I said at the beginning I don't think it's a good use of the committee's time to review these in this meeting they were you know you know it's a there's a fairly short list of clarifications that were requested um Rick and Tim do you is there anything you want to comment out about particularly it's in the packet um if anybody wants to take a look at it it's really there for the record now Tim I there's really nothing out of the ordinary there Tim if you want to typify the type of questions that were asked no it was uh fairly perfunctory and the MBA has a standard set of comments that they make and a good portion of the comments were based on the fact that we have an early bid package so that the stuff is beyond the pass of commenting on so that in terms of complexity and and the amount of comments this was little and and I think it's smooth sailing great anybody want to dwell on that longer okay so invoices I am going to turn this over to cassa and Connor um I will say that this package had was reviewed earlier this week with Melissa Bob and Jennifer La fantain who is not here today um and so uh it's coming to you with our recommendation for approval and I'm going to turn it over to Connor Thank you Margaret because I think it we decided it's a really good idea for you to give him to to get an opportunity to hear from Connor who has been doing an amazing job at this stuff um and it's also you know for in case of a hit by a bus scenario better to have more people cross trained good morning everyone uh you probably seen my face before and I know some of you better than others but I'm Conor Palazo and as Margaret CNY mentioned I work uh with answer advisory alongside of them so can you guys see my screen and hear me okay this I'll answer I can hear you so anyone else you're you're good Conor perfect thank you so this is uh what we call the executive summary um we've seen this little graphic before it's just a bar of what we call our road to head um this green bar is what has been invoiced previously this little black sliver right here is what's currently being invoiced in this invoice package this yellow bar is what is currently under contract um our commitments and uh is currently unbuilt and this little white Brick Road here is what we are expecting to spend but is not currently under contract most of this will be um The Mink package GC and the other procurement items that mentioned earlier here like the furniture um and things like that so invoice previously is just under 8 million this current package is a small one as we can see by the little sliver above it's only 350,000 this is the cash flow here this yellow bar is where we are currently now June and we are expecting the bulk of spending to remain well ahead as we can see these green bars are the previous invoice packages this little green bar is our current invoice package and the blue is our expected spending and most of that will happen out here with the next GC so this is the invoice package transmittal it's a summary of the invoices um that we have this month as far as this month's package I'll just zoom in a little bit hopefully that is you guys can see that okay so we have pre- reviewed these invoices and we recommend them for your approval there are eight invoices this month um one from answer three from denisco two from gag DUI uh two from Alli testing so the one for answer advisory is about $50,000 and that's a 2% progression against our contract and after this invoice we have answer will have build 28% of their total contract denisco this month in total for their three invoices will be combined $166,700 which is an also a 2% uh progression on their contract and after these invoices they'll be up to 68% of their contract build out and the remaining percentage um they do have as part of their scope construction Administration uh efforts and responsibilities gag aruchi we have two invoices this month two requisitions um the first one is for billing out their contract uh change order number two and the second one is for partial release of retainage and that comes out to combined $1 130,000 approximately and that's a 5% progression of their contract and that brings them up to about 97% complete overall and then we have two this month for Allied testing Labs um and that's a 1% progression against their contract of just under 6,000 in total and Lee figgins answer advisor onsite Clerk of the works has done a great job 4 ordinating between gagle Uchi and Allied um the early site package can be testing heavy but the fact that we're only 3% overall into their contract um is great progress as far as controlling the spending as far as that goes so this is answer advisories contract uh sorry invoice here I'll zoom in a little bit so this value here is the total labor um from answer advisories side this value is from answer advisory Consultants Arend and Souza Trum Partners who did our peer review um Net Zero peer review from Arend and our structural peer review and then this $777 here was for the advertisement for the GC bid new it says early site but it's for the main GC bid and then this is the backup or the answer invoice this is the backup for the Arend invoice the structural peer review invoice and then the newspaper advertisement here now we're getting into denis's invoices and you can stop me at any point if you have any questions I want to look at anything further so this is gagar ducci's recck number five with the backup and this is wck number six and then finally Ali testings invoices this is their first invoice that's their second Deborah I see you have a question yeah uh you mentioned a change order for gar garer d gagi y I'm happy to talk about that yeah sure so overall on Gag DUI's entire early site package contract there have been only two official change orders the first one included one item of work and the second one included the whole laundry list of all the maybe dozen half dozen things that had to be TW tweaked and adjusted you know a little less here a little less there to um make things flow smoothly the second one that had that Connor is just talking about that's on tap today uh that is the longer list of stuff Nets to AG negative $9,000 so there things happen you know in some in some cases in many cases the things that happened is that some of the scope but we were going to do later with a general contractor we realized we really need to expedite and handle it with the early package so it wasn't adding money it was moving it from the later package to the earlier some things a little bit more Paving here um there was a an asbesto spye uh found underground that they uh Abad things like that there was also scope that denisco had done an amazing job of building into the uh the the scope of the early Side Package to foresee a couple of points of risk that might have come to be right so into to pre- buby coverage for those and we were very fortunate and or well-managed and that it didn't end up being needed um so those the savings from those uh more of an offset the change one is the one that had more substantial value um I think it was $140,000 and it was to purchase it was one item it was to purchase the traffic lights the uh mobile traffic lights uh that are sitting at the front of the driveway uh which will be helpful throughout the life of a project for managing traffic and keeping things safe and will also remain as an asset for the town to use when the project is done great question Deb thank you thank you so for the invoice package um that's it and so we like we said earlier we pre-approved these invoices and we recommend them for your approval as well so unless there's any other questions I'll pass it along I I move that we approve the invoices as presented I'll second you got two seconds okay so we have a second and I'm just looking