Municipal Renovations Committee Minutes of Meeting Thursday, December 18, 2008
MRC Meeting Minutes 12.18.08
Members Present: Ed Cook, Alan Zordan, Is Temkin, Bill Hill, Mayor Bingham, Mike Clark, Tom Jerram
Also Present: Stephen Nocera, Mayoral Aide; Lorel Purcell, O&G, Bob Roach and Brian Solywoda, Friar Associates, Jerry Rollett, City of Torrington Public Works Director
1.The meeting was opened at 6:35 PM, on a motion from Mr. Zordan seconded by Mr. Cook.
Mr. Clark reported that the temporary City Hall lease was approved by City Council, with an addendum outlining handling of expenses specific to the construction of City Clerk and Probate vaults. Mr. Clark stated that the City engineer, Ed Fabbri is in the process of laying out the floor plan at Field Street and at this point is about 70% complete. In addition, all necessary City Hall employee tours have been completed. Rudy Pullano has begun final planning pertaining to IT needs there.
Next steps for the MRC are to finalize the seating plan, organize the moving procedure to include identification of items to be moved, and to make certain that Mr. Pullano has everything he needs to have communications systems up at the time of the move.
A presentation of the 12.12.08 working drawing estimate was presented by Lorel Purcell, Bill Hill and Bob Roach. Mr. Hill stated that it was his opinion that the project was on target to come in at or under the budget approved at referendum. Mr. Roach and Mr. Solywoda stated that it was their opinion that the project was in an excellent position with regards to budget. Both stated that in their experience most projects would be over budget at this point and major cost cuts would have to be implemented. Mr. Hill agreed. Ms. Purcell reinforced comments by Mr. Hill that the state of the economy including a poor labor market and lower material costs were contributing factors to the lower cost estimate, and that there were considerable savings from budget control
of “Owner Costs”, regulated by the MRC.
A discussion of the cost estimate was initiated by Mr. Clark. He asked the Committee and all present to consider the 95% completion of design carefully, stating that it would be the last opportunity to make major cost savings adjustments to the project without incurring costs associated with change orders and construction delays. Mr. Clark stated that the budget savings projected included monies from contingency funds and not definite cost savings verifiable by bids from contractors., and that until actual bids are
reviewed it is premature to assume that the $200,000.00 budget savings currently projected will come to fruition. Mr. Hill and Doctor Temkin felt that any changes made at this point would seriously delay the bid/construction schedule affecting temporary City Hall lease costs and construction costs. Mr. Clark stated that those costs would have to be factored into any reviews proposed before changes could be evaluated. Mr. Clark asked Ms. Purcell if abatement and demolition could begin as scheduled to allow work to start on schedule. , and if scheduling of the project could catch up in a matter of weeks if construction bids were not delayed beyond three weeks from the current bid schedule. She responded that that should be achievable.
Mr. Clark asked the members, and all present, to consider utilizing space programmed to be vacated by the relocation of the Probate suite of offices to the first floor for use as the Building Department. If this change were made, the need to construct the build -out addition to the third floor would be eliminated. Mr. Solywoda estimated that his architects would need two to four weeks to modify all affected plans. The bid advertising schedule would then be delayed only two weeks from current plans. Ms. Purcell agreed to have O&G’s cost estimator project the cost savings for this potential design change. She felt that the analysis would be completed by Tuesday, 12/23. Mr. Hill and Dr. Temkin opined that they were not in favor of making a major design change to
the project for reasons stated earlier in the meeting. All other members and those present agreed that cost savings should be evaluated and as soon as the cost impact was known a special meeting of the MRC would be convened to decide what further action would or would not be taken.
Mr. Nocera stated that the commissioning contract had been approved by the City Council on 12.15.08.
Mr. Roach sated that next steps for Friar Associates were dependent upon design decisions made by the MRC.
Ms. Purcell stated that next steps for O&G were most immediately focused on preparation of City Hall moving bid advertisements. She further stated that a walkthrough of City Hall would be scheduled for Friday, January 9th at 1 PM. She asked that the City Clerk be available to discuss his packing requirements. Mr. Nocera stated that all personal property, i.e. that which would not be moved at City expense, would be identified with an “inventory dot”, prior to the walkthrough. Mr. Clark agreed to help answer questions during the walkthrough. Ms. Purcell stated that bids would be due for return to the City Purchasing Agent on January 19th.
Under Other Business: Mr. Clark reported that the Republican American had agreed to do a story on the Veterans Memorial and that Friar associates had furnished art materials to support that effort. The story is tentatively scheduled to run the weekend following Christmas.
The meeting was adjourned at on a motion by Mr. Zordan, seconded by Mr. Hill.
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