MINUTES

LITCHFIELD SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

 LITCHFIELD INTERMEDIATE MUSIC ROOM

JUNE 3, 2004

 

 

A meeting of the Litchfield School Building Committee was held on Thursday, June 3, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. in the Litchfield Intermediate Music Room.

 

Present were:, Stacey Kavle, Acting Chairman, William Buckley; Robert Blazek; John Mullen; Kent Gilyard; Jeff Zullo; Lynn Chapman and Gary Waugh.

 

Also Present:; John Tindall-Gibson; Tim Breslin; Anne Stillman; BOE Members, Frank Simone  and  Wayne Shuhi; Tim Callahan and Ryan Minney of Herbert S. Newman and Partners; Greg Oneglia of O&G Industries; Public and the Press.

 

Meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM by S. Kavle

 

Motion was made by K. Gilyard to accept the Meeting Agenda, seconded by L. Chapman.

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

Approval of Minutes

 

It was agreed to table the approval of minutes of the April 15, 2004 meeting due to lack of quorum.

 

Motion made by K. Gilyard to approve the minutes of the May 20, 2004 meeting, seconded by B. Buckley. 

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative. There was one abstention by L. Chapman.

 

Public Participation – None

 

Communication

R. Blazek had the following communication from the Board of Selectman (“BOS”):

The BOS likes the work the Committee is doing.   Bill Dranginis asked how far along the Committee was about where place the Litchfield Booster Club Hall of Fame Wall.  He would like to know if there will be room.   S. Kavle commented that the BC will work with the Architect to find space.   R. Blazek indicated that the club will likely donate money for that space.   Bill Dranginis also asked why there was not a straight line in the back of the new classrooms.  T. Callahan told the BC that he has already addressed that issue.  R. Blazek explained to Kevin Creed that is was too early for a picture of the façade.   The BOS also asked if safety issues will be addressed during the construction and while school is in session.  T. Callahan said that was standard.  G. Oneglia said that they have a project manager on site and a superintendent who take care of safety.   R. Blazek also talked about the BOS concern about traffic flow.   A presentation will follow about the preliminary traffic study report.

 

 

Architect Update

 

Litchfield High School - Reviewed Updated Plans C-6 & C-5M

 

Discussion:  Buckley – How would public come into the Gym?   7-8 Science rooms are too long and narrow.   They need to be squared off.   T. Callahan – That will be defined after bleacher layout.  Zullo – We had comments regard equipment spaces.  T. Callahan – We are looking at the current tech area, using space there to put a boiler.  Art is still across the hallway because there are three art rooms.   R. Blazek – With all their materials going across the hallway, its makes for a messy and possibly dangerous space.  T. Callahan – One the classrooms is for computer design that will be across the hall.  W. Shuhi – Is the administration at LHS happy with these designs.  T. Callahan – Tim Breslin and his staff have asked to be in the front of the building.  W. Shuhi – I understand we will be eliminating site work and square footage, where have we applied this money?  G. Oneglia – We at still going to need the money for site work, the sidewalk will be damaged during construction.  We felt that we are tight with the B1 Concept.  With the drop of square footage we have more room for rising costs.   S. Kavle – The last two trips the Design Team took to Newman’s office, Tim Breslin went with us.   B. Buckley – When using historical data when estimating, it’s not real valid when we are bidding out next year.   Last time we were talking $165.00 per square foot for new construction, hat is tight right now.   G. Oneglia – At the next level of design we’ll be able to flush that out.   B. Buckley – I like the C5M but are concerned that we don’t exceed the budget.  G. Oneglia – I am comfortable with this scheme.  R. Blazek – Can we move the Gym ahead ten feet and have the back hall squared off?  B. Buckley- consider rotating 7-8 science rooms and you won’t have the odd shape lobby and you can wide the science classrooms.

 

Motion was made by L. Chapman to go forth with concept C-5M for further development and some adjustments, seconded by K. Gilyard.

 

Discussion: 

Design Team Comments:  K. Gilyard – We were in unison that we like this plan.  S. Kavle – The data for the traffic study; is there anything we need to know before we vote in this plan?  T. Callahan – No, they have a handle on the parent and bus drop off. [passed out preliminary report].   B. Buckley – How will the future Auditorium be entered and exited and how would it tie into the building.   T. Callahan pointed out the space between the 9-12 science wing and the bus entrance for a future Auditorium of about 5,000 square feet.  T. Callahan – There is $78.00 per square foot for renovation.  G. Oneglia – We also have money for programmatic renovation.

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

LIS – Reviewed Updated Plan A-2

T. Callahan – We need to know what to do about the entrance and where to locate the administration area.   Originally we were moving it to the old library space.  John Tindall-Gibson and Anne Stillman thought a parent drop off in parking lot and office in new construction.    I spoke with a Theater Consultant who is bidding on this project and they are looking drawing.   Blazek – The 3000 feet we are adding to the Auditorium, can they make that look like the front of the building?  T. Callahan – That is our area to work out, we are not making it the front entrance of the school.  S. Kavle – At all public events, people will enter through the front door.   Anne Stillman – At this point we can not see who is at the front door, it would be the same in the old library space.  That entrance will be only used during the day for bus drop off and pick up.   The side entrance, where our office would be stationed is the entrance for the parent drop off and all other visitors to the school during the school day.

