School Building Committee

The City of Lowell • Office of the City Manager City Hall • 375 Merrimack Street • Lowell, MA 01852 P: 978-674-4402 • F: 978-970-4007 www.Lowellma.gov Thomas A. Golden, Jr. City Manager School Building Committee Meeting Meeting Minutes Date: May 18th 2023 Time: 6:00 P.M Location: Zoom / Virtual Participation School Building Committee Members Present: Mike Vaughn (Chief Procurement Officer), Conor Baldwin (Chief Financial Officer), Mark Byrne (Facilities & Infrastructure Manager), William Samaras (Former Mayor of Lowell), Edward Kennedy (State Senator), John Leahy (City Councilor), Rodney Elliot (State Representative), Maryann Manzi (LPD), Jay Mason (Lowell Sustainability Council – Architect), Benjamin Opara City Staff Present: Shawn Machado (Assistant City Manager), Paul St. Cyr (DPW Commissioner), Austin Ball (Deputy CFO) Perkins Eastman Consultants Present: Joe Drown, Robin Greenberg Skanska Consultants Present: Jim Dowd Suffolk Consultants Present: Pannha San Chung The order of business was as follows: I. Attendance / Roll Call: Meeting Called to order at 6:01 P.M by S. Machado on behalf of Manager Golden and asked to accept and place on file remote / zoom participation, roll call showed 10 present. City of Lowell: S. Machado noted that there was no quorum and would defer this section to the end of meeting if a quorum was present. S. Kennedy – Noted that the School Department is replacing Connie Martin with Eileen Delrossi. S, Machado – We will connect with the school department regarding this. II. Suffolk: Phase 2 – Construction Update Pannha – Begun exterior framing as well as slab on grade at main entrance and at Building F and have begun roofing as well. Structural steel at Building F is substantially complete. In June they will start exterior sheathing at Building F and will begin slab on grade at Building D. Also in June, they will complete spray fireproofing at Building F. In July, they will begin the façade work at Building F and will look at starting Building D roof weather tight as well. Showed the committee and public some progress pictures. J. Leahy – The parking along the gymnasium side is an issue with blocking traffic and would like to get some signage alerting the public to this. J. Dowd – This is already in the works, and the School Department has issued a directive to not park there as well. We will get temporary signs within the next week to two. III. MBE/WBE: Pannha - Total construction minority workforce is at 24.7%, the female workforce is 3.8%, total Lowell workforce is 10.6%. Suffolk has been having calls with subcontractor’s to try to increase these numbers. B. Opara – Do you expect the woman’s workforce to increase? Pannha – The woman's workforce has been holding but we are looking to increase. We have a consultant that has been actively making calls to subcontractor’s to increase these numbers. B. Opara – Is there a timeframe to increase these numbers? Pannha – These numbers are throughout the project, however, have been trying to increase these numbers by letting the subcontractor know that there is an MBE/WBE workforce requirement. IV. Perkins Eastman - Designer Update: W. Samaras – Asked Suffolk, Skanska, Perkins-Eastman for drawings so the committee is not caught off guard when the public asks them questions and can better answer the resident's. J. Dowd – We can have Perkins Eastman make a presentation to answer the questions. W. Samaras – Noted that the committee needs more information regarding the project because many residents have questions on the project and if anything is wrong or not to the standard, we expect this committee to flag it more for review. J. Dowd – We can certainly put together a package with floor plans and drawings for review. E. Kennedy – If possible can you include a summary or narrative with these? S. Machado – Noted that having the High School floor plans out in the public is not the best idea for security reasons. Jim is more than willing to meet with anyone internally to review them. W. Samaras – A suggestion for the committee would be to have every third meeting in person instead of zoom. J. Dowd – As S. Machado stated, we are trying to strike a balance between access to information while also being cognizant of security. J. Mason – Agree that the drawings getting out may be an issue but a summary schedule and OAC meetings minutes would be beneficial. J. Dowd – Will work with the City Manager on how to present this information. Robin – No update for this month. V. Skanska – Budget / Cash Flow Update Jim - The total budget for the LHS project is $381.9 million dollars and the MSBA has reimbursed the city $83.8 million to date. In construction contingency there is currently $19.4 million remaining and have 10 change orders pending totaling just over $1 million. In the owner's contingency