to see if there are any other questions I don't see any others so I'll I'll go around the room to take a vote uh Melissa um yes Jonathan yes Doug yes rert yes Tammy yes Deb yes yes Bruce yes Ellison uh we still can't hear Allison um oh here we go Allison nope no Elicia yes okay so it's unanimous with Margaret you can count how many were absent and then one with techn oh there's Ellison hi Allison I think her hand up means she's a yes but I'm not sure we can count hand Allison if if can you hear us Allison if you can put it in the chat just say that say yes if you're we don't Margaret the town has turned off the chat in all of our zo so okay it doesn't exist um so we'll just say and and one present but unable to vote which will be a a a new way of reporting um exactly so I I just want to before I open it up for a public comments um I want to say on my part A big thank you to the team because including this explanation of um the invoices I find it really helpful and answering my questions because I've never been on a building project before on a what's normal what we should be expecting so I I'm I I thank you a lot for this and I really look forward to the next meeting and so that if anyone has any questions Denco has been really great in responding so I just so Kathy can can I well I see Rupert's got his hand up but I also have something I wanted to say rert why don't you go Al camera Alison has her camera on and so C if you would ask her to put her thumbs up if she's a yes yes she she's a yes we got it thanks so that was Rupert's comment get yes okay great go ahead so you know I think um Melissa not to put you on the spot but I think it would be um a great idea at a future meeting probably not the next one because we're going to be talking about the the um the final bids but I think we've had some public questions over the past couple months about how the financing will roll out for the project and I think it would be great if we could give the committee a kind of update on sort of big picture update on how how the town is planning to sort of purchase and I would say the the Nugget of the question is when people will be see are likely to be seeing the additional cost for the project on their tax bills okay okay and and Margaret the other thing I would say again at a future date Bob parent has been working behind the scenes um actively to put in place a process that we can go to the IR IR IRS yes we can go to the federal treasury once we have installed the systems that are eligible for credits so at some point and that doesn't need to be anytime soon because we can't actually submit anything Bob I think until the systems are operable so it's uh Gathering up the cost of it and then submitting because we are expecting pretty substantial direct credits um at least unless the world changes overnight in the next year or so and the credits that the whole world loves in the United States um get challenged but right now the IRA is actively giving these direct credits to public sector and nonprofits for geothermal and for solar so I don't see any other comments here so I there is one person in public so I'm turning it I'm opening it for public comments and okay I have Maria I think I have allowed you to talk great can you hear me yeah yes awesome um so thank you I also I want to Second um Kathy's appreciation for all the I want to particularly thank um cassinia for providing all the information that you have about the bid process about um um and I think Rick of of the agenda that were uh that were issued and really just keeping the committee and the town the public informed of this process in that way um the our consult that are that are working on this may not know this but this has been noticeably lacking um in another town project so many thanks for all that information it is deeply appreciated I did have one question I don't know if there are any outstanding concerns from our Net Zero committee if there is any um the energy audits the the the all the plug load stuff I don't know if there's anything uh still happening or pending on that but if you I know you don't usually answer questions but if maybe you could just uh say if we're all set on that that would be appreciated thank you I did just so everyone knows that there um the energy model was updated after the last time we met as a sustainability subcommittee and we are still within Target of the eversource credit so that report went the um Rick and uh Tim you can tell me that I think the energy modeling also was part of the larger package when we report up to msba but we're we're we're in good shape on the energy modeling and responding to any issues about you know how we can plug loads and others so we we did get a those are posted in the subcommittee packet um and I can let people know where to look if they would like to so I I'm also I I can ask Tim and Rick this but I think we're not expecting that we're going to have to be continuing to meet as as that subcommittee so you know right now we're on a more the construction phase of the project is that correct yeah that's that's that's correct uh the design subcommittee I think Tim mentioned that once we have submissions and and actual colors in there might be a a chance to catch up and discuss any necessary adjustments to what that committee's already seen but overall it's uh the heavy LIF been done great so Tammy is on that committee and there was Tammy I'm right about the shades of orange there were a few that you had more in this Direction versus more in that direction right yeah so I see Bruce you have a comment yes so far as the uh The Net Zero sustainability U committee is concern um as you probably know for quite a while I've been interested in thinking as we move into into the construction process and and hopefully uh things settle down to some kind of a rhythm that uh I think there is a role the next significant piece of work it may be significant it maybe not it maybe just my imagination but uh that the next piece of work for this committee is to try and understand how these uh plug loads can be managed through the education information and so forth of the of the users uh I know this is difficult it's not typically done but the project is being run so well and I there seems to be so few fires that need putting out so to speak that uh I think we and if I um have the time availability that I think I will in a year that uh we I would like to commit some time to trying to understand how we can uh predictably man AG user U Behavior or positively user behavior in the building so to speak so um that's something that that committee could turn its attention to in the fullness of time I think point of order yeah hi Deb hi I I don't think this is an agenda item no it it's not it was it was brought up last time too on what other work we have as subcommittees but you're correct it's not on the agenda so we can we can put it on an agenda for um a future discussion particularly with the school system um you know it's it's less to do with the the design team so I'm not seeing any other hands up so um I had said we would have a shorter meeting and we in fact have had a much shorter meeting so I I make a motion to adjourn and and we've in the towns committees we've started voting on these so I'm moving that we adjourn do I hear a second second seconds all right so I will call out names Kathy's a yes Melissa yes Jonathan yes Doug yes Tammy yes Bruce yep Deb yes Allison rert Rupert yes and for those who only have the audio Alison mouth Yes and stuck your thumb up yeah know she she's now got her hand up here and Alicia yes okay it is unanimous thank you all for um meeting together you know we needed to meet for the inves and get a vote but I think the update was also very useful I'll see you again in August August 16 bye bye bye