Farm Hill School Roof Building Committee

September 8th, 2022 Page 1 Committee Members Committee Staff Councilwoman Meghan Carta, Co-Chair Dr. Alberto Vazquez Matos, Superintendent Councilman Vincent Loffredo Jennifer Cannata, Assistant Superintendent Councilman Anthony Gennaro Christopher Puorro, Purchasing Agent Charles Wiltsie, Board of Education Member, Co-Chair Kevin Dion, Director of Facilities John Guiliano Farah Scala Daniel Penney Richard Pelletier David Vauer Meeting Minutes ***Special Online-Virtual Meeting*** Farm Hill-Snow School Roof Building Committee September 8th, 2022 6:00PM Members Present: Co-Chair Councilwoman Meghan Carta, Councilman Vincent Loffredo, Councilman Anthony Gennaro, Richard Pelletier, Farah Scala, John Giuliano, Members Absent: Dan Penney, Co-Chair Board of Education Member Charles Wiltsie, David Vauer Staff Present: Kevin Dion, Director of Facilities; Jennifer Cannata, Assistant Superintendent of Schools; Christopher Puorro, Purchasing Agent Others Present: Bob Washburn, Silver Petrucelli and Associates, Paul Jorgensen, Silver Petrucelli 1. Call to Order: Co-Chair Councilwoman Megan Carta called the meeting to order at 6:00PM 2. Approve Payment Application #2 and #3 for Young Developers for the Farm Hill Roof Informational update from Kevin Dion: Two payment application requests, first is for materials and labor totaling $245,766.64, dated August 11th, 2022. Second request totaling $157,506.01 for work completed from August 11th, 2022 through the end of August 2022; August 31st, 2022. Informational update from Bob Washburn: Spoke with the team at Young Developers on a daily basis throughout the project. All asphalt shingle roofing is completed. All parameter trim work is installed. Gutters installed above entrances and currently working in the back of the building to complete the gutter installation. Will be conducting a punch list walk through a week from this meeting. Leaks have been addressed, primarily linked to lack of gutters, not due to wet ceiling tiles or direct roof leaks. Work quality has been good, but the job has been completed slower than expected. Balance remaining for this project is $126,184.90. Work still left to be completed: gables on both entrances, gutter work and site raking. Mentioned that there is a chance that some of the allowance may return. Questions from Councilman Loffredo: Verification with team on payment amounts and work done as well as work to be completed with a potential timeline of completion. Question on the warranty/guarantee on the project-30 year warranty answered by Paul Jorgensen. Motion to approve payment application #2 and #3 for Young Developers for the Farm Hill Roof Motion made by: Councilman Loffredo Seconded: Councilman Gennaro  September 8th, 2022 Page 2 Further discussion: No further discussion Call to Vote: Unanimously voted to approve payment application #2 and #3 for Young Developers or the Farm Hill Roof 3. Approve Payment Application #1 for Silver Petrucelli construction oversight fees for the Farm Hill Roof Information from Kevin Dion: Confirmed Bob Washburn’s daily site attendance and great communication with the Board of Ed. Application in the amount of $10,484.95 for oversight costs of Bob Washburn during the Farm Hill Roof Project. Question from Councilman Loffredo: Asked for confirmation on this invoice as it relates to the total budget set for this work? -Paul Jorgensen answered, within extra oversight budget. Project from this point will be final punch list items and final inspections. Motion to approve payment Application #1 for Silver Petrucelli construction oversight fees for the Farm Hill Roof Motion Made by: Councilman Loffredo Seconded: Councilman Gennaro Further discussion: No further discussion Call to Vote: Unanimously voted to approve payment application #1 for Silver Petrucelli construction oversight fees for the Farm Hill Roof 4. Snow School Roof Update: Informational update from Kevin Dion: Currently no movement on the Snow School Roof from the Board of Education Informational update from Paul Jorgensen: City had previously applied for the grant for Snow School, concurrent with Farm Hill application. Snow School application was kicked back, as there were items that the state was looking for to be included in the application. Spoke with the grants office, who relayed that they were waiting for certain pieces of the application to be resubmitted. Once the application goes through, a meeting with the state can be scheduled and the bid process can move forward quickly. Suggested that the Chair or Superintendent reach out to the state to ask about the status of the application. Roof and P/V grant applications are separate grant applications, but can be submitted at the same time to the state. Informational update from Christopher Puorro: Prior to resubmitting, the HVAC and P/V panel aspects should be discussed and potentially included in the application before submitting. Councilman Loffredo: - Asked for clarification and verification regarding funds either that have been allocated by the council or by the board of education towards qualifying for the grant.