School Building Committee (2020)

School Building Committee (2020) Regular Meeting City Hall, R00m 319 100 Broadway, Norwich, CT And via ZOOM Tuesday, October 22, 2024 6:30 PM Committee Members Present: Chairman Mark Bettencourt, President Pro Tem Joe DeLucia (ZOOM), Alderwoman Stacy Gould, Mark Kulos, Peter Gauthier, William Hull, Gregory Ballassi, Gregory Carabine and Christine DiStasio (ZOOM) Committee Members Absent: Sheila Hayes and Cindy Beauregard. Ex-Officio Members Present: Bob Castronova (ZOOM), Acting Superintendent Susan Lesard (ZOOM), Mayor Peter Nystrom (ZOOM), and Bob Harris (ZOOM). Consultants Present: Mike Zuba from MP Planning Group (ZOOM); James Barrett and Greg Smolley from DRA; Chip Natsis (ZOOM), Jeff Anderson (ZOOM), Frank Tomcak and Brad Anderson from Downes Construction; Jim Guliano and Mike Faenza from CSG. Citizens Present: None. I.Call to Order and Quorum: Chairman Mark Bettencourt called the meeting to order at 6:31 PM. II.Approval of Minutes: Mark Kulos made a motion to approve the August 20, 2024 regular meeting minutes as amended. Alderwoman Stacy Gould seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. William Hull, Christine DiStastio and Gregory Carabine abstained. The motion passed. III.Public Comment: None. IV.Report from CSG: ● Demographic Report: Mike Faenza stated that the demographic report completed by MP Planning Group stated that the enrollment for Uncas and Moriarty elementary schools could be 548 students. Mike Faenza stated that their findings were detailed on page 27 of the report provided to committee members. Mike Faenza explained that after deducting the 601 projected student enrollment at Stanton and Greeneville from the entire elementary school population there was a difference of 548 students per school. Peter Gauthier stated that he thought the medium numbers for all schools was 2,193 students. Mike Faenza responded the number was 2,290 students in the year 2032- 2033. Mike Zuba explained that number was with 332 Pre-K and 1,958 kindergarten through fifth grade students. Mike Faenza continued that the Pre-K enrollment was capped at that number based on the head start grant the district receives. Mike Faenza stated that 548 number supports a 63,000 square foot school for Uncas and Moriarty Elementary. Mike Faenza stated that size school may not be able to be built due to certain elements of the program as there were things to consider such as a robust special education program and the school-based health centers. Mike Faenza stated that now that DRA has been awarded the second phase of the project they would assist CSG in creating the program statement needed to establish the new building sizes. Mike Faenza stated they would be using information learned during the programming phases of the Stanton and Greeneville projects to assist in establishing what the new spaces will look like. James Barrett stated he would have more to report on regarding that at the next meeting. Mike Faenza reported that the third payment request for the Stanton Elementary School project was approved and paid by the State. Mike Faenza stated the Pipe Locating and Camera company, that was approved to be hired by the committee, went down to the Stanton site a few weeks prior and were unable to complete their work due to debris found in the pipes that prevented passage for the robotic equipment. Mike Faenza stated that he solicited quotes from contractors to clear the debris but the prices came back higher than he expected so he was awaiting clarification from his design team before presenting the quotes to the committee for consideration. Discussion ensued. Mike Faenza stated that a request for Independent Code Review Services was issued by CSG for Independent Code Review firms. Mike Faenza stated that he reached out to the city building department and was told it would be very labor intensive for them to conduct a comprehensive code review internally for buildings of the proposed sizes. Mike Faenza stated he then asked the city for a list of firms they had worked with in the past and solicited bids from that list, as well as a few other firms. Mike Faenza stated he submitted those proposals to the city building departments for review. Mike Faenza stated an email from the building official with their recommendation of a firm was included in the packet distributed to members. Mike Faenza stated that CSG was recommending to hire Plan Review Services LLC for independent code review services for the amount of $6,300 with a $945 markup for the Greeneville Elementary School Project and for the amount of $5,400 with a $810 for the Stanton Elementary School Project. Chairman Bettencourt asked if the expense required approval from the committee. Mike Faenza stated the expenditure would be taken from the unused allowance amount for CSG. Peter Gauthier made a motion to approve the expenditure under the project allowance. Gregory Carabine seconded. All voted in favor. The motion passed unanimously. Mike Faenza stated that site logistic discussions for the projects had commenced and that Downes Construction would be sharing a first-thought approach at the site layout