##VIDEO ID:bfFHsoo-adc## I'm just going to leave that meeting you guys can hear me now fine yep yes yes there all right we're good to go we are recording all right thank you so uh good afternoon everybody it is Wednesday August 28 2024 at 12:37 M and I will call to order the preown board s meeting this meeting will be recorded and will be available on the YouTube page uh this meeting will be held virtually on zoom on March 29th 2023 Governor H sign to Law chapter 2 of the apps of 2023 which among other things extends the experation remote meeting Provisions pertaining uh to open meeting laws to March 31st specifically this extension of L public bod continue holding meetings remotely without a forum on public body physically present at a new location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings this meeting of the pre s will be conducted via remote participation specific information and general um guidelines for remote participation by members of a public can be found the town Freetown website Freetown ma.gov for this meeting members of public who wish to listen to the meeting May do so in the follow manner di on zoom and entering meeting ID be below calling the number listed below and entering the meeting ID listed below or by going to the link and entering the meeting ID listed below no in person tendences available meeing however every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means in the event that to do so despite best efforts we post on the town website and YouTube channel an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting okay from my basis that yes okay so item one is discussion and vote on which alternative to use uh for the town hall replacement windows so let me uh just kick off and and tell you kind of where we're at with this so we we know that we need new windows we have 60 I think 60 main windows or 62 Main windows and then they have sort of small Windows above them there's 33 small windows so we really have a total of 93 is Windows in the building so I quoted it with both the main windows and then the add-on of the extra windows I wanted to do them all but I was worried about funding so um so you'll see all the different alternatives for 60 Windows versus 90 windows and then um there's a question there's two like main parts of this boat one is going to be whether you want vinyl versus aluminum I think is one of the big decisions and then the second decision will be whether you want white or green um and that's the secondary decision once you pick the material that you want to use but you have quotes for both the aluminum and the vinyl um I know K was a little partial to the aluminum I was partial to the vinyl so I just put it all out to bid I didn't know what the price differen would be um I do believe we have enough um funding to do the project so whatever option you pick we will be able to complete the project so and that helps the Selectmen make a decision but that's sort of my preface for putting out all these alternates um I thought having a price might help make the decisions and based on what material and what color so that's where I'm starting the um we got two we got two biders I think both of them are probably uh comp competent to do the job so it's really going to come down to price and what what alternate you alternative you want to start with and I think I don't know about Carl and that's why I asked him to be on here I think we do all the windows I don't want to do half the windows I prefer to do all 90 windows and get it done yeah so uh the windows both of these choices are Quality Windows whether vinyl aluminum um different um vinyl kind of WS on the extreme heat that's concerned aluminum not as much I'm familiar with the aluminum and woods I've seen the samples I've seen them on buildings but again both of these are Quality Windows what either one we get it'll be a quality window just a matter of saying now what color and which which uh alternate we want yep and just for a clarification before we go any further alternate four under um unicor the price was 138 there was just a typo it says 130 but on your on your tab but it's actually 138 130 what8 eight okay that that wow that's a good that's the one I had to highlight it was a good price and a good window yeah alternate four you had yeah yeah that's what I was go looking at once we figure out the color and what type of window alternate 4 seemed to be the one I would prefer uh again both Quality Windows the price at 130 I seen that even 8,000 Mor still not a bad price compared so I do see the other one alternate for for 170,000 it's quite a difference $40,000 difference so I don't know if he missed something or we we didn't explain correctly I don't know why that is like that you haven't heard anything from Eric about that anybody no I mean he was there at the bid opening both of these people so we we have some experience with the contract as far as you know the high bids and so on so uh yeah so I I I looked at alternate four I think that's the one that's going to get us to where we want to be again we talk about color alternate four is green green and it's aluminum correct correct and I yeah and I like I said I kind of prefer the white now the I didn't bid the vinyl in color but I asked for a price and they said it would run about probably $220,000 more if you wanted them to be green but first pick your material and then we can go with color I think does that make sense yeah I mean I I honestly opinion I know a lot about Windows so I mean I'm not sure sopes or Zer have any kind of strong feeling of whether you go wood or vinyl I really don't sorry aluminum or vinyl so um well I will say um one I agree with all 93 windows at once right I zero sense to do 60 to leave you