Joint Special School Building Committee

JOINT SPECIAL SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011 FAIRGROUNDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL A meeting of the Joint Special School Building Committee was held at Fairgrounds Elementary School on Thursday, September 29, 2011. Alderman Tabacsko called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. Mr. Haas led the prayer and Mr. Mosher led the Pledge of Allegiance. Present: Alderman LaRose, Alderman McCarthy, Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Vitale, Alderman Tabacsko, Alderman Chasse, Alderman Melizzi-Golja, Alderman Cox, Mr. Dowd, Mr. Haas, Mr. Hallowell, Mr. Mosher, Mr. Ryder, Mr. Vaughan Also Present: Mr. Smith, Channel 99 Videographer Remarks by Chairman Alderman Tabacsko After the meeting we’ll have an opportunity to walk around the building. It’s a nice opportunity to see how things are going. The entire project is going well and moving on schedule, favorably with the budget. That’s something to be noted with some pride. Previous Meeting Minutes Approval Alderman McCarthy moved that the previous minutes of the JSSBC meeting held August 25, 2011 be accepted and placed on file and the readings be waived. So Voted. Committee Reports Alderman McCarthy moved that the previous minutes of the Construction Projects Committee meeting held August 25, 2011 be accepted and placed on file and the readings be waived. So Voted. Alderman McCarthy moved to suspend the rules to allow for an oral report of a meeting held earlier this evening. So voted. Alderman McCarthy Tonight the Construction Committee met and approved Prime Contract Change Order #3 for Ledge Street School in the amount of $31,972. That is just the formal change to the contract cost to the change directives that were approved at our last meeting. ALDERMAN McCARTHY MOVED THAT THE JSSBC CONCUR WITH THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS COMMITTEE ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011. SO VOTED. JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING September 29, 2011 ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND APPROVAL ALDERMAN McCARTHY MOVED TO APPROVE THE LEASE WITH THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB FOR USE OF THEIR GYNMASIUM FOR EIGHT MONTHS DURING CONSTRUCTION AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED $16,000. SO VOTED. ALDERMAN McCARTHY MOVED TO APPROVE THE FOLLOWING INVOICES: TO HARVEY CONSTRUCTION FOR $1,041,432.10; TO TURNER BUILDING SCIENCE FOR $9,121.80; TO CX ASSOCIATES FOR $7,551.60; TO MISCELLANEOUS CONTRACTORS FOR $380. SO VOTED. Alderman McCarthy I’d just like to report construction at the two schools proceeds on time. We have used$61,000 our of the Construction Manager’s contingency, and the owners contingency remains at $1,150,000. Consequently we should come in about $1.3 to $1.4 million under budget at completion of the project. COMMENTS BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC None. COMMENTS BY COMMITTEE MEMBERS Alderman Chasse There seems to be a problem with this committee. You move meetings, and send out emails at 4:00 or during the day about meetings. And unfortunately I don’t have the opportunity to be reading my emails at work. I showed up at Ledge Street for the last meeting and there wasn’t a soul around. You guys had moved the meeting to the high school. I come from out of town and try to get myself here as fast as I can. I’m not happy with that. The other thing is, if you want to look at it is that this is supposed to be a joint special committee. There seems to be a couple of individuals that I have never seen at this meeting and we’re almost going into the 2nd year. They are on this committee. We as Aldermen have a little hit on our paycheck if we don’t make our meetings. Something is drastically wrong. I’ve never seen a committee that didn’t have phone calls to see if you’re going to have a quorum. This has got to stop. Someone’s got to get a hold of this committee and get it back on track. Alderman McCarthy I want to agree with you about moving meetings around. You showed up at Ledge for the JSSBC meeting, and an hour before that Mr. Ryder and I were mistakenly at Ledge Street for the Construction Projections meeting as well. So I apologize for whatever part I played in moving that meeting around. It certainly didn’t help me either. We’ve expressed our frustration with Administration with that, and hopefully we’ll do better in the future of scheduling them in the right place. 2 JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING September 29, 2011 Alderman Tabacsko I’ve served on JSSBC Committee for 6 years and I have received phone calls for quorum calls on a fairly regular basis. It’s not new this year. It’s a large committee and a quorum is difficult to make. We only meet once a month. And we try to keep things as consistent as possible, but sometimes there have to be some adjustments. Your comments are very valid, and I appreciate them. Alderman Chasse We all have a lot of meetings to go to, and what happens is you get down to the JSSBC meeting and you’re looking for an Alderman-at-Large just to make a quorum. That’s not fair to the rest of us. If the meetings supposed to be at 7:00 and we finally get a quorum at 7:30, that’s not the way to operate. Those are my feelings and I think we have to do a better job. Mr. Hallowell So let’s hope the other people are listening, because this certainly is not directed at the people who are here. So I think what happened last time is that the Construction Projects Committee decided they would have the meting at Ledge Street, and for whatever reason that didn’t get communicated to our Admin office. I’m still not clear on who posted this meeting? Because we posted the meeting of being at Nashua North. But I don’t know if the City also posted the meeting and posted it at Ledge. Alderman McCarthy The City posted it based on what was on these, which said Ledge Street. Mr. Hallowell We’ve had this transition from our secretarial staff and that was the first time that ever happened. It was a one time thing. We made sure everybody was aware that this was at Fairgrounds this evening to make sure it didn’t happen again. As to the quorum, I do my best at BOE President to try to get people to come here. It’s a challenging meeting because to me this seems silly. Most people show up and don’t really know what just happened in the previous meeting and we vote to approve things because we assume the work was done in the committee. So I know it’s in the by-laws or the ordinance or whatever that is. But I wish we could change that to make it easier for this committee to operate whenever it does have to function. Mr. Ryder Who does the blue sheet that Alderman McCarthy pulled out and said the City used ? Alderman McCarthy It’s done at the School Department. Mr. Hallowell But remember, the Chair is on the BOA. And that leads to some communication issues and confusion. But again, I think we worked that out in Administration , and it only happened once. Alderman Chasse moved to adjourn. So voted at 6:45 p.m. Submitted by Jacki Waters 3