that had not yet been shown to school administration or any other party. Mike Faenza stated the final construction document package was released for estimating on schedule. Mike Faenza stated that his team was working with the Superintendent’s office to gather all required documents for the upcoming PCR meeting. Mike Faenza stated that the fourth state payment request would be submitted following a discussion with the city comptroller. Mike Faenza noted that the logistics of opening the building at Stanton had not yet been determined and as the project progressed the distribution of students and the logistics of moving them to the new building would need to be analyzed. Mike Faenza stated that the naming of the new building was brought up during a design review meeting with the district administration, who asked that the School Building Committee provide feedback if a name change was desired. Chairman Mark Bettencourt asked that the decision be passed to the Board of Education. President Pro Tem DeLucia joined the meeting via ZOOM at 6:57 PM. Mike Faenza reported the total amount expended for the Stanton Elementary School project so far totaled $2,914,973.96. Mike Faenza reported that the third payment request for the Greeneville Elementary School project was approved and paid by the State. Mike Faenza reiterated the request for Independent Code Review Services and that site logistic discussions for the project had commenced with Downes Construction. Mike Faenza reiterated that the final construction document package was released for estimating on schedule and that his team was assembling documents needed for the upcoming Plan Completion Review meeting with the Superintendent’s office. Mike Faenza reiterated that the distribution of students with the new schools would need to be analyzed. Mike Faenza stated the PCR meeting had tentatively been discussed with the state. Chairman Bettencourt stated he wanted to ensure getting bids out remained on schedule to break ground in March 2025, and was worried about the state missing the deadline. Mike Faenza stated he put out feelers to see if he would be able to work with a State reviewer he was familiar with and they were assessing their workload to see if they could honor that request. Greg Ballasi asked if the project completion date included demolition. Frank Tomcak from Downes Construction stated that for the Stanton Elementary School project there was 17 months for new building construction and 29 months of demolition. Frank Tomcak stated there was 20 months of new building construction at the Greeneville site. Mike Faenza noted these amounts were not set in stone. Discussion ensued. Mark Kulos asked if the coordination of moving students would be assisted by a consultant. Mike Faenza advised that the directive would come from central office and then CSG would facilitate the physical moving on their end. Discussion ensued regarding the need for an outside building inspector for the project. Chairman Bettencourt advised that CSG connect with the planning and zoning department. Mike Faenza reported that $2,019,035.70 was expended on the Greeneville Elementary School Project so far. Mike Faenza stated that the demographic update was received from MP Planning Group which supports using the median projection and a student enrollment of 548 students at Moriarty Elementary School. Mike Faenza stated that CSG and DRA were working on revising the program statement for the new enrollment. Mike Faenza stated that the information would be discussed with the district administration to refine the size of the building. Mike Faenza noted they received a request from the state for an updated funding authorization letter for the Grant Application from the city comptroller’s office for the Moriarty project. Mike Faenza stated he believed the request came about because CSG submitted a funding authorization letter to the state with the documents for the Greeneville and Stanton projects. Mike Faenza stated that the letter showed the original amounts for Greeneville and Stanton, which have now been exceeded. Mike Faenza continued that when CSG submitted the grant applications for Moriarty and Uncas the state saw a lower value than what was projected, based on the budget update. Mike Faenza stated that needed to be clarified and within the updated letter CSG explained what occurred. Mike Faenza continued that the letter also stated that given the budgetary situation with those two projects a revised grant application would definitely be needed for the Greeneville Elementary School project, and possibly for Stanton. Mike Faenza stated that traditionally a grant application can be updated one time within a project lifecycle, but the timing of that is critical. Mike Faenza stated the only other follow up item would be change orders for the project. Discussion ensued regarding the project owner contingency. Peter Gauthier asked if, for example, there was a five percent contingency, could it be moved from the Greeneville project to be spent at Stanton. Mike Faenza responded not in that scenario, but it could be spent on the Uncas Elementary or Teachers Memorial