AVON FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY RENOVATIONS & ADDITION PROJECT
BUILDING COMMITTEE MINUTES
OCTOBER 19, 2011
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Chairperson Diane Hornaday in the Avon Room, Town Hall Building 1. Members present: Chairperson Diane Hornaday, Secretary David Goldsholl, Janet Stokesbury, Barbara Leonard, Diane Carney and Scott Boos. Member absent: J. Tad Kuziak. Also in attendance were Assistant to the Town Manager Steve Bartha, Architect Peter Wells, Director of Public Works Bruce Williams, Library Director Virginia Vocelli and Enterprise Builders Project Engineer Wayne Czarnecki.
II. MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING – August 17, 2011, September 21, 2011, October 7, 2011
Mr. Bartha noted that no action needed to be taken on the August 17, 2011 minutes as these had already been approved by the committee members at a previous meeting. Members discussed the next two meeting minutes for approval.
VOTE: Mr. Goldsholl motioned, Mr. Boos seconded and all agreed to accept the September 21, 2011 minutes as presented. Ms. Carney and Ms. Leonard abstained as they were absent from the meeting.
Committee members requested a few changes be made to the October 7, 2011 minutes. Ms. Stokesbury requested that part of the sentence on page 3, first paragraph have the following words removed: and that talking about warranties going out the window now. Mr. Goldsholl reminded that he was absent for the vote to proceed with the carpeting on page 6 as he had left the meeting early. Ms. Carney requested to clarify the speaker in the first paragraph on page 6: Ms. Leonard added that the minutes will reflect…
VOTE: Mr. Goldsholl motioned, Ms. Leonard seconded and all agreed to accept the October 7, 2011 as presented with the changes. None opposed. Mr. Boos abstained as he was absent from the meeting.
III. COMMUNICATION FROM AUDIENCE
None.
IV. COMMUNICATION FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Ms. Hornaday said she loved the article in the Avon paper that was on the front page telling of the green aspects of the project. It told of everything that we were doing and the residents will see that when they receive it. She continued that it will make them feel good and positive about what we are doing and explained why some of the things were done to save us money in the long run. Mr. Boos spoke of a picture he saw in the Hartford Courant showing a small child playing with a train which made him see the value of keeping the library open so that services could continue. Ms. Vocelli added that the picture showed that despite the construction, the library was there for him. Ms. Hornaday summed that every piece of positive news was good for us. Mr. Goldsholl questioned the completion date of the project. He referred to
one of the newspaper articles that said April, 2012. Ms. Vocelli said it would be early spring. Ms. Hornaday tells people that it will be before the “dedication” as this will be held when the weather is a little better, as to avoid giving a definite date.
V. UPDATE AND REPORT FROM a. Construction Manager, b. Architect
Mr. Czarnecki gave the construction update. The landscaping is being installed around the area close to the adjacent properties. The geothermal well drilling is near completion. The retaining wall was just installed in the rear courtyard which will have a fence on top of it. The exterior masonry is just about complete. Interior painting and millwork and tiling in the bathrooms are done. Carpet is being installed today. Ceilings are done on the second floor with lights hung. Mr. Goldsholl questioned when the heat would be ready. Mr. Czarnecki said they would be firing some of the units this week.
Mr. Bartha relayed an issue that arose regarding the geothermal well drilling. A resident at 16 Sunnybrook stopped to see the job supervisor and brought along with him a jar of brown water. Drilling had gone on near his site and the next day he had dirty water. Mr. Williams and Mr. Bartha visited him and brought bottled water and saw that everything still worked. Mr. Bartha will follow up next Monday and added that the resident’s and the town’s insurance carriers are on notice. Mr. Bartha said we may end up chlorinating and flushing his well once the water table settles out. He spoke to the Farmington Valley Health District who said that it is a very common occurrence when a well goes in next to a house to see a little bit of sediment and added that fortunately no other resident had a problem. Mr. Bartha said
that the resident is generally satisfied especially with the quick response. Mr. Goldsholl and Ms. Stokesbury questioned the town’s liability. Mr. Bartha spoke to the Engineering Dept., who do a lot of underground work, and the Town Attorney who both didn’t see any particular hazard here. Ms. Hornaday said you’d want to keep on good terms with the neighbor as we did put a building on the land with the water table that went to that well. Mr. Bartha added that the neighbor did like the geothermal system which means he won’t have to listen every summer to the 150 ton A/C unit which sounds like a diesel engine.
Ms. Vocelli reminded that this neighbor was concerned about windows facing his property and his loss of privacy during the neighbor get together in the beginning of the project. She said the window plans were altered to create smaller ones so they wouldn’t be beaming down on his deck.
