MINUTES

LITCHFIELD SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

 LITCHFIELD INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL LIBRARY

SPECIAL MEETING

OCTOBER 23, 2003

 

A special meeting of the Litchfield School Building Committee was held on Thursday, October 23, 2003, at 7:00 p.m. in the Intermediate School Library.

Present were: J. Healy, Chairman, K, Gilyard, B. Buckley, S. Kavle, J. Zullo, M. Bramley, G. Waugh, P. Sapiro, voting as full member, J. Mullen, alternate member

Also Present: Tim Callahan, Architect of Herbert S. Newman & Partners, Maurice Hoben of O&G, J. Tindall-Gibson, Superintendent, P. Perusse, Business Manager, Diane Knox, BOE Chairman, BOS Members: Harold Fairchild; Don Falcetti and John Noone, Tim Breslin, Principal LHS, Public and the Press.

 

Meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by Chairman J. Healy

 

Motion made by G. Waugh to accept the minutes of the October 16TH meeting, seconded by J. Zullo. Motion was made by M. Bramley to amend minutes by eliminating Project Costs and Project Financing from the minutes and strike from page three “seconded by M. Bramley” Motion to amend Sec. By J. Zullo –

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

Motion to accept Minutes Carried.  All vote were in the affirmative, P. Sapiro abstained.

 

Public Participation

Kim Beres suggested that the committee members appear in Cable 5 to review what has been happening at the meetings.   Kevin Creed agreed that there is a need to communicate with the taxpayers.   Diane Knox related to the committee that misinformation was circulating among the public and agreed committee should communicate with the public.  M. Bramley explained that a Selectman misread numbers on a hand out from M. Hoben at a BOS meeting which started the rumors.

 

Communication

J. Healy wrote at status letter to the editor, which is attached hereto as Exhibit A, which will appear in the Waterbury Republican and Register Citizen.   He mentioned that the Litchfield Enquirer is too full with political letters and will not out the status letter in until after the November election.

B. Buckley stated that the committee’s job is the study the project and bring a proposal back to the Town, not to sell the project, but just get the info out to the taxpayers.  “Selling” is a word committee members should not use.   Kent Gilyard commented that “educating the public” is offensive to people also.

J. Zullo suggested that any letters going into the newspaper should be circulated to and reviewed by committee members beforehand.

S. Kavle received a mailing about a symposium regarding solving mold problems in schools.

 


Discussion - ED 049R Submission

Tim Callahan, Architect of Herbert S. Newman and Partners distributed copies and reviewed the following Information:

n                  Priority Summary

Construct, Alter and Renovate Building Area to Meet Education Needs

Stabilize the Existing Buildings (Safe/Functional/Sound)

Optimize Reimbursement

Limit Site Development to Safety and Security Issues         

Eliminate Funding for Central Office Alteration #074-033

The Total Project Cost of LIS and LHS is $33 M. Including Short Term Financing

See hand out attached hereto as Exhibit B.

 

Maurice Hoben of O & G Industries, Inc.  passed out a second handout of Program Combinations with Total Square Feet, Estimated Cost, State Reimbursement and Net Cost to Litchfield.  See handout attached marked Exhibit C.

                                                                             

A handout was also circulated from J. Zinn entitled Pro Forma Financing Plan with a Comparative Mill Rate Impact Analysis attached hereto as Exhibit D.

 

Maurice Hoben of O & G Industries reviewed the different program combinations and informed committee that these proposals do not include reworking of bus loops, parking or parent drop off and rehabilitation of athletic fields.  He did inform committee that “Targeted Renovations”  could include new boilers, ventilation systems, new roof, light fixtures, possibly some windows.

Discussion by Committee members included: the square footage (“SF”) cost of internal renovation; 5% change order contingencies in the “gross up” cost ; the committee’s commitment to keep cap of project at $33,000,000 and if another alternative except No. 1 of the program combinations is a viable choice.  Could other options be reduced to meet that cap?  R. Munday suggested to choose the No. 1 as the option and increase it to $33,000,000 to add more to the project.  T. Callahan stated that committee is going in with best guess and committee can change projects as long as figure is within 10% - submit ED 049R to be flexible.  ED 049R does not ask s=about specific renovations plans but how much the cost is; B. Buckley mentioned that the Architect and Construction Manager cost usually wind up about 16% of the project, yet this project is budgeted for Architect and Construction Manager costs of 20%.; M. Hoben believes that the estimated rate correlate with the market we are facing; M. Hoben reiterated that if committee selects program combination No. 1, his recommendation is  to it mock up so there is more flexibility later and able to move $500,000 to $700,000 between the project of the two schools;  Reuse Auditorium would mean adding window and use the space as a two story structure with a Library downstairs and Cafeteria Upstairs with only one thousand SF new construction but difficult scenario to do.  B. Buckley interjected that while this conversation was good, it doesn’t need to be discussed at this time in order to compete the ED 049R.