projects. Discussion ensued. Mike Faenza stated that the updates for the Uncas Elementary School project were the same as those for Moriarty. Mike Faenza stated that the traffic signalization on Boswell for the Greeneville Elementary School project would be outside the property line and therefore an ineligible cost for state reimbursement based on state guidelines. Mike Faenza explained the signalization could be included on the Greeneville project; if the item cost $500,000 and there was 70 million dollars worth of grant application support from the state, it would lower the reimbursable part of the project by that amount. Mike Faenza stated that the signalization could also be handled as a second project and potentially bid out by a separate contractor or facilitated by Norwich Public Utilities. Mike Faenza stated those options would lower the exposure level to an ineligible cost that would be relatively large from the start. Chip Natsis stated he would find out what the cost was. Discussion  ensued. Chairman Bettencourt stated he was unsure of the benefit of additional cost for the city to incur by separating out the signalization. Mike Faenza responded it would not be an additional cost rather just shifting the cost to a different entity. Mike Faenza stated the signalization may not be included in the current bond, but a different bond. Chip Natsis stated Downes Construction had an allowance of $300,00 for the project. Discussion ensued. Mike Faenza stated a decision did not need to be made immediately but if the committee was thinking of separating the work out they would need to notify CSG sooner than later. V.Report from DRA: James Barrett reported that DRA was 95 percent through the construction document phase. James Barrett showed on screen for all to view examples of documents submitted to Downes Construction. James Barrett stated that Downes shared requests for information with the DRA team who would respond to the requests as quickly as possible. James Barrett noted that during meetings with school administration a request was made to include digital signage such as a roadside placard that could be controlled digitally. James Barrett showed on screen for all to view an example of digital signage placed at the Greeneville and Stanton sites. James Barrett stated a sign at Stanton would be more of a double sided roadside sign. James Barrett and Greg Smolley noted the signage was not inexpensive and would be an investment as it was important to get a quality product so that there would not be functionality issues down the road. James Barrett stated they wanted to determine if there was support for such an idea in the project. Alderwoman Stacy Gould asked for ballpark pricing. Greg Smolley stated a digital sign could be in the range of $100,000 and upwards for an 8-foot by 4-foot size sign. James Barrett stated they would need to confirm any cost numbers. Gregory Carabine asked if the cost of the sign would be covered in the reimbursement amount. Mike Faenza stated he did not see why the sign would be outside of the parameters, but he had not installed one previously. Greg Smolley stated they would investigate the idea further to provide the committee additional information. James Barrett thanked the committee that DRA was awarded the contract for the Uncas and Moriarty Elementary School projects. James Barrett stated that DRA reviewed and finalized the contract and was now awaiting city execution. James Barrett stated it was important to have that in place to begin site surveying as the work was seasonably restricted. Jame Barrett stated the current schedule was to target bi-weekly working group meetings to follow the monthly School Building Committee meeting. James Barrett reported that DRA developed initial site test fits to start discussions regarding healthy and sustainable learning environments as well as the ability to support emotional social learning at a high level. James Barrett showed the existing Moriarty site and a potential test fit on screen for all to view. James Barrett stated the program statement would need to be established before moving forward. James Barrett showed the wetland impact for the Uncas site on screen for all to view, with a potential placement of the new school. James Barrett noted it was a much tougher site but DRA developed three options, which he showed on screen for all to view. James Barrett stated the first option for Uncas would be to take the site of the existing building and create a new building; the second would be a hillside-stepping design with a two-story building; and the third would be a bridge concept with the buildings located toward the back of the site. James Barrett reiterated that the program statement was needed to determine the size of the building to then move forward. VI. Report from Downes: Frank Tomcak stated that in the next few weeks Downes could establish the guaranteed maximum price and begin to evolve an updated financial summary and progress summary, but they were still in the pre-construction phase. Frank Tomcak stated that Downes received the construction document drawings on October 4, 2024, which they were working