Mr. Goldsholl asked for clarification of key dates that he saw in the paper regarding the library closing for the move to the new part. Ms. Vocelli said the library will close three weeks between Halloween (Monday October 31st) and Thanksgiving. She said patrons were concerned about overdue materials and added that due dates will be extended so that no items will be due during this time. Items checked out right before the closing will get an extended time above the normal due time. Mr. Czarnecki said the “hard” move will be the week of November 7th at which time he will be full tilt into the renovation of the old part. Ms. Vocelli said packing will begin the week before the closing and the computers need to be packed up by November 2nd and moved the 3rd or 4th. Shelving will be up for the move by the 7th when books will start to be moved. The last week will be devoted to fine tuning and signage. If all goes well they may be able to open back up a little earlier. Mr. Goldsholl asked
Mr. Czarnecki if he saw any potential obstacles to the timeframe for the move. Mr. Czarnecki said certainly there was still a lot to do with preparing for a partial CO and flooring, but he did not see anything major. Ms. Carney questioned the whereabouts of the staff during the move. Ms. Vocelli said the staff would be very busy packing and doing the things they are unable to do now. She said too that some of the staff will be taking vacation during that intense moving week. Working hours will be shifted and every department will have responsibilities and pitch in. Shelves will have to be audited to make sure items are in the right place. Most everything will still be available for use. The history room will be packed and kept packed though.
Ms. Stokesbury asked what lighting was going to be used for the outdoor courtyard. Mr. Wells said there will be lights attached to the building for that. Ms. Stokesbury questioned if the lighting would be adequate for evening functions. Mr. Wells said it would not be enough to use to read but good for evening lighting. Mr. Wells added that we had to be aware of the neighbors and has made a conscious decision to not over light the courtyard as to be offensive. Ms. Vocelli said light from the community room will also help to illuminate the area. Ms. Hornaday thanked Mr. Czarnecki for his report.
Mr. Wells added to Mr. Czarnecki’s report that the doors and hardware were nearly installed. The second floor Avon Market was being trimmed out. Some of the trees (10) around the courtyard needed to be re-positioned because of the geothermal system and potential root interference. He met with the Town Planner and Public Works Dept. and worked out a solution. Ms. Vocelli reported that reluctantly two big trees will be coming down that are also on the “do not plant” of the invasive list. She said a Katsura tree will be planted near the drive for the book drop. Mr. Wells cautioned that we’d probably need a little money at the end to plant low shrubbery near the courtyard where the trees were going to go to satisfy the Town Planner. Ms. Hornaday said the Garden Club would probably be available to help
with the maintenance. Ms. Vocelli said they were already willing to donate an ornamental tree in the front to the left of the front door. The West Avon Garden Club also wants to donate a tree, possibly the courtyard tree.
Mr. Wells reported that a window is being replaced with a temporary entrance in the problem area near where the water discharges off the roof in an effort to prevent rushing into a decision to address it at this time. He presented several pictures showing scale and potential canopy designs. He wanted to show that the area is rather small in relation to the building where he is proposing remediation, offering solutions measuring 5’ – 6’ wide. Mr. Wells said the canopy would have to include a gutter. Mr. Boos expressed his concerns showing the spot as never receiving sun in the winter, thus posing a potential snow accumulation problem in the roof’s valley. He questioned what we could do in addition to addressing the water problem - address the snow. Mr. Wells said we could use a snow melt which is a
resistance wire. Ms. Hornaday noted that the temporary entrance would be heavily used until the library opens. Mr. Wells reminded that this was also the location for the walk up book drop. Mr. Boos looked to 50 or 100 years from now and felt the canopy would only address the water issue. He’s worried about the long term effect and solution to this area that gets no sunlight at least three months of the year. Mr. Boos asked if there was a design calculation that could determine the snow drift. Mr. Wells said you couldn’t determine what that would be as snow amounts varied. Mr. Boos cautioned that the Town would need to monitor it in the event we receive some bad snow. Ms. Hornaday would not want a flat roofed canopy design underneath the window. Mr. Wells corrected that none of the designs he presented would have a flat roof. Mr. Boos questioned if the door could be moved as we were going to spend a lot on this anyway and we had to pick our poison. Ms. Carney and Ms.
Vocelli suggested bricking up the door under the future canopy. Ms. Vocelli said the door was originally going to be a staff and delivery entrance. Mr. Wells said that it was currently an egress door and there could be building code considerations. Mr. Wells said eliminating the door will still leave the snow build up issue to deal with. Mr. Goldsholl agreed that the water still had to be diverted somehow. Ms. Hornaday likes the idea of bricking the door but that we still had time to wait and think more about solutions to address the problem. Ms. Stokesbury said we’d need to know the costs of the options and would like to go look at it again. Mr. Boos said any of the options are going to cost more money. Mr. Wells would still like to add a covering over the book drop. Ms. Vocelli said deliveries can be made through the front entrance but there will be a locked rear entrance with a phone to call in for entry and that she’s just trying to cut down on the noise. Ms.
