Mr Shephard are you around on Fridays or you not not working Fridays through the chair you're live on hcam Ed TV thanks Bob I can't be around Friday I'm not working Friday though what do you need having an eagle says outside of the scope of this meeting but I have an Eagle Scout project I wanted to pick your brain on a few things up what's a good time for you tomorrow morning I'm good anytime what what works for you well I could be up there around 9 o'clock probably yeah I'll meet you uh at my office around nine if that works for you I got you all right that'll be good I'll see you then thank you sir yeah you're very welcome right uh in case anybody is watching at the moment on hcam uh it is just 7 o'clock now we're going to give it a couple more minutes for a few more people to log in and then we will go ahead and get started on what should be a fairly quick agenda hey Chris are you all set to go other than being on mute other than being on mute yes I'm all set to go and um so I know we have Bill and I know we have Mike um Tiffany I see that you're online can you just connect confirm that you're there and ready to go and then I think we've got quarum and we can get started [Music] [Music] okay we just give one more minute e okay um let's go ahead and get started I think Tiffany might just be working out a technical problem so I can can you hear me now and now we can hear you yep perfect okay okay awesome all right I'll do a quick run through of the agenda and then we will go ahead and get started so um welcome everyone to the July 25th 2024 meeting of the elementary school building committee um we're calling it to order at 7:03 p.m. and tonight we will have our usual public comment opportunity then we have some invoices to approve some minutes to approve um we will get a update on the conservation committee or sorry Conservation Commission and planning board permitting processes um we'll get a quick update on the abutter Outreach especially as it relates to the Hayden row area um we will vote to approve the registration for Passive house certification um and then I we have design updates on the agenda but I don't think we yeah I don't think we have any so um so we'll go ahead and get started um with the invoices so there in the packet tonight there were three invoices um invoice number OPM 11627 payable to vertex in the amount of 3333333 invoice number 95421 007 to Perkins Eastman in the amount of $400,000 and invoice p231 1283 payable to Thorton Thomas edti in the amount of $3,000 the total amount for the invoice package tonight is $436 333.33 are there any questions or comments related to the invoice package okay hearing none I would seek a motion to approve the invoices in total 436,000 33 so moved motion by Bill is there a second second sir um second we we'll go with Mike on that one I heard him first uh we have roll call vote uh as we are remote tonight so Mike yes sir Bill yes Tiffany yes and I am a yes so those are approved um four to zero unanimously and uh Susan I will sign those and send it over tonight next we have the minutes from our July 9th 2024 meeting um any questions related to those okay hearing none I would seek a motion to approve the minutes of July 9th 2024 so move Mr chairman is there a second second okay motion by Mike second by Tiffany roll call vote Mike yes sir bill I have to abstain I wasn't there okay Tiffany I have to have seen as well I wasn't there okay and I am a yes which does that kick us to the next meeting I was just gonna ask that question like technically we have a quorum but we didn't have enough here's what we're going to do let's just kick it to the next meeting okay because there's no urgency whatsoever rather than run a foul meeting law yeah let's just let's just not yeah let's think we'll hit the 30day um recommended rule for submitting minutes but um we have missed that deadline in the past and I think it's easier than solving that question right I agree so we'll we'll table that motion if there are no objections um and we will pick those minutes up at the next meeting there's 202 table due to abstentions how it okay that should work okay next item is an update on Conservation Commission and planning board permitting Chris is this you Yep this is me so um in an effort to not uh waste the committee's time this is a fairly quick update we did as many of you know and attended we did see the Conservation Commission for our initial meeting last week um as part of that meeting they shared their thoughts on the project there were no significant opposition that was voiced there were some questions that were raised about a couple of the decisions that were made and the peerreview was still pending we did receive the results of the peer review um late this afternoon and the design team is currently reviewing those um we had been planning to attend the next meeting on the 30th but after disussion um we vertex recommended to um in response to a suggestion from LEC that we we table or that we continue that meeting until the following meeting because one of the requests of the uh Conservation Commission was that we um do a site visit and that site visit is not going to occur until August 1st so we would have NE reviewed the comments and responded or have attended the site visit by the meeting on Tuesday the 30th so um I believe that that meeting will be continued till the following meeting and then we will follow up the one item that did occur um is in in order to expedite things we did reach out to John with the proposal for Lucas environmental which is the town's third party peer reviewer they had uh submitted a proposal for $4,900 which John approved and I included the um copy of that in your packet that's standard practice for Conservation Commission um the planning board