School Building Committee

Office of the City Manager City Hall • 375 Merrimack Street • Lowell, MA 01852 P: 978.970.4000 • F: 978.970.4007 www.LowellMA.gov Eileen M. Donoghue City Manager Kara Keefe Mullin Assistant City Manager School Building Committee Meeting Meeting Minutes Date: December 9, 2021 Time: 5:00 PM Location: Virtual Meeting – Zoom School Building Committee Members Present: Eileen Donoghue, Mike Vaughn, Bill Samaras, Conor Baldwin, Ed Kennedy, MaryAnn Manzi, Mike Fiato, Benjamin Opara, Christine Clancy, Joel Boyd, John Leahy City/School Staff Present: Kara Keefe Mullin, Phillip Geoffroy, Roxane Howe, Jill Rothschild, Hannah Hession Elected Officials Present: John Drinkwater Perkins Eastman Staff Present: Joe Drown, Robin Greenberg Skanska Staff Present: Maryann Williams, Jim Dowd Suffolk Construction Staff Present: Rex Radloff, Pannha San Chung Called to order 5:03 PM by E. Donoghue. Roll call showed 10 members. Mayor Leahy joined after roll call to make a total of 11 members and 23 total present. Motion to accept previous meeting minutes accepted by Kennedy and Samaras. E. Donoghue: Asked R. Radloff for his presentation on construction progress and procurement. R. Radloff: Reviewed the previous construction timeline of Phase 1: “Building the New Gymnasium” from the demolition of 75 Arcand Drive, building the foundation, steel erection, and roofing from October 2020 to November 2021. Façade work, overhead mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (OH MEP), and masonry work have all begun and are on-going. Finishes, gym equipment, and flooring will begin after the new year with an expected building start-up and occupancy date of Summer 2022. He also presented a photo “walk-through” of the gymnasium in its current condition. The procurement update included a list of remaining subcontractor procurements for Phases 2-4. Suffolk is currently putting out to bid Phase 2-4 structural steel, curtainwall, metal panels, stage rigging and curtains, auditorium seating, fireproofing, acoustical panels, and final cleaning. For the subcontractors on-site currently, Suffolk is meeting its minority and women business enterprise (MBEs and WBEs) goals and workforce diversity goals. They have awarded $13,021,408 total MBE/WBE contracts so far. 17,517 hours of work have been done by 107 people of color, 17 women, and 33 Lowell residents. This means that 25.4% of workers are POC, 4.1% are women, and 10.3 % of workers are Lowell residents.  Office of the City Manager City Hall • 375 Merrimack Street • Lowell, MA 01852 P: 978.970.4000 • F: 978.970.4007 www.LowellMA.gov Eileen M. Donoghue City Manager Kara Keefe Mullin Assistant City Manager E. Kennedy: If the gym is set to be finished next summer, will the high schoolers be able to use the gym in the next school year? R. Radloff: Yes. In the Fall of 2022, students will be able to use the gym. E. Kennedy: Is the statistic of 25% of minorities and 10% of Lowell residents meeting the thresholds for subcontractors? R. Radloff: The minority workforce goal was 15.3% and there was no Lowell resident goal, but we are always looking for ways to promote Lowell residents working on the job. E. Kennedy: So with the minority workforce goal, we’re doing a lot better than the threshold? R. Radloff: Yes, that’s correct. W. Samaras: We have a lot of projects in the City that may need to be held back for periods of time due to difficulties in obtaining steel right now. When discussing procurement, are you being more aggressive in terms of procuring materials so we can ensure that the construction continues as planned? R. Radloff: That is precisely what we are doing. Steel lead times have increased recently, so one of our responsibilities is to work with Skanska and Perkins Eastman to monitor that and ensure that we are procuring the next packages with ample time. We are in good shape with procurement and materials. W. Samaras: What about the price? R. Radloff: We have seen escalation in price of materials, but we are able to competitively bid these packages and maintain the best value for the project. E. Donoghue: You kept using the term CMU in your presentation. Can you explain what that is? R. Radloff: CMU stands for Concrete Masonry Unit. It is a concrete block that is bigger than a regular brick. E. Donoghue: What is the demolition schedule of the field house? When is that expected to start? R. Radloff: Right after the students are dismissed for summer break, we are looking to gain access to the space and begin those efforts. The building won’t begin to come down for about a month after that. E. Donoghue: Will it be down before the students are back in school? R. Radloff: It will be on-going, but in a manner where we will be completely separated from the students. We have no concern about taking down the building next to what will be the newly occupied gym. E. Donoghue: It was nice to see a photo “walk-through” of what is going on behind the walls.  Office of the City Manager City Hall • 375 Merrimack Street • Lowell, MA 01852 P: 978.970.4000 • F: 978.970.4007 www.LowellMA.gov Eileen M. Donoghue City Manager Kara Keefe Mullin Assistant City Manager E. Kennedy: Looking at the photos is nice, but you can’t really get a sense of scope or size. Would it be appropriate for this building committee to do a tour of the gym area? What would be a good time to do that? R. Radloff: We can certainly accommodate a walk-through for this committee at any time and would be eager to do that. The springtime, when we are in the middle of our finishes, might be the best time because the site will be mainly free of heavy equipment and you would have a better idea of the end product. I will work with everyone here and set up a date. E. Donoghue: Closing remarks, wished everyone a happy and healthy holiday. Meeting adjourned 5:36 PM. Moved by Kennedy and seconded by Samaras.