Stokesbury questioned if deliveries sent down the gallery could bang the paintings. Ms. Vocelli said no that they are just a bunch of boxes and the paintings will be on one side only. Ms. Hornaday asked Mr. Wells to discuss the canopy roof issue at the next meeting.
VI. OLD BUSINESS a. Project Budget Update, b. Approval of Invoices, c. Review of Potential Change Order Log
Mr. Bartha referred to the budget form which he has included additional columns showing where he senses the line items will end up and the positive bid items. The new column “balance” shows where we’ll be either ahead or behind. The bottom line shows these items added to get a firmer picture of where we are with the contingency: $335,932. The back page of the budget shows the change orders approved to date and the amounts expended. Mr. Goldsholl noted that the cost of the roof valley issue was not yet reflected in the amounts shown in the budget report. Mr. Bartha added that there were spreadsheets available showing each invoice expended against each line item for review by the members.
Mr. Bartha presented two invoices that were not included in the agenda. One was informational only showing the purchase of the book carts which have been ordered and delivered: Lubbert Supply Co., LLC, invoice 5153, dated 10/7/11 for $874.06. The second Federal Express invoice needed to be added to the agenda for a vote for approval of payment.
VOTE: Mr. Goldsholl motioned to add FedEx Invoice 765546218, dated 10/10/11 to the agenda, Ms. Leonard seconded and all agreed. None opposed.
Mr. Bartha presented the invoices for approval that have been reviewed by staff and recommends approval.
VOTE: Ms. Stokesbury motioned to approve the invoices presented: FedEx invoice 765546218, dated 10/10/11 $17.90, Enterprise Builders Application and Certificate for Payment #11, dated 9/30/11 $532,940.00, Tuthill & Wells Architects, LLC invoice #3946, dated 9/21/11 $8,603.00, Wiremen, Inc. invoice # 2, dated 9/30/11 $4,750.00, Data Tel, LLC invoice #00014005, dated 9/9/11 $14,918.00, Date Tel, LLC invoice#00014070, dated 10/5/11 $11,144.00 and Special Testing Laboratories, Inc. invoice #25984, dated 9/30/11 $400.00 (Total $572,772.90), Ms. Carney seconded and all agreed. None opposed.
Mr. Bartha referred to the potential change order log and asked if there were any questions for Mr. Wells or Mr. Czarnecki. Mr. Goldsholl noted that the total would be an additional $46,000 if all were approved but not at this point. Mr. Boos questioned number 057: ADA Tactile Warning Plates for $7,380.00. Mr. Williams said that it was an oversight. Mr. Boos asked if the requirements varied from town to town. Mr. Czarnecki said yes.
VII. NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Bartha noted that tomorrow morning the Town would be issuing the second round of BANS and retiring the initial $7,000,000 borrowed last year and refinancing now until next summer. Once we have a final project amount we can issue long term debt probably the summer 2012. It will be a live sale done by phone and he added that last year’s was very successful.
Ms. Hornaday questioned if we put in for the first half of the State grant monies. Mr. Bartha said yes and that everything looked fine. He submitted each invoice with a cover sheet that explained what they were for. Ms. Stokesbury asked what kind of time frame the State had. Mr. Bartha said they had none. Ms. Vocelli said she remembered early in the process that it should be 4-6 weeks. Mr. Bartha relayed that his experience with the State is that program people who support projects with grants want to get the money out the door as quickly as they can.
VIII. OTHER BUSINESS a. Correspondence, i. 10/7/11 Email to Town Manager, ii. 10/11/11 Letter to AT & T
Ms. Hornaday questioned if the information about the carpeting and warranty had been presented to the Town Council. Mr. Bartha said yes and the only response was from one Council member who questioned if the action would impact or accelerate the degradation and was it an issue of the carpet sticking or an issue of accelerating the deterioration of the carpet. Other than that he said there were no other issues. Ms. Hornaday noted that this was the kind of thing that we’ve not only updated the Town Council on our decision but we get their support of it as well. Ms. Hornaday asked if there were any other questions.
IX. ADJOURNMENT
VOTE: Ms. Stokesbury motioned, Ms. Carney seconded and all agreed to adjourn the meeting at 8:10 PM. None opposed.
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Susan Gatcomb, Staff Person
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David Goldsholl, Secretary
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