there is currently $2 million remaining with $151 thousand pending in change orders. In the construction manager contingency, there is currently $6.1 million remaining with $102 thousand pending in change orders. Last month's total invoices sent to the City Manager’s Office was $6.5 million. E. Kennedy – Can you email the budget update page out to the committee? J. Dowd – Yes. M. Vaughn – Is the construction contingency account on pace? I know we are mainly in the “new construction” piece but some of the other phases may take up more. J. Dowd – Currently at a slower pace now, once we get into the 1980’s building and 1922 building will probably encounter more changes. E. Kennedy – Once we get into the 1922 building will we have enough left in contingency? J. Dowd – Yes, we believe we are in a good spot now. We expect that it will increase significantly as we get into these other buildings. J. Mason – Asked about the total contingency spent and noted that it looks like it was on a good pace. J. Dowd – That is correct, when we begin other phases, we believe we will use more of this. E. Kennedy – Agreed with the current discussion and asked about any potential change orders currently for the 1922 building. J. Dowd – None currently at this time, have begun to look into these though. C. Baldwin – Based on some of the questions from the committee, can you please in upcoming meetings do a presentation on change orders. Also, it is possible that the change orders could be reduced as well, correct? J. Dowd – Yes that is correct some change orders do get reduced. Also, it is important to note that the pending change order totals will go down because of the vetting process. E. Kennedy – Can you tell us more about the change order that was declined. J. Dowd – Had a demolition contractor that went over their allowance for disposal of materials, and we felt that how they classified those materials was incorrect. Our consultant that was out there informed that we should decline this. E. Kennedy – How much was that decline? J. Dowd - $249,000 M. Vaughn – We had an issue with the bathrooms, can you tell us if we are still utilizing the MSBA code or has this been vetted more for need? Robin – It is still based on the occupancy (plumbing code). M. Vaughn – Was this how it was done for the field house as well? Robin – Plumbing is done on a school wide basis not by a section. M. Vaughn – Would it be possible to get a summary of how many students / facilities per floor? Robin – I could give you the facilities per floor but the students per floor is not something we have as it is a moving target. J. Dowd – Noted that Perkins did a presentation to the City Council on the bathrooms for the entire project. W. Samaras – Asked if students would have to travel far for bathrooms and if that would have an effect on the number of fixtures? Robin – There are currently student and faculty bathrooms on each floor and each side of the canal. E. Kennedy – When you did the assessment did you find that more facilities were needed? Robin – No but we did add more based on feedback we received. E. Kennedy – Are you confident that we won’t need to add more facilities as more phases become done? Robin – We met the plumbing code; I can’t speak for operations and if more will be needed. E. Kennedy – Noted that meeting the plumbing code didn’t work for the gymnasium. J. Mason – I think the committee would be more comfortable if Perkins could provide a report detailing the usage of the facilities instead of just meeting code. B. Opara – Asked if the plumbing code is determined by number of students? Robin – The plumbing code is based on the number of people using it and the distance of toilets. Robin – Showed slides of bathrooms that was presented to the City Council several months ago. J. Mason – Can you speak to the bathroom issue in the restaurant? Robin – Went back to my notes and this was discussed and what was asked to design. J. Dowd – As more of the project becomes done, more bathrooms will be available to students. VI. Motions S. Machado noted that due to the lack of a quorum we would defer accepting last month’s minutes and motions from the SBC Committee to the June meeting. Questions / Comments: E. Kennedy – What is the date for the next meeting? J. Dowd – Thursday the 15th or Thursday the 22nd. S. Machado – Will reach out to members who have yet to attend. J. Mason – Can not make the 15th do to a ribbon cutting. E. Kennedy – Can we take a poll to see which one works better for the committee? J. Leahy – We did a new roof on the 1922 building, will that influence the bottom line, will it be able to be re-used? J. Dowd – It will need to be completely ripped up, the decision was made based on warranties and many conversations. Motion to Adjourn by Conor Baldwin, 2nd by John Leahy. Meeting adjourned at 6:50 P.M.