Joint Special School Building Committee

JOINT SPECIAL SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2012 NHS NORTH BOARD ROOM A meeting of the Joint Special School Building Committee was held Nashua High North on Thursday, August 23, 2012. Alderman Dowd called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. Mr. Haas led the prayer and Mr. Hallowell led the Pledge of Allegiance. Present: Alderman Chasse, Alderman Deane, Alderman Dowd, Alderman McCarthy, Alderman Moriarty (7:15), Alderman Vitale, Mr. Haas, Mr. Hallowell, Dr. Murotake, Mr. Ryder, Ms. Van Twuyver, Mr. Vaughan Also Present: Mr. Smith, Mr. DuBois, Mr. Caulfield Channel 99 Videographer Previous Meeting Minutes Approval Alderman McCarthy moved that the previous minutes of the JSSBC meeting held Thursday, July 26, 2012 be accepted and placed on file and the reading be waived. So Voted. Remarks by Chairman Alderman Dowd Thank you for coming this evening. Remarks by School Administration None. Committee Reports Alderman McCarthy moved that the previous minutes of the Construction Projects Committee meeting held Thursday, July 26, 2012 be accepted and placed on file. 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 The Committee met earlier this evening, and the only action was to approve invoices for the Charlotte Avenue. ALDERMAN McCARTHY MOVED TO APPROVE THE FOLLOWING INVOICES FOR THE CHARLOTTE AVENUE PROJECT: TO HARVEY CONSTRUCTION FOR $775,237.24; TO TURNER BUILDING SCIENCE FOR $9,962.97; TO CX ASSOCIATES FOR $885; TO DESMARAIS ENVIRONMENTAL FOR $4,092; AND TO PAGE STREET RENTALS FOR $360, FOR A TOTAL OF $790,537.21. JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING August 23, 2012 Alderman Deane How is the project coming along? How are we on schedule? Alderman McCarthy Generally in good shape. The air handlers are a couple of weeks late, but there is a plan to put them in when they arrive. The work that was planned for the summer is done, the teachers have set up their classrooms and school will begin as normal next week. Alderman Deane Is there heat and air conditioning, or just heat? Mr. Smith Just heat. But there is dehumidification, as in the other 2 schools. Mr. Dowd There is a plan to bring some fans in and open windows on a particularly warm day. Voting on Motion: ALDERMAN McCARTHY MOVED TO APPROVE THE FOLLOWING INVOICES FOR THE CHARLOTTE AVENUE PROJECT: TO HARVEY CONSTRUCTION FOR $775,237.24; TO TURNER BUILDING SCIENCE FOR $9,962.97; TO CX ASSOCIATES FOR $885; TO DESMARAIS ENVIRONMENTAL FOR $4,092; AND TO PAGE STREET RENTALS FOR $360, FOR A TOTAL OF $790,537.21. SO VOTED. COMMENTS BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC None. COMMENTS BY COMMITTEE MEMBERS Alderman McCarthy I didn’t mention during the report, but we did receive a recommendation from Administration not to proceed with moving the boiler to Broad Street, based on the likely operational savings of installing that boiler versus replacing the older of the boilers with a condensing boiler when that project is taken on in a couple of years. Alderman Deane Did we find the other portable boiler? Mr. Smith Yes, it’s at the City’s storage. Alderman Deane Are we ever going to install that in one of the schools? 2 JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING August 23, 2012 Mr. Smith That isn’t sized to replace the boilers we currently have. That is a contingency, in case one of the existing boilers fail while waiting for another to be installed. Alderman Deane Do you feel we should hold on to it or unload it? Mr. Smith We’re in pretty good shape, and could probably let it go at any point. Alderman Deane Who would authorize the sale of that? Alderman McCarthy I assume that’s actually an operating issue for the School Department. Mr. Hallowell Good idea. Alderman McCarthy I guess I would only ask if there are any boilers in the schools upcoming that are old enough where we anticipate that there is a danger of failure? Mr. Smith The smaller boiler at Broad Street is on its last legs, and that project is probably 2 years out at least. Alderman McCarthy And I believe we mentioned that the boilers at Main Dunstable and Birch Hill are from the 70’s? Mr. Smith Yes, but they are still operating decently. Alderman Deane The life expectancy of those boilers are about 50 years. Do you feel comfortable unloading the boiler? Mr. Smith Well, I hadn’t thought about the 2nd boiler at Broad Street. It’s not costing us anything to keep it, so I guess I would just hold on to it. MR. HALLOWELL MOVED, THAT WE ORGANIZE THE THIS COMMITTEE TO BE A 