update um oh and the I did not look up the date for the following meeting we will be continued to but I believe it is either the 13th or the 20th um the planning board is scheduled for August 5th for our first appearance so that is coming a week from Monday they similarly had a um peer review proposal from tyin Bond excuse me in the amount of $116,000 we reached out to John um for that approval so that we could move it forward and I included that in your packet as well um that is moving forward and we hope to get comments before the first planning board meeting um which we'll review and hopefully be able to discuss as part of that meeting if anyone is interested in being included in the site visit I can um pass that along to the group or to any individuals it's largely going to be walking fairly deep in the woods in overgrown areas um that I know from personal experience have a lot of ticks and mosquitoes at 5:00 pm in the evening but if that is what you feel is necessary to conduct your duty as members you're welcome to join us and then um the the that's the bulk of the Conservation Commission and planning board update I don't really have much more than that okay any questions from the committee I have a quick question John does somebody have to go to the Conservation Commission that one's a live meeting to continue it Chris I'm waiting to get that response from LEC um I know that from attending many of them for the Hopkins projects there were many meetings that ended up being requested to be continued and that was shared by staff um so if once I have that confirmation we'll we'll sort that out thank you um John I don't know the the next item was a butter Outreach I don't know if just want to hold on I just want to make sure nobody's got any other questions related to the permitting updates oh actually I had one more perming update that I didn't write in my notes okay I just had one question Chris and then we give that other update is so as you're discussing this my Perpetual question is going to be just reentering us on none of this continuation has any impact on timeline especially as meepa continues to be kind of the long pole in the tent in terms of getting to permitting approval correct correct we had originally forecast that the permit um process would conclude in uh February if um we got satisfactory response from the meepa certificate as I mentioned at the last meeting and we're currently targeting that was sort of the meepa update I just hadn't added it to my notes um we're currently targeting the 16th of September to issue the uh single environmental impact report and as part of that single environmental impact report there was an additional service that was requested when um we processed Amendment Six for Perkins Eastman they had um included language that said if something above the standard practice was required um for the meepa that would be an additional service the meepa certificate required that they do a um I'm going to describe it wrong if I don't pull it up in front of me um that they do a air qual a regional air quality impact study um which looks at uh traffic impacts and air quality impacts as a result of the project that's above and beyond sort of what would be expected for a design of a school and so they asked for an additional service of $115,000 plus Perkins 10% markup um this group had previously approved the um $779,000 for Passive house design support and construction and we have that Amendment still pending so my thought is that I would just add that 15,000 to that Amendment and we would process it all at once um and you had you John had approved that Amendment um by email after we reviewed and discussed it under your Authority so um that was the the one additional update as it relates to meepa with uh originally forecast meepo would have ended in February currently if we get the single i e and it's accepted as written um we would conclude in November so we're well ahead of where we thought we would be in the original schedule okay great and we had always anticipated multiple meetings for both concom and um planning board we're a little behind on planning board because they pushed us to August but we had expected to oh excuse me to be before them at least three times okay and then um yeah I can do a butter Outreach if you want to do a butter Outreach yeah um so uh we reached out to uh the a butters on Hayden row um who are impacted by the roadway improvements to have individual conversations with them walk their property and actually um hear from them about what their concerns are that they would like the committee to mitigate um we got responses from three of the parties um the good news is I think there's three of the more uh more impacted parties along the road so those were good conversations to have um there are probably three or four houses that we didn't get response from that we want to follow up with to make sure that we can have those conversations um so I will probably be doing some door knocking either this weekend or early next week um just to make sure we connect especially because one of those houses recently sold um so it's possible that the owner we don't have the correct contact information or they're not aware of what's going on um so we will be doing that I think all three conversations went very well the neighbors were um you know extremely uh you know were were um expressed their concerns uh but nothing seemed too unreasonable so just as a reminder to the committee about the procedure um we took the we took that back um vertex is going to coordinate with our um landscape design Engineers to see what we can do to help alleviate their challenges and then we will try to come to an agreement with those individual households um and then once we have gotten those