AVON FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY RENOVATIONS & ADDITION PROJECT
BUILDING COMMITTEE MINUTES
JUNE 1, 2011
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 AM by Chairperson Diane Hornaday in the Selectmen’s Chamber Town Hall Building 1. Members present: Chairperson Diane Hornaday, J. Tad Kuziak, Janet Stokesbury and Barbara Leonard. Members absent: Scott Boos, Diane Carney and Secretary David Goldsholl. Also in attendance were Assistant to the Town Manager Steve Bartha, Library Manager of Adult Services Alice Pentz, Architect Bruce Tuthill, Interior Design Consultant Janis Newell and IT Consultant Gary Feld.
Ms. Hornaday told of the recent passing of former Town Council member and good friend Joseph Woodford. She said that he had given a lot to the community and had been the reason for her being here. She also wanted to thank all of those who give service to the town in the ways they do. He will be greatly missed.
II. MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING – May 18, 2011
Ms. Stokesbury would like the word “budget” added to her concerns with crew members working on Saturdays and Sundays. She said that she was more concerned with the added impact on the budget and not necessarily to be confused with the noise. Mr. Bartha offered that it was a bid job with a number that would not be exceeded and the workers being there was a management issue.
VOTE: Mr. Kuziak motioned, Ms. Stokesbury seconded and all agreed to accept the May 18th minutes with the change. None opposed. Ms. Leonard abstained as she was absent from the meeting.
III. COMMUNICATION FROM AUDIENCE
Mr. Bartha discussed the additional information he brought to the meeting, regarding the noise ordinance in town, to highlight several calls from the neighbors he’d received regarding weekend start times. It will aid the members in explaining the ordinance. Mr. Bartha informed the site superintendent that neighbors consider set-up noise the same as construction noise and to be considerate of them. The supervisor is cautioning new trades coming onto the job to be aware of the ordinance.
IV. COMMUNICATION FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Ms. Stokesbury discussed the hands free toilets. She recently visited Thompson Brook School and observed the bathroom facilities. She said the toilets flush multiple times and what a waste of water that is. She also said three of the four faucets were not working as well. She questioned whether these items were more likely to break than older designed fixtures. She regretted that Mr. Williams was not present at the meeting to discuss the issue. With the faucets not working, she concluded that the kids would skip the hand washing. Mr. Kuziak offered that there was a sensitivity setting. Mr. Tuthill questioned if the fixtures were battery operated or hard wired. Mr. Bartha said Mr. Williams favored the hard wired as it could sometimes take weeks before Public Works was notified in order to have the matter rectified. He
agreed that it was unfortunate that Mr. Williams was not in attendance and that he could best address these issues and felt the conversation could be continued at the next meeting. Mr. Kuziak said his place of business had a sink with a large handle and a hard wired soap dispenser that worked well. Ms. Stokesbury questioned if it was too late to make a decision to which Mr. Bartha said no. Mr. Kuziak said that he’s be in favor of a mixed solution
V. UPDATE AND REPORT FROM
Mr. Tuthill relayed that Mr. Wells is pleased with the project progress thus far.
VI. OLD BUSINESS a. Approval of Invoices
Mr. Bartha presented two older invoices representing the BAN sale that weren’t paid to date. He said staff recommends payment.
VOTE: Ms. Leonard motioned, Mr. Kuziak seconded and all agreed to approve for payment IPREO invoice 10018993, dated 10/15/10 in the amount of $1,500.00 and IPREO invoice 10019090, dated 10/25/10 in the amount of $864.47. None opposed.
VII. NEW BUSINESS a. Review, Discuss, and Approve FFE Bid (Phase I), b. Review, Discuss, and Approve IT Bid
Ms. Newell discussed the FFE bid #1 for the library shelving and associated furniture. There will also be a second bid for lounge, admin and meeting room furniture. She said it was set up this way in order to get the library furniture first and then see what was left to buy the remainder. The overall FFE budget is $580,000.00 and she is comfortable recommending $310,380.66 for the first part which is within budget. She combined several vendors for her recommendation: Real Integrated System for the wood shelving, canopy tops, end panels and library finishes, Tucker for the library shelving, because it is a better system and matches the existing, and Creative Library Interiors for the audio visual display system. Ms. Stokesbury questioned if $30,000 for signage for the teen library would have to be found elsewhere in the
budget. Mr. Bartha and Ms. Pentz said that library staff was working with the Hartford Foundation for a grant to cover this and would know soon. Mr. Bartha said the original grant request was $300,000, but it would probably be whittled to $100,000. Mr. Bartha added that he and Ms. Newell originally looked at a Phase I bid amount of $400,000 and the $310,380.66 amount left almost $90,000. He said this leftover amount could possibly cover the nice to haves discussed previously with Library Director Virginia Vocelli. Ms. Newell estimates the second bid to be $263,659.00.
Ms. Hornaday asked for a motion to approve Ms. Newell’s recommendation for Phase I of the FFE bid.
VOTE: Ms. Leonard motioned, Ms. Stokesbury seconded and all agreed to accept Ms. Newell’s recommendation to award contracts to the three vendors selected for each portion of the Phase I bid. None opposed.
Mr. Bartha discussed coordinating meeting times to discuss selections for Phase II. Ms. Newell said the timing is not as critical as Phase I and felt confident there was time to arrange this. Ms. Leonard was pleased to have more time to complete scheduling.