6 MEMBER PANEL, CONSISTING OF 3 BOE MEMBERS AND 3 BOA MEMBERS. Alderman McCarthy I’ll talk to legal and see how it’s constituted. I’m not sure if this was set up by Ordinance, Charter or State law. And whether or not it’s state law that governs the size of it. Mr. Hallowell I think the RSA is moot on how many members need to be on it. It merely says there has to be an equal number of members from each Board. Alderman McCarthy But if it’s established by Charter then it will take a Charter amendment and not an action of the BOA to change it. 3 JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING August 23, 2012 Alderman Dowd So we’ll investigate that and get an answer back to the members. Mr. Hallowell Is it necessary for it to be in the Charter? Alderman McCarthy Whether it’s necessary or not, is not the question. Mr. Hallowell I guess what I’m asking… my thought is that part of the problem with this very large committee is that there aren’t a lot of people who are invested in what’s going on here. It’s not rebuilding the entire high school. These are big projects, but not huge projects. We’re kind of through the process that’s really the difficult work, of understanding what things are going to go into it. I know there are some other things that come to this Committee, but they are not things that require everybody to be involved. If there was a way to make the Committee more flexible, I think we’d all be happier. I know I show up for all these meetings… Alderman Chasse does, the members of the Construction Committee do, and we’re always struggling to get a quorum…where we sometimes wait between 5 and 45 minutes for that to happen. I know I’ve tried my darndest to convince members to come, and been unsuccessful. And I don’t blame them. The decisions are being made by the Construction Committee, and that’s probably rightfully so. That’s the scale that they’re really on at this point. So that’s my thought in making the motion. Alderman Dowd You might want to form your motion that if it’s within the powers of the BOA to do that… Mr. Hallowell I could. I don’t think it’s necessary. If they can’t do it legally, then I assume they won’t do it. Alderman Deane Although it may seem a matter of inconvenience for some people… oh well. How is the Construction Committee appointed? Alderman McCarthy By the Chair of the BOA. Alderman Deane And that should change too. I would have liked to have served on that committee, and was never asked. I was placed on this committee… I was never asked. I have a pretty good attendance record, but I think the base of the committee should remain the way it is. I don’t think that the Committee should be whittled down to a select few people to make decisions. There are huge projects that are going to in front of this Committee. There is going to be some massive work that’s going have to be done in here. This building is 10 years old. What have we funded for depreciation? Nothing. We have wear and tear on the mechanical components. It’s more than just a bonding issue. It’s maintenance upkeep. I don’t know what you’ve done with your operating budget in that area. It seems to have been in decline for a number of years. I think the Committee should stay the way it is. Mr. Ryder If the Aldermen can’t change this, how do we go about changing the Charter? Alderman McCarthy We pass a resolution to put a Charter Resolution on the ballot for the election. We’ll look at what it takes. I’m not even sure we need a motion at this point. We’ll go get an understanding of how the Committee is constituted and what it takes to change it. Mr. Ryder I agree with Mr. Hallowell. I don’t see how it adds much value to the whole system, if we all just sit here waiting for members to come in. And more often than not if we don’t get one, the whole meeting is wasted. 4 JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING August 23, 2012 Ms. Van Twuyver I thought that every member of the BOA and the BOE was automatically on this committee. I didn’t know that it was voluntary. And I do have a problem with coming in and sitting for 10 minutes, and then going home again… just to ratify the work of the Construction Committee. I think something could be worked out where we either have more input on the Construction Committee… that’s consolidated, or what. But I don’t know a lot about construction and I like Mr. Hallowell’s suggestion of 3 and 3. I think that would be good. Alderman Dowd The Committee is comprised of all 9 members of the BOE and 9 members of the BOA to balance that number. Mr. Hallowell A couple