three as well as all the other abutters squared away we will come back to the committee with a report on the total amount of money that we'll be spending uh to make those to to take care of those concerns from the abuts um so the process is ongoing um but as I said I think all three meetings were were really good um it's always nice to be able to walk the property and be able to see collectively what the issues are and might be also helps illustrate for those Property Owners a little bit more visually what we can do and I think they all seemed pretty satisfied with how the conversation ended any questions all right so more to come on that uh next is passive house so is Chris Chris or Dan um I'll take this one to start and Dan can correct everything that I get wrong seems efficient so as part of the um original msba agreement that we discussed there was a portion of the reimbursement that was dramatically increased it went from I think uh it was an additional 4% of your reimbursement rate based on pursuing the specialized energy code we've previously had discussions about um passive house as the route to pursue um the specialized energy code and the committee has previously endorsed the um additional service for 79,000 for construction support as part of the passive house process and that is a physical Design Services occurring in or verification Services occurring in the field in support of passive house the 4% reimbursement equates to a little over $5 million so all of these costs we're talking about in support of it are um repaid significantly through the msba agreement that the town has um as part of the grant program the um as part of the passive house process there's a number of ways in the code that you can pursue the and um complete the specialized energy code requirements the most straightforward and um clearest route is to pursue passive house certification and so much like the committee previously voted to pursue lead certification passive house certification as a organization a has its own fee associated with it so the fee that is um I had reached out to Dan we didn't get to connect um do we have the accurate fee or do we need to vote on a not to exceed Dan for Dan Dan's nodding okay so it's the um it's the correct fee was it 3 3,175 that's the that fee I sent you is the correct fee yes I just want to make sure that I'm pulling that up correctly in front of me so I don't have to read vote so um what we would look for tonight is a motion from the committee to um register the project with passive house for a fee of $33,135 okay so I guess first are there any questions or comments from the committee with respect to the requested motion y i I have a question hi Chris how are you hi Bill hi um could you remind me of the reimbursement process once we are approved what the timeline is for that um so the reimbursement process is multifaceted um so we're currently in the design phase and when we were in the feasibility phase previously um the msba on a monthly basis you would submit reimbursements to um the msba and they would review audit and um cut a check to the town on a monthly basis with a slight lack so that continued until we completed the facil the feasibility process um when you pass the feasibility process you have your board vote you have your town vote they give you your um uh the terminology is escaping me but they give you your agreement um which is the project scope and budget agreement the town signs off on the project scope and budget agreement recently the msba has shifted and they've done this to a number of projects where meepa has become involved in the project they have added a condition to the project scope and budget agreement that says that until the meepa issue is resolved they will not execute what's called The Project funding agreement and so the Project funding agreement is what kicks off your design phase um reimbursements similar to what we had in feasibility so those reimbursements are currently on hold until the meepa certificate is um granted saying that we've completed the requirements of meepa we expected that originally as I mentioned earlier in February now it's going to occur in November so at that point the fees that have been incurred by the town and submitted to um the msba up until that date will be reimbursed via the process that I just described and that we had during feasibility and so all of the costs that you've approved up to this point will at that point be reimbursed and the msba will cut you a check based on your reimbursement rate up till that time and that will kick off the monthly process to continue and that'll continue into construction after you uh have your bids you'll do another PFA bid Amendment and that will set the construction bid period it'll add in the construction um number and refine the grant a little bit again as we did at the project scope and budget phase and at that point that continues on until you get about 95% of your money um similar to how with the contractor we have retainage where 5% is withheld from the contractor for the msba we also have sort of a retainage which is an insurance policy for them to make sure they don't overpay a town and that last 5% is pending the final audit we've seen an extended period of time for that last 5% that can be two to three years if you're unlucky or we've seen it as soon soon as 18 months to two years so that last 5% is a check they cut you at the end but as soon as we clear the meepa process in November we would expect that um we'll begin submitting reimbursement requests again at that point those reimbursement requests will be processed and the reimbursement will start coming again um I don't recall if because this is a new program if something like the passive house is an eligible reimbursable