know 30 something of them the old windows and you know let's do it all it's money we have in the budget so that aside you know that's my biggest part of a no-brainer um I went went to the town hall to see the windows um you know because I have the concern of do we put what we put in there making sure that it's the right thing um so both windows definitely seemed strong and um you know I obviously talked to both Debbie and Carl so you kind of heard that both on on different ends of it all but um Carl also did say that um you know he thought that if it was a good quality vinal that it wouldn't work because that you know the last thing I want to do is see us put Windows in and get you know some extrem heat and then have them all warping so he didn't think it would happen if they're good quality Windows um so I I'm back and forth with the preference of it all truthfully um and then my only question was is you know we talk about white and color and I I mean the vinyl can be painted as well right down the road so you know I just don't want to um put a hyperfocus on what color when we know we can paint it I'd rather have the color we want now and know that rather than having to go back and paint it later but you know at least we know that it can be painted so we don't have to you know hold us strict right now like okay this is the color we want this the color it's going to stay that's just my feelings I I haven't had good experience painting vinyl anything I it'll last for me a year or two but it it does weather doesn't weather well it peels unless it's it's Factory uh painted I don't know if that's an option we're looking at that'd be different than us going up there and painting or company doing it I don't know if anybody's any insight into that is it Factory painted Deb if it's Vin painted you can get them um Factory painted that's what that was what I say I didn't bid it that way I figured we could always do a change order but it's around 20 grand more to what they're telling me I didn't follow up on that I will tell you that they this the lowest bidder I know unicorn I think they both bid jav jav brand Windows which I'm happy with those windows from my experience I kle what about you are you yeah absolutely they're also close they're in dmouth so if we need something something happens they you know they they're close by to do that uh so the other discussion we've talked about painting this building at some point keeping in mind what's that going to look like and is that going to determine what windows we get now not to open up that kind of worms but well I do think that's a conversis from another day well just keep in mind that I do think within the next three years you're going to have to paint the building so that's kind of why to I know you have the letter that you got from um uh Stephen Chandler and I also know that the historical Comm uh commiss uh committee you know is somewhat interested in possibly changing the color of the building I don't want to get into that but I also don't want to ignore that um possibility that's why I thought well green would go with any color scheme and it would go well with the white and it would go well with their proposed color scheme keep in mind that if we were have changed the color scheme of the building it comes with a price tag although my thought process was we'd have to get a grant they would have to write a grant to to to get it you know to help pay for it cuz it will be substantially more to paint this building I believe from a white to a to a brown or or multiple different colors it just will um but that's one of the reasons I don't think we're going to go another 10 years without painting the building so um I'm just Googling whether you can paint them after the fact or you know I can follow up once you decide which way you want to go um about the price from haries and what that's like to get a vinyl or they do come in the color though the vinyl will come in the green the vinyl will come in a red do you know if it's a if it's a colored all the way through like the Extrusion color right now oh just like a flat surface pain because that wouldn't wouldn't work well for us I don't think I would assume it's must be all the way through that's why or most of the way through that's why it's like 20 grand extra probably but I'm going to Google it and see um so I don't know if you want to pick a material first first I think maybe you can have vote that you that you want to do all 90 95 Windows let's say 95 Windows right so yeah so I'll entertain a motion that we will replace all 95 windows in the town hall sorry motion made second all in favor I I I Selman Lopes yes Selman zeger yes Selman Matthews yes okay so I got that part done and now now just I'll just put up a motion that uh we will use vinyl windows Alo I'll a motion that we will go vinyl over aluminum window yeah so what about color because we're just going to say just thing right now and separate the vote on color to a different part because obviously we're talking about that so it make sense clarified I do just I think that whites first of all is cheaper and second of all I just think it's lower risk like I don't know and the Town Hall in my mind's eye is always been white white and white right like but that doesn't anything I I don't also don't have a strong opinion on this I just kind of I was put windows in my house I'd probably do I did white I did this actually last couple years but my parents did Black and looks really good so what about uh warranty can neither either you know about the warranty on the Windows because obviously then how long they'll stand behind them all for the material I think especially if you paint them I don't know that would I don't I agree with Kyle I don't