of comments to Alderman Deane’s points… first of all, why did I make the motion? I made the motion because all of us who are sitting here and come to these meetings get frustrated by the fact. So while I appreciate Alderman Deane’s, “tough luck for those people”, those people aren’t showing up. So we’re the ones who have to sit here and wait. I believe the way the Committee should be set up should be more flexible. I agree with Alderman Deane that when we go to replace this high school, it’s going to be X millions of dollars… no question, everybody should be involved. And in my opinion, everyone will want to be involved because that’s a huge project. But when you’re talking about these 3 particular projects… I mean, once you did the first one the other ones were almost copy cutter. There was a lot of work done initially. But my point is that there ought to either be a way to make the Committee smaller at some point, or to delegate the authority to approve invoice to the Construction Committee, so that this Committee doesn’t have to get together just to approve invoices that you guys just approved. I mean to me that just seems ridiculous and a waste of our time. And I do go through the packet regularly. I rarely find something that I feel I need to dig into. Especially at this stage of the project. We all spend a lot of time at meetings. Let’s not make one just for the sake of having a meeting because it’s written down somewhere that we have to have one. Alderman McCarthy I’ll look at how the Committee is constituted and thing we can do. I mean there are other things we could do, which is in the delegation of the Committee… make it such that for items of some particular limit, a quorum is less than 10 people even though the membership is 18. So we could do business without having to have everybody here, when routine payment of invoices is the agenda item. Mr. Ryder Isn’t Alderman Deane able to attend the Construction Projects Committee meetings? Alderman Dowd Anybody can come to the Construction Projects Committee meeting from the BOE and BOA and be recognized to talk. They would not be able to vote. I know when we built the high school, both the Construction Projects Committee and the JSSBC had almost all the BOE and BOA members present because it was of such magnitude. Alderman Deane Attending a meeting and being a voting member of a Committee is a huge difference to me. And I didn’t mean to imply that people are looking at things in the packet. Mr. Vaughan We have a standing committee and I think many other Districts form a construction committee for specific projects. Alderman McCarthy That may be true. But in all the 18 years that I’ve been on the Board, Nashua has not been without a construction projects. Mr. Vaughan We could have concurrent construction committees, and that way you could involve a greater number of people without them sitting idle. 5 JSSBC COMMITTEE MEETING August 23, 2012 Alderman McCarthy We have done that. At one point we had a construction committee for the high school with 7 members, the Amherst Street committee with 5 members and the Stellos Stadium committee with 5. So at that point we had almost as many people on committees as there were in total on the JSSBC. I think we can leave the basic structure of the JSSBC as it is. Because I don’t think we’re ever not going to have projects. But I think we do need to make the rules more flexible, so the Committee can respond to the magnitude of what’s in front of them, and we don’t have to get 12-18 people here to approve invoices that we knew were coming and we have the money to pay. Alderman Moriarty I kind of enjoy this meeting because it’s simple and short, and a refreshing contract to our eternal infrastructure meetings we have. But I recognize that because it’s 9 and 9 that means that all BOE members have to be here. If we could make it 12 or some other number rather than 18, I think it would simplify things and you’d increase the likelihood of getting a quorum. Ms. Van Twuyver And I think you would want people who are knowledgeable about taking care of the schools. I don’t know how to take care of the School District, and it would take me quite a while. So I think if you had people who had a dedicated interest it would be far better for the Committee than to have me come here and look bored. Voting on Motion: MR. HALLOWELL MOVED, THAT WE ORGANIZE THIS COMMITTEE TO BE A 6 MEMBER PANEL, CONSISTING OF 3 BOE MEMBERS AND 3 BOA MEMBERS. SO VOTED. Mr. Hallowell moved to adjourn. So voted at 7:34 p.m. Submitted by Jacki Waters 6