Mr. Bartha introduced IT consultant Gary Feld to the members. Mr. Feld said they bid the technology in five sections: wiring, phones, paging, security and network. One contractor will do all the wiring with the others providing the hardware. He recommended Data Tel LLC for the wiring and phone system. He knows the owner of Electrical Energy Systems Voice & Data, LLC who has installed systems for him in libraries in the past and recommends them for the paging. Ms. Stokesbury questioned the paging. Mr. Feld said it announced library closing times or staff or child location. He said one could page through the telephones or the overhead and play music through the overhead system as well. The current electrician on the job (Wiremen Inc.) had the lowest bid for the security system. Omni Data LLC had the lowest bid on the
network portion. He has worked with Omni Data in the past and finds them very knowledgeable and responsible. He did say that the bids came in at $140,000 which was over what we have budgeted to spend. Mr. Feld was able to negotiate the bids closer to the original amount of $125,000, coming in at $128,399. Mr. Kuziak questioned if Data Tel would label wiring at each end, test each wire and provide test results. Mr. Feld said yes and they’ll update the drawings that Mr. Feld will provide. Mr. Feld explained that they use wired connections for all the library computers and wireless and some wire for any computer brought in by the public on two separate networks – one by a cable company and the other by the town network. Ms. Stokesbury questioned the wireless system’s ability to handle more than a dozen users at a time. Mr. Feld answered that yes, the system could handle many more, but he expected no more than a dozen users at a time. Mr. Feld added that
we’d also have the capability to shut down the wireless. Ms. Stokesbury thanked Mr. Feld for his handout showing the bid results and areas of savings.
Mr. Kuziak questioned the viability of wiring for a VOIP system. Mr. Feld said that it would be more expensive and that he could send a cost breakdown to Mr. Kuziak to peruse. Mr. Kuziak is interested in a town wide standard where anyone can plug into it. Mr. Feld said the initial buy could be $50,000 vs. $12,000 which is often a deterrent. He did say that Simsbury had the town pick up the difference from a normal and VOIP system but already had the fiber infrastructure connecting all the buildings. Mr. Bartha added that the town is on a phone system that doesn’t communicate with Public Works or the Library. He said that we will be moving in the direction to get the town on the same system in a few years to address this question again.
Committee members discussed the benefits of adding an outdoor speaker in the new courtyard space to provide announcements or music. Mr. Kuziak posed that neighbors might complain about hearing periodic library announcements. Librarian Ms. Pentz said that they currently announce daily when the library is closing and that it would be helpful in evacuating all patrons in a timelier manner. Mr. Feld said that the speaker could be zoned separately from others in the main part of the library. Mr. Feld reviewed the drawings and was pleased to note that the outdoor speaker was included in the bid.
Ms. Hornaday reminded that the bid was still $4,000 more than budgeted for the IT portion. Mr. Bartha looked at the budget prior to the meeting and noted that given the three bids received to date, out of the $785,000 originally budgeted, there still remained a surplus of just under $40,000 after taking into account the remaining Phase II bid of $263,689.00. He added too that lately bids have been coming in very competitively even on other town projects. Ms. Hornaday reiterated the conversation with the Library Board that they would pick up items that ran over in technology. She didn’t think that would happen and looked to Mr. Kuziak for his recollection as well. Mr. Kuziak agreed that he didn’t think they’d go over and the items presented by Mr. Feld were really the bricks and mortar of the project. Mr.
Feld added that the material presented did not include closed circuit cameras, audio/visual equipment or computers. Mr. Feld said too that there would always be changes as they proceeded. Mr. Kuziak questioned if there’d be a walk thru by all parties before actual placement.
Ms. Hornaday asked for a motion to approve Mr. Feld’s recommendations and go beyond the amount budgeted for the IT line item by $4,000.
VOTE: Mr. Kuziak motioned, Ms. Stokesbury seconded and all agreed to grant contracts to Mr. Feld’s recommended IT vendors and exceed the IT budgeted amount of $125,000 by $4,000. None opposed.
VIII. OTHER BUSINESS a. Correspondence, i. 5/24/11 Memo to Town Manager
Ms. Hornaday asked Mr. Bartha for a roof update as discussed at the last committee meeting. Mr. Bartha said that they won’t be able to determine the extent of the damaged sheathing until they actually begin replacing the shingles. The construction supervisor said the damage was found along the ridge by the ridge vent and surmised that somehow moisture had built up there. Enterprise approached the rough carpenter for a price of sheath replacement - $300/sheet. They approached the roof contractor who gave them a price of $148. Adding tarps to keep the interior of the building dry would be at a cost of $85/hour. Once the process starts, staff and Mr. Wells will be stopping by daily to make sure only the bad plywood is removed and not the good as well. The total cost is unknown at this time.
Ms. Hornaday asked if there were any questions regarding the 5/24/11 memo sent to Mr. Robertson from Mr. Bartha regarding the award of the millwork contract. None had questions.
Ms. Hornaday requested that staff and members contact her by phone as her computer is currently not working.
IX. EXECUTIVE SESSION
None.
X. ADJOURNMENT
VOTE: Ms. Stokesbury motioned, Mr. Kuziak seconded and all agreed to adjourn the meeting at 8:45 AM. None opposed.
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Susan Gatcomb, Staff Person
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David Goldsholl, Secretary
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