Special Meeting of Public Building Commission 2.11.2015
SPECIAL MEETING WEDNESDAY,
PUBLIC BUILDING COMMISSION FEBRUARY 11, 2015
A Special Meeting of the Public Building Commission was held on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at the East Hartford Board of Education Administrative Offices, 1110 Main Street, East Hartford, CT. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Chairman Daniel DePietro.
PRESENT Daniel DePietro, Chairman, Public Building Commission
Richard Domler, Jr., Vice Chairman, Public Building Commission
Richard Kehoe, Town Council Chairman, Member, Public Building
Commission, Travis Justin Simpson, Member, Public Building
Commission, Tom Rup, Member, Public Building Commission and BoE
Anita Morrison, Member, Town Council, Member, Public Building
Commission
ABSENT Hank Pawlowski, Jr., Member, Public Building Commission
Marylee Hickey, Member, Public Building Commission
ALSO PRESENT Al Costa, Director of Facilities
David Holmes, Capital Studio Architects
Approval of Previous Minutes (January 21, 2015)
MOTION By Richard Domler, Jr.
Seconded by Richard Kehoe
To approve the Minutes of January 21, 2014
Motion carried.
Public Participation – None
Middle School Window Wall Project:
Review Recommendation to award Bid # 1705-14 – Window and Curtain Wall Replacement at EHMS
MOTION By Richard Kehoe
Seconded by Richard Domler, Jr.
To remove from table the awarding of bid for East Hartford Middle
School Window Wall Project. Motion unanimously carried.
Mr. Costa highlighted the bid results received on January 5, 2015 and reviewed some of the discussions that took place during the January 21st PBC Meeting. He further noted the reasons he was given as to why other contractors did not bid the project. He stated reasons were the size of the project; project schedule; bonding capacity of some bidders and duration of the project going past one year.
Architect David Holmes reviewed with the Committee the results of the project analysis performed by Project Management firm, Enterprise Builders. It is estimated that a few areas may provide cost reductions by way of value engineering steps and repackaging the bid to encourage more bids. Cost savings items that can be considered may bring the savings down to $1 million in cost savings:
- Eliminate laminated glass (use tempered glass instead) ($170,000);
- Eliminate wood blocking ($100,000);
- Use of gypsum instead of plastic laminate ($600,000);
Mr. Costa stated that we may need to strategically repackage bids so that other contractors who may have less bonding capacity may bid even if we consider them for the smaller building sections only. Discussion of funding shortage for the overall project was discussed. It was Mr. Costa understands that a bond referendum question may come before voters in November. He also stated that another school construction project, currently in early design, will likely be less than originally estimated therefore possibly allowing us to shift savings to the Middle School project. Mr. Costa stated that the additional local share funds needed for the Window Wall Project would be $800K. He reminded the Committee that any funding revisions to the State beyond the original estimates will require legislative action. His hope was that it would be considered by legislators for the 2016 session assuming a positive result on November 2015. With that anticipated schedule, the Window Wall project could be re-bid in the fall of 2015 and with contractor awards by January 2016, the first phase of the project could begin the summer of 2016.
Mr. Costa and Mr. Holmes collectively suggested to do value-engineering, repackage the bidding documents as discussed and to go out to bid by fall of this year. Mr. Costa pointed out that any request for additional funding would be part of the original grant application. An ED049R would be submitted to the State School Facilities Grant division once local approval of funds is achieved. The reimbursement rate of the project would remain the same as at the time of the initial grant award or 76.79 percent.
MOTION By Richard Kehoe
Seconded by Anita Morrison
To authorize the architect to revise the design specifications to take into
consideration the value engineering recommendations and to recommend
re-bidding of the project window design changes and other changes to
encourage additional bidders.
Motion unanimously carried.
Mr. Costa will contact the two bidders stating that we decided to not accept bids due to the lack of funds and hope they will participate in the re-bid project.
OLD BUSINESS – None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion to Pay Clerk
MOTION By Travis Simpson
Seconded by Richard Domler, Jr.
To authorize payment to the Clerk for February 11, 2015 PBC meeting
Motion unanimously carried.
MOTION By Tom Rup
Seconded by Richard Domler, Jr.
To adjourn the meeting of the Public Building Commission (7:05 PM)
Motion unanimously carried.
Recorded by:
Donna Fitzgerald