-Answered by Christopher Puorro: All is in place for the Roof and the P/V panels, but not for the HVAC unit - Asked for clarification on the HVAC unit if there are grant opportunities to apply for or would it be the responsibility of the city to come up with the money for this. -Answered by Kevin Dion: Typically not funded by the state, but there are potential air quality grants coming from the state in the near future. At Snow, the A/C unit is on the roof. Suggests that the roof, HVAC and P/V be looked at to be done all at the same time. HF Lens was the engineering design company that was brought on to look at upgrades for the HVAC units for Farm Hill and Snow. Report given at the beginning of the Summer, sent HF Lens back to the drawing board to address all questions from Kevin. Would like to schedule HF Lens on a coming meeting to provide a summary report or full presentation  September 8th, 2022 Page 3 - Clarification on council procedure regarding modifying the committee responsibilities of taking on responsibilities for HVAC. May need to seek an amendment to take on that responsibility and to enable the council to allocate funding for this. Committee Member David Vauer entered the committee meeting at 6:13PM, first spoke at 6:30PM - David Vauer-agreed with Councilman Loffredo, mentioning that there is the possibility of audits for the work being done. - Asked for clarification on potential costs of HVAC units at both Farm Hill and Snow School: - Answered by Kevin Dion: Estimated to be over $750,000 for both schools to include an air conditioning upgrade. - Asked for clarification from the Board of Education regarding if there is any money in place for A/C work: - Answered by Christopher Puorro: BOE paid for HF Lens, likely that the state will fund this through the air quality grant after assessment has been completed. - Co-Chair Councilwoman Carta-asked if the project is on hold until the assessment/grant comes through so the city can submit all pieces of the project together to the state? - Kevin Dion: This would be dependent on the grants coming in and where the grants are coming from. The Office of School Grants will want to see what is being done before they sign off on the projects. - Question: Who authorized HF Lens and who is paying for them? - Kevin Dion: This was in process before Kevin began in January - Christopher Puorro: Did an RFP, which resulted in working with HF Lens. Board is paying for their work based on the approved work. Approved total of roughly $69,000 for their work. - Question: Any indication at this point if there will be a need for matching money from the municipality? - Kevin Dion: Early estimates from grants indicate that the state grant, if approved, will not be enough to cover the entire A/C upgrade for both schools. There will be some funding needed from the city of BOE. Unsure on the amount that will be needed or funded. - Councilman Loffredo-Made a motion to explore appropriate actions that should be taken by having a presentation made by HF Lens at a future meeting. - Seconded by Councilman Gennaro - Discussion: Councilman Gennaro agrees the committee should explore the options as soon as possible before taking action as a committee. Councilman Loffredo mentioned that if the motion passes, committee will need to set a new meeting to have this presentation - Call to vote: Unanimously voted to explore options with HF Lens presentation. Committee Member John Giuliano: - Question: Will HF Lens provide the committee with different options for the HVAC projects for the schools? - Kevin Dion: This is correct 5. P/V Panels: - Information from Paul Jorgensen: Silver Petrucelli submitted a P/V proposal design services. Proposals were not acted on by the committee and they do not have a contract for the P/V portion. Silver Petrucelli would be willing to resend proposals to the committee for consideration.  September 8th, 2022 Page 4 - Councilman Loffredo: Was the P/V application submitted to the state and did the council meet and approve the allocation of funds for the P/V aspect of the project? - Kevin: Silver Petrucelli provided costs for Farm Hill P/V, committee decided to hold off as the committee wanted to combine this with the Snow application. No application was submitted to the state. Air quality grant has not come out as of yet from the state - Councilwoman Carta: Would like to discuss the P/V proposal for Snow as well. Silver Petrucelli has a proposal for both Snow and Farm Hill. 6. MHS Track and Field Replacement: Information from Kevin Dion: This was awarded to the committee in a previous meeting. Would like to have some presentations and information provided to the committee to have a clear direction on the project. Propose that