think you want to paint them after the fact I think you want to order them factory factory color whatever color you want mhm um because it'll be a uh I don't know how they make them but it will certainly be better than um painting them after the fact and I can't imagine what that's going to cost I the I I mean I I I don't remember what jav's warranty is but I think it's a pretty decent warranty and at least 10 years I think and where they're here it's easy to get replacement parts and stuff for them so all kind of things happen with the low E glass right we could get a situation where the sun's going to hit the window reflect and and and melt the neighbor sighting cuz that happens too the low E glass windows are obviously different than these that could have an effect I wouldn't be surprised if something like that happens it does happen once in a while and the remedy for that is to put screens over them I think these include full screens on the outside right that what everyone's going to come up with we we spec them with half screens but you and I talked about that um we just whatever you think is best We'll order them that way and we can always order more screens from Harvey's because they're local right so whatever you think car because of course we're talking about the air conditioners and the windows if so the these windows it's going to have an immediate savings for us this winter we're going to start saving money day one when these windows are in in the Summer full screens allow you to open the window top down and the bottom up a little bit you get the circulation going on so that's going to help us uh the half screens are good if you're going to open the window put an air conditioner in hopefully that won't be the case for much longer just something to consider you know okay right because at the end of the day hvac's also already been approved right if correct me if I'm wrong on that hvac's already already in the budget somewhere there already a pot of money set aside for HVAC as well just the windows yeah there's money for the windows and we I we have $90,000 for the windows so we're going to go over that but we have um money in our building Improvement budget that we're going to you know allocate obviously towards the windows I we're also in the process of of course working on demolition of the uh for South Main Street so when those two projects sort of come together I'll know what we have left in that budget I I was I'm thinking maybe I got to go to town meeting and get some more money for hbac but it is the next project in line that um K and I are working on for the building that needs to be addressed because we don't have adequate I mean you know the heat it's either it's freezing in here or it's 100 degrees in here it's never any kind of level temperature yeah no that's absolutely not to mention when you're in your office or any office you can hear the traffic go by you can hear the wind you can you can you're pretty much outside as is um as far as aluminum or vinyl you know like are we talking about aluminum casings or as is that the whole material Carl the whole the whole the whole Windows vinyl uh vinyl right so the the other one be half aluminum on the outside and wood on the inside but the vinyl windows again both quality type Windows the vinyl is is vinyl all the way through okay so this might help you the the the jav windows have the 10-year warranty on the clad Windows the aluminum clad on the vinyl windows they have a lifetime warranty that covers the extruded solid vinyl members so there's the difference um I mean that that seems to be important I I like lifetime yeah um you know we talk about the warping of the window due to the outside right so then that means that we don't have to worry about that anymore so the biggest concern is kind of about the window no pun intended I said it and then realized what I said um and it says classic exterior paint so I don't I don't know if that's a a uh it's a 10-year warranty if you get black laminate exterior finish it's a 20-year warranty so it sounds like if you get them in uh colors it might limit the warranty as opposed to the white because black would absorb heat and would cause a problem for the vinyl window yeah that's white the white dark green would be similar though right like yeah it would absorb heat yeah so my thought here is white vinyl that that gives us the biggest warranty save his money and important things I think I'm back and forth on this one um yeah gez I feel like I'm stuck in the middle rocking out please I don't know um I don't think we can go wrong so I think this is one of those decisions at least it's a win-win win whatever we do because we get into win we do it's an improvement oh yeah right no matter what we do it's a major Improvement will we get everything we want no but we also are G be saving energy saving bills saving money uh putting in Windows uh the color yeah that's my only that's how my only struggle because it is white today there's no guarantee it won't be white tomorrow right even if we get funding for a through a grant there's only so much money in the world right or at least in our budget to change it back to the original color scheme which it is beautiful for that for that time period um but it's white today um to change it to another color that's a lot of grant writing that's something's GNA get on it now so you think maybe to consider that we have three buildings that are white right you got the uh the library across the street the old schoolhouse and then we got Town Hall so be nice to kind of have them all look the same so we know they all belong to the same you know to the town I don't know if that's a consideration right well that makes it that much harder for them to