through for estimating efforts. Frank Tomcak stated the letter of map amendment specific to the Stanton project came back with a determination that the site is not in the special flood hazard area, which would have required a special type of insurance. Frank Tomcak stated the flood management certificate for Stanton was submitted. Frank Tomcak stated some preliminary logistics plans were developed for Stanton and Greeneville which they would work with district administration on to refine further. Frank Tomcak stated Downes was  looking to reconcile the construction design estimate with a third party estimator in the first week of November. Frank Tomcak stated that as James Barrett mentioned, they were maintaining a constructability RFI log to clarify any questions on the plans and specifications provided. Frank Tomcak reported that Downes continued to prepare for the PCR meeting and discussed a tentative meeting date with Mike Faenza just after Thanksgiving. Frank Tomcak stated the goal was to go out to bid in December so that they could break ground in March. Frank Tomcak stated that 17 months were needed to build Stanton with turnover occurring 2026, time was needed for the furniture, fixtures and equipment phase as they did not want to turnover the building without time to move in. Frank Tomcak reported that the DEEP permit would be filled out that week and there was typically a 60-day lead time for review. Frank Tomcak stated that Downes was working through their PCR checklist to be prepared for their meeting with OGA. Frank Tomcak reported that Downes would be coordinating the traffic signalization effort with NPU. Frank Tomcak reiterated that Downes was on track to have the budget reconciliation completed the first week of November and that permits would be further down the road. Frank Tomchuk stated that as part of their process they would be working on a set aside plan for carving out a certain percentage for small business enterprise, which they would work with the CHR office on. Frank Tomcak listed the remaining upcoming critical milestones as final planning and zoning approval; PCR readiness; and the DEEP permit. Frank Tomcak showed a preliminary logistics plan for the Stanton site on screen for all to view. Frank Tomcak discussed a broad overview of the logistics plan and showed the established construction area. Frank Tomcak stated he discussed with Mike Faenza the potential of removing the temporary classrooms to open up space. Frank Tomcak stated they would develop a temporary bus loop to go around the back of site with some parking for faculty during demolition. Frank Tomcak stated they could sequence the demolition to start at the opposite end of the existing building. Frank Tomcak stated they maintained some area for playground space. Frank Tomcak stated that parking would be at a premium for subcontractors and they may reach out to Beth Jacobs Synagogue to discuss borrowing a portion of their parking lot. Mike Faenza reiterated this was the first preliminary plan and that it had not yet been reviewed by school administration. Brad Anderson described the proposed site logistic plan for Greeneville Elementary School shown on screen for all to view. Brad Anderson stated they would need to work into the site from Golden Street to mobilize a trailer and get storage space to the site. Brad Anderson discussed the equipment storage logistics. Brad Anderson stated they needed to begin establishing retaining walls for the area. Brad Anderson stated there were sediment traps for rainwater collection while working on the site. Brad Andereson stated that masonry stations would be needed on the upper and lower parts of the site. VII. Consent Agenda: a. Invoices to be approved for payment Stanton CSG – Invoice #23006-019 - $10,555.46 DRA – Invoice #23012.00 #12 - $218,355.00 IES – Invoice #19678 - $2,398.95 Greeneville CSG – Invoice #23005-019 - $10,680.02 DRA - Invoice #23013.00 #12 - $198,993.40 IES – Invoice #19679 - $2,299.57 Moriarty CSG – Invoice #23007-006 - $16,993.36 *includes $6,772.50 of allowance usage for MP Planning Group Demographic Update  Alderwoman Stacy Gould made a motion to accept the consent agenda including the above invoices. Gregory Carabine seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. IX. Executive Session: Discussion regarding RFP for Project Manager (PM) for Uncas School. Gregory Ballasi made a motion to enter executive session with the inclusion of staff, ex-officio members and consultants from CSG present at 8:13 PM. Alderwoman Stacy Gould seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. The executive session ended at 8:35 PM. X. Selecting finalists for Uncas PM, setting of interview schedule as appropriate or Needed. Alderwoman Stacy Gould made a motion to hire CSG as the project manager for the Uncas Elementary School project. Mark Kulos seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. XI. Anything else to be brought before the committee: None. XII. Adjournment: Mark Kulos made a motion to adjourn at 8:37 PM. Alderwoman Stacy Gould seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. Respectfully Submitted, Katherine Rose