Motion was made by B. Buckley and sec. by S. Kavle to authorize Architect and Construction Manager to prepare the ED 049R by selecting option No. 1.

Motion by M. Bramley to Amend Motion to increase the option to $33,000,000 to divide equally between the LIS and LHS projects and add to proportionally to both ED 049Rs, sec. By J. Zullo.


Motion to Amend Defeated.  All votes were in the negative except B. Buckley, P. Sapiro and Kent Gilyard who voted in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

Motion was made by J. Zullo to change LHS SF from 35,000 to 40,000 per recommendation of M. Hoben to give maximum flexibility of the Ed 049R, sec by G. Waugh.   Motion was withdrawn after conclusion that approximately 45,000 SF was needed at LHS to include the building of the Auditorium.

Motion was made by J. Zullo to direct Architect and Construction Manager to generate an ED 049R for LHS of $22.5M and to generate an ED 049R for LIS of $10.5M sec. by S. Kavle  Comments that the figures was too low for LIS based on the program combination No. 1 -

 

M. Hoben suggested the following split: LIS - 11.1M; LHS 21.9 M which will allow for all options except Renovate as New.

 

Call to Question of Buckley’s Motion by  J. Healy - Defeated.  All votes were in the negative except G. Waugh who voted in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

Motion was made by G. Waugh to amend J. Zullo’s Motion to direct the architect and construction manager to generate a ED 049R for LHS of $21.9M and to generate an ED 049R for LIS of $11.1M, sec. by B. Buckley

 

Committee discussed modifying two existing ED 049R using option 1 or using option one and increasing it to $33,000,000 and agreed that reserving the allocation of funds in the amount of $33,000,000 is the way to go in the event that changes can be made to the projects and there is room to do it. 

 

Call to question to cut off of debate by J. Healy.  Carried - All votes were in the affirmative except B. Buckley’s who voted in the negative.  There were no abstentions.

B. Buckley’s Motion Defeated - All votes were in the negative except B. Buckley, M. Bramley and P. Sapiro who voted in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

G. Waugh’s Motion to Amend Carried - All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

J. Zullo’s Motion Carried - All votes were in the affirmative.  There were no abstentions.

 

Committee requested to review the ED 049R before they are submitted to the BOE.  Also discussed the submission of the revision to the ED 049R for Administrative Office bring down the cost to $0.00

 

R. Munday responded to committee’s concern of not being able to decide what specifically was in the project by that it will be very close to the numbers in the Program Combinations Document  - No. 1 which is attached hereto at Exhibit C.

 


Motion was made by B. Buckley to authorize Architect and Construction Manager to fill out ED 049R #074-0033 in the amount of $0.00, sec. by M. Bramley.

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

 

Financial Discussion

J. Zullo advised BOF that there may be a need for additional fund for the committee’s budget for mailing purposes.

Committee discussed the mill rate increase and what they believe the taxpayers will accept per year and concluded that committee has met Town’s criteria of a $33,000,000 cap and should not speculate beyond that.  The method of financing should be dealt with by the BOS and BOF.   It was suggested that Committee will invite the First Selectman and Town Treasurer to attend next meeting to make recommendation and discuss alternative options for financing.

 

Public Hearing

Hearing was not called for by BOS but was scheduled before the BOS meeting.  Tim Callahan will prepare a handout to distribute to the public.   Most of the presentation will on the finances and introduce rough numbers.

Motion was made by J. Zullo to add a Special Meeting on Monday, October 27, 2003 to add to the agenda a discussion of procedures for selection of the Architect and Construction Manager. Sec. by B. Buckley.

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

 

Motion was made by M. Bramley and sec. By S. Kavle to adjourn the meeting at 9:30 PM

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

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

Kelli L. Green, Recording Secretary