to paint everything to to the historic whichs the white the other buildings are all white they're white clad buildings windows are white so to kind of use that for for your decision making yeah I mean I can't I I feel like I'm G my vote needs to be on today not on what could happen tomorrow because we don't know what can happen tomorrow so you know what PA I'm sorry I respect you I'm go with white vinyl as I said they're both Quality Windows I have no problem with either one of them so so I'll put a motion up there then so I'll under a motion that we uh move forward with vinyl white windows for the town hall motion made second all in favor I I Selman Lopes yes selan Zager yes select my Matthews yes okay so now we have to or award the bid right yeah so it looks like you're going with alternate six which is all of the windows in white vinyl lowest bidder on Alternate six um cmat came in at 130,000 and unicor came in at 1225 so the lowest bidder is unicor unic and we've used unicor unicor is reputable to us good Unicon is doing some a project for us at the school so I haven't necessarily used them yet we did um he did give us references the other thing is he did give us he did give me a complete response to the RFP and he did have references that Lola did call so they said that you know he did come in over budget but I don't know I don't know the details on why he came in over budget uh but you never know what um they're going to encounter when they start doing this work I'm expecting that even here that you know might this you know but to that point I think some of the window s are going to find have to be replaced while we're doing these windows too so we need a little bit of a cush with money for that yeah we're I'm going to make sure that's all set that we do have a buffer for it so um but that he did complete the project and he was on time so I I mean that's all I can say okay yeah that's all say all we can ask for but that's a good start so at least he's done other projects you know all right so with that I'll a motion that we uh award the bid for the free for the town hall Windows to Unicon sorry motion made second all in favor I I SEL lops yes selectman zegger yes selectman Matthews yes okay awesome moving on so now this is agenda item four disc discussion of vote whether approved change order one for the fire station building construction now you gonna did you miss one number three for me to sign the documents sorry I did miss that good catch all right so with that I'll entertain a motion to have authorize Town Administrator to sign all documents Rel to bid or Supply installation of the replace window do for Town Hall motion made second all in favor I I selan Lopes yes selan Zager yes Selman Matthews yes okay J item four now discussion vote whether to approve the change order one for the fire station building construction this is I I've known about this this is because when we got the sub bids for the the uh build the fire station building Edition they came in one for um weather proofing came in really really high so we put a stipulation when we put it out for the big bids to just carry $80,000 for waterproofing then we rebid we rebid that sub bid and it and it came in at 132 so this change order we knew right out of the gate that was going to have to come forth I just wanted you to be the board to be aware of this it's a 52 ,000 change order something like that um there's no surprise in that it's not a change order that happened because they're out there doing work and something has changed it was just the bidding process and in order to not slow it down it was a stipulation we made while we were putting it out to bid so there's no surprises in this I just wanted you to be aware that there's a $52,000 change that I knew about um because of the way the bid process worked makes sense anyone have any questions or concerns on that just budget wise this is in the budget right this I know we have money for this the construction project but this doesn't make us go over right I know we always put a buffer in there everything time we bid out so are we good on thaty yep we're fine I I will give you a heads up if we're not but we're perfectly fine like I said this was sort of a planned change order I knew about it's just now logistically getting it done okay okay so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve change order one station building construction motion me I second all in favor I I I selectman Lopes yes selectman Zager yes selectman Matthews yes and this is just to have gen five just have Deb sign the change so with that I'll a motion to authorize Town Administrator to sign a change order one for fire station building construction one motion me second all favor all I I selan Lopes yes selan zeger yes selan Matthews yes all right and with that I'll get over to Personnel all right uh thank you Mr chairman I agena 6 uh acknowledge the resonation of Jee Fox from parading fireworks committee effective 821 2024 thank you Jean for taking it on over the years and uh you have it in good hands now U thank you for all you've done item agenda seven acknowledge the resonation of Lyn Fado from the open space Recreation advisory committee effective 72 2024 again Lynn has been there since we started at Oz and she's been a driving force for many of the things we've done there so thank you Lynn and uh continue do following your education goals awesome okay well I think that's all we have in the agenda uh obviously we can't sign today because we're not in person right I'll I think are we good yes so with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn a motion me second all in favor I I I selan Lopes yes selectman Zer yes Selman Matthews yes all right thank you you bye everybody hi