or not but we do have um a budget line item that we had set aside for this specific purpose of covering costs associated with the additional work um that we were doing as part of the um specialized energy okay and specifically With the Energy rebates I'm I'm kind of looking for do you know what the timeline is on those so the energy rebate you're talking about the mass save process and the IRA to follow the passive house the other current discussion so um passive house is tied to the um the msba reimbursement so it's sort of like a yay you got your thing here's your check and what they have traditionally done is they have held that until you've certified that you've met the requirements so the 5 million plus that they're giving you most likely some of that will be part of that final payment that you'll get at that time it used to be a much smaller amount so because it's new I can't say whether they've changed their approach to reimburse it as they go or whether they'll still used to be you'd give them your lead certificate and then that would trigger a reimbursement I don't know whether with the larger numbers we're talking about now with the new program that they have if they're going to change that because it's nobody's taken it through to the end yet in terms of other than Mass Save um or other than the msba Mass Save is usually a year to 18 months after um the project is verified it's a little longer with path one now because they have a one-year verification period so it could be up to two years and the IRA we're hearing somewhere in two to three years after the Project's complete but that again is a um relatively new program and we haven't seen a lot of projects make their way through it yet thank you I I have a question um this passive House program this 33 grand um is it a private agency we're paying is the state we're paying and what do we get back for that money I'll I'll Turf that one to Dan it's a private agency it's basically the same it's very similar to lead where you pay usgbc and they review the project and then they ser then they give you a certified silver gold whatever level you get to for Passive house they're just another version of a certification third party certification and they give you a certification that you're compliant with passive house the so what you get is a certification all right so that's what we're paying for to to more or less guarantee that we'll get the other money at the other end yeah the thing is Mike and you you know you you'll know this better than most the way the code is written they don't make you do this but they make you do this so they say you don't need to hire a pass you don't need to get passive house certification but you need a letter from passive house certifying it yeah so it's like impossible to get one without the other right you're and I feel given the the the complications of the energy code and the way it changes every other day this is probably money well spent I think so because this this is like bulletproof right like we'll do this and that's it they can't there nobody can come back and say you did you failed in this way it was clearly the easiest way to pursue yeah um energy code compliance it sounds good any other questions okay um if there are none then we would seek a motion actually Chris I need the number again um it would be aemotion uh I just had it um it'd be emotion to approve passive house registration at a cost of $33,750 and I believe once we approve this it's a process that will send the invoice directly to the district yeah that's the best way to do it I you don't need to give anybody else anything on top of this right so move Mr chairman okay motion by Mike is there a second second okay second by Bill roll call vote Mike yes sir Bill yes Tiffany yes and I am a yes so it is unanimous 4 to zero approved um we had said at the beginning that we don't have design updates um at the moment so nothing to do on that front which brings us to the conclusion of our agenda um Chris do we have another meeting tentatively scheduled uh we tentatively have our next meeting on August 13th okay um that meeting will include a number of things which um um it'll include meepa the um sort of draft uh endorsement of the single eir that will be submitted we should have an update on the design development drawing or the I'm sorry the 60% CD drawings because those will be due um in short order um I I can't reme recall the exact is it the 18th Dan um so August 18th the 60% CDs will go out so um I would anticipate any questions or updates that the design team has based on that development would come up at that meeting as well I think it's the 23d actually Chris is it I think that was originally and I think we we split the baby because it was the 18th on one and the 30 whatever on the other and we said all right we'll just go to the middle which was the 230 so the the main piece of information we'll need to discuss will be validating or endorsing the um the single e um at that meeting and um actually no I'm I'm um I'm off by a month I apologize um I don't have the agenda for the the 13th meeting but um okay it's actually September that we'll be endorsing the uh eir I got a month off okay that's fine I just wanted to make sure we noted what the next scheduled meeting is we'll obviously get the agenda out in um you know far enough in advance that people can um take note of what's going to be on there so if there is no other business um I would seek a motion to adjourn so moved second Mr chairman okay motion by Bill second by Mike roll call vote Mike yes sir Bill yes Tiffany yes and I am yes so we are adjourned at 7:30 pm thank you as always to hcam um thank you everyone for joining and we will see you on August 13th have a good night you too thank you bye