the committee bring in a company to discuss some of the options as well as the athletic director. Propose that a time frame be made for this project, this decision would need to be made by early spring. - Councilman Gennaro: Agrees with this proposal to have industry experts present information, answer questions and allow the committee to form a timeline on the project. Information from Christopher Puorro: The company Keystone has reached out to the board relaying that they would be interested in the project and that they would be able to provide industry expertise in a preliminary meeting for the committee to ask questions as it relates to this project. Committee Member John Giuliano: - Would like to know the parameters of what will be replaced for this project, which include discussing turf versus natural grass. Would like to propose a recyclable turf option if the committee decides to move forward with turf. Councilman Vincent Loffredo: - Question: Would like to see a neutral presenter(s) on the matter between turf and natural grass. Understanding that the project was initially to be done by surplus board of education funds. The dollar amount to do the project however required a building committee. - Question: Does Silver Petrucelli work with fields and track in their work? - Kevin: Unsure of the scope of their work regarding this. *Silver Petrucelli exited the meeting before this question was asked* - Information: Mentioned the concern in the community as it relates to turf versus natural grass. - Kevin mentioned the high school field is on wetlands as it relates to natural versus turf discussions and how this would affect total costs. The Keystone company would be able to replace the turf. If nature was decided on, a civil engineering company would need to be brought in. - Question: Are there funds from the board of education’s budget towards this project?: - Kevin: Not currently from the Facility Department’s budget - Christopher Puorro: Put aside about $1,000,000 towards this turf from the board surplus. - Kevin: This money was meant to cover turf, track and the lights. Councilman Gennaro: - Information: Understands the community concern regarding natural grass versus turf. Personally believes that for Middletown High School, natural grass would not be the correct choice at this time spoken through the lens of his coaching experience. Believes the natural grass would not  September 8th, 2022 Page 5 only cost more money initially, but it would cost more money long term due to maintenance costs. Also wants to have information on can the turf be recycled at its end of life and would like more information from a neutral source on natural versus turf fields. Mentioned Wesleyan University’s use of turf fields and feels this is more of a cost effective option for the committee as well. - Councilman Loffredo: Consider that the project would be a replacement for the current turf and it is for high school aged students. This may be a referendum issue which will have to go to the voters in one fashion or another due to the costs of the project. - Kevin: Estimates about $15,000-$30,000 for civil engineering firms to research the potentials of the project being natural grass versus turf which the committee will be able to provide to the public. - Question: Is there a rough estimate of what turf replacement would cost? - The Board of Education had an estimate on this previously. Kevin believes that it was about $800,000 for the turf, plus the costs for the track. - Information: Mentioned geese issue on MHS Baseball and Softball tracks. This should be considered with this field project. Committee Member Richard Pelletier: - Question: Is it possible to look at soil samples from when the school was originally put in. - Councilman Loffredo: feels they may be outdated as the sample information is around 20 years old Committee Member John Giuliano: - Information: Believes there are records of the soil and drainage. Also believes that all options should be presented on and information provided to the committee so they can select the best option. Co-Chair Councilwoman Carta: - Would like to have information on HVAC and Turf/Grass for the next meeting or the following meeting. 7. New Business - Councilman Loffredo: Would like for the minutes to be caught up on, submitted and approved by the Committee. Asked the board of education to explore the hiring of a committee secretary. - Kevin recommended the committee to obtain a committee secretary - Co-Chair and Councilwoman Carta agrees that this is an urgent need to explore a secretary for the committee. - Scheduling public comment for future meetings in the agenda. 8. Adjourn - Motion to adjourn the meeting made by: Councilman Loffredo - Seconded: Councilman Gennaro - Discussion: not at this time - Call to Vote: Unanimously voted to adjourn  September 8th, 2022 Page 6 Prepared on December 10th, 2022 by Committee Secretary, Randall Mel