 

Tim Breslin arrived at 8:15 PM

 

S. Kavle – What If you took bathrooms out and had all the space and had glass in the corners, you can see who is walking down the halls.   Anne Stillman – We still can’t see who we are letting in the building.  With the administration in the new wing, we are right at the entrance, on the middle floor.  The front door will be locked during the day.   B. Buckley – I would like to see a plan where the administration is in the front, against the Auditorium.   Anne Stillman – That is too removed from the students.   K. Gilyard – I think there is a lot of good point to have administration in the new wing, the principal and her staff like the plan.   Anne Stillman – The staff is also coming up with new ideas for the use of the courtyard that we can do through other funding.   B. Buckley – With regard to the Auditorium, it wasn’t intended to add seating or moving the stage.  T. Callahan – We aren’t planning that.  We want to provide back of the house area and better stage area.  We want to make the area as flexible as possible to be used in different ways.   J. Zullo – Has the square footage of new construction reduced at all?  T. Callahan – There is a very small footprint of new construction, I don’t see that coming down.   B. Buckley – Did we hire a Theater Consultant?  Maybe we could get the LPA to give us ideas and the Architect can design the stage.   S. Kavle – With regard to hiring Consultants, we have a subcommittee of Stacey, Jack, Mac and Bill.  Tim will make sure we see all proposals for review and then we will make recommendations to the BC on who to select.  B Buckley – Does the BC want to hire a Theater Consultant at all?   S. Kavle – That is something we should talk about.   Zullo – I would like to see a detail of what are the consultant fees and are they projected in our budget.   S. Kavle – Allowances are included in the project cost and are not in the Architect’s fees, but are in the $33M.    R. Blazek – Competitive bidding will be in all there consultant hires.  B. Buckley – We are getting 2-3 proposals, we need to look at the scope and read what they are providing.   S. Kavle – Jack had the Geo Tech Consultant.   Hayley & Aldrich and Geo Design and the Bidders for that Consultant.

Gary Waugh arrived at 8:45PM

T. Callahan – I had Theater Consultant put a proposal together for the first phase of the project.  I want the BC to be comfortable the way we are implementing the hiring of consultants.  We should make a decision on the Theater Consultant and hire one.   R. Blazek – Before we hire someone, can we follow-up on Bill’s suggestions and contact the LPA?   T. Callahan – The issue with the Theater programming, there will be a number of people who want to use this Theater.   The Consultant will meet with music and drama groups, compile information on lighting grids, sound systems, curtain arrangement and back of house.   K. Gilyard – Roughly $4,000.00 will give us that information.   L. Chapman – The Acoustical and Lighting Consultants are they for the Theater?  T. Callahan – They are for the entire school.  The Theater Consultant will be doing the lighting for the Theater, but not the Acoustics.   B. Buckley – The BC needs to understand that just because a Lighting Consultant is there, it doesn’t mean we have to hire someone, it doesn’t mean the Architect doesn’t do that.   All the additional services are reimbursable by the State.    J. Zullo – Are there Consultants trying to take us to a more sophisticated level of expertise with their services?   T. Callahan – Yes, we have used them on all projects that have a Theater.   G. Waugh – Has using such a Consultant proved to be economical?  T. Callahan – The issue of the Theater Consultant, they certainly can do that.  Yes it has, creative ways of spending less money.   B. Buckley – I don’t think we got the executed copies of the contracts.  We want to make sure we have the money in the contract to hire these Consultants.  I don’t want to hire a Theater Consultant if we don’t have the money to do it.   Buckley – I would like to authorize them to hire Hayley & Aldrich.

Motion was made by B. Buckley to authorize Chairman to execute contract with Hayley & Aldrich, seconded by R. Blazek.

 

Discussion:

This is going against what the policy we just established.  S. Kavle – Jack does want to hire a good Geo Tech Consultant as soon as possible. 

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

G. Oneglia read a letter dated February 2004 from Bruce Walpole to Jack Healy regarding the money incorporated in to the budget for additional Consultants.  

The BC had a discussion about the placement of the administration offices at LIS.  G. Oneglia – When the office was going into the old library space, the Media Center was going somewhere else.  Both plans were a two-story addition.   The cost should be the same.  G. Waugh – Does the scheme have site work planned to enhance traffic flow?   T. Callahan – We plan on repaving and re-striping the parking lot.  The roof rebuilt will address the drainage in the courtyard.  K. Gilyard - The principal and staff like this scheme, they are the ones that work here.

Motion was made by K. Gilyard that the Committee go forward with plan A-2, seconded by B. Buckley.

Discussion:

W. Shuhi – Picking one plan over the other, I would agree with Anne.   T. Callahan – The old Administration area will turn back to two classrooms.  B.  Buckley – I seconded this motion because of what Kent said, the principal and staff like this scheme.

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative except Mr. Blazek who voted in the negative.  There were no abstentions.

Initial Traffic Study 

See Attached labeled Exhibit A.  The full report will be available at the next meeting.  B. Buckley – We need to pay the invoice.  The Architect has to tell use what percentage of the work is complete.  We need the Architect and O & G to do a cash flow projection up to the point we go to bid.

Finance

J. Zullo – We need to get Short Term Borrowing to address the needs of the next six months.

Playing Fields

Frank Simone – We brought the Lease to the Selectman on Friday.  Town Meeting is the 16TH.

 

Motion to adjourn was made by B. Buckley and seconded by G. Waugh at 9:55 PM.

Motion Carried.  All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

Kelli L. Green, Recorded