Willington Housing Authority
60 Old Farms Road
January 14, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present: Chairman Robert Campbell; Vice-Chairman Wilbur Gangaway; member Don Berg; financial consultant David Berto.
Call to order: 6:04 p.m.
Present to speak: no one.
Old Business – Senior Housing Button Hill:
D. Berto said he has been working with Eric Peterson at Gardener & Peterson (G&P) to prepare a proposal/agreement so G&P can coordinate the expenditure of the town funds and scope of work. D. Berto said the contract includes $14,000 to prepare the bid packages, coordinate the bids, review the bids and ongoing oversight and billing for the work as it’s done. He said Peterson will provide a scope of work that’s about equal to the funds WHA has available to spend. D. Berto distributed two copies of the contract and recommended it be signed by the chairman.
R. Campbell asked where the figure of $14,000 comes from; D. Berto said it is the town funds.
R. Campbell asked if the WHA has to go through the bidding process to spend this money. D. Berto said he will verify that with consultants L. Wagner and Associates.
D. Berto said what the WHA has from the town is two pots of money that will be combined … the EDI grant from 2008 (which is tied to certain requirements) and unspent funds from construction of the septic field.
D. Berto said spending the town funds requires meeting only the town’s procurement requirements.
R. Campbell suggested breaking G&Ps money into three phases, in order to meet the town’s requirements. Regarding meeting the town requirements, D. Berto noted that G&P was initially selected through the town’s process, but not for this piece.
There was more discussion about what the $14,000 covers. D. Berto said it doesn’t include the surveyor. R. Campbell noted it does include making sure the work is done correctly, and the construction meetings G&P would attend.
Motion:
W. Gangaway moved that, with the understanding that the agreement meets the Town’s procurement standards, the WHA approves the contract with Gardener & Peterson. Seconded by D. Berg. The motion passed unanimously.
R. Campbell said he will wait to sign the agreement until after the question of the requirements is settled, in case the contract needs to be modified.
D. Berto discussed other matters related to G&P, i.e. they finished their main scope design some time ago, as according to their contract, and they’ve been paid. Now the WHA has another bill of about $500 because there were some revisions (by the WHA) to plans, as there were to Crosskey’s (the architect). He also noted the contract states there can be no changes to the contract without an amendment to the contract, but then G&P sent WHA a bill that’s outside of the contract – so DECD isn’t going to pay it. So D. Berto discussed this with G&P and said they need to change your contract and change the bill, so they’re consistent with each other. Then the check can be signed by R. Campbell.
D. Berto said that in order to move forward with the infrastructure work, he now has E. Peterson giving him a list of work that can be done in steps with available funds – work that makes sense and doesn’t have to be dug up later, and that won’t come to a stop in the middle of completion… the idea is to give the WHA a sequence of work that can be used as a bid base.
D. Berto said he and Peterson will now work with Larry Wagner to administer the spending of the funds, but L. Wagner priced their fees based on funds if $196,000 (CT State EDI funds – Economic Development Initiative), and now the WHA has $355,912 total – including the Town funds. So, L. Wagner has to recalculate how much they will charge for administration, legal and advertising – and then WHA can establish how funding is left for construction.
D. Berg reviewed the above discussion for clarification: the $355,912 is all the money the WHA has available to spend. A certain amount of that will be budgeted for G&P. A certain amount will be budgeted for L. Wagner out of the $196,000 (from 2008) which is part of the $355,912, for administrative tasks. D. Berto said L. Wagner will administer all as one project.
There was discussion about spending the money left over from the septic project. R. Campbell noted that the Town procurement process (requiring bidding) kicks in over a certain amount.
D. Berg asked if the EDI money is handled differently from the town money (from the septic project.) D. Berto said yes, but the process is similar.
R. Campbell asked, given G&P handled the septic project, whether G&P can bill as if Button Hill is a continuation of that project, or if this isn’t possible because the septic project is closed out.
D. Berg said he thought the unspent septic project money was town money.
R. Campbell said the EDI fund is town money; the unspent funds stayed with the Town of Willington.
D. Berto said that when he refers to EDI funds, he means the 2008 EDI grant that is just for the infrastructure and has never been spent. He said there also is Town money left over from the septic project – which was also part of an earlier EDI grant. He said use of the 2008 EDI funds has to meet both the Town’s procurement requirements and the state EDI procurement requirements. The rest of the money only has to meet town requirements, but they requirements are very similar.
D. Berto said after all the aforementioned steps have been taken with G&P and L. Wagner, he anticipates work on Button Hill can begin at the end of winter.
D. Berto reported the Town is completing a lease and its associated easements, and completing the tax agreement – both of which are implementation of the resolutions passed at the Town Meeting. He said he met with Atty. Jim Scaramossa, who is going to prepare the finalized lease and easements and tax agreement, and then will give these the Town attorney for review. D. Berto said the only point of discussion on the Town’s part might be the length of the tax agreement, because it’s based on the agreement between the Town and Willington Woods, which is 37 years. He said the Town attorney is saying the law only allows a 5-year abatement but Atty. Scaramossa says this is not accurate.
D. Berto discussed trying to find a Federal Home Loan Bank in the Indianapolis region with which the WHA can apply in the spring. He said he did look into some of the banks suggested by WHA members, but found they are not the same banks nationwide. He said he did talk to staff at Federal Home Loan Bank (in the Indianapolis area) last month and they made positive comments about the Button Hill project; they said it meets FHLB criteria, but that WHA is in the wrong region. They suggested exploring insurance companies such as AAA Life, Lincoln National, etc.
W. Gangaway asked if an application with a national insurance company could be done through an office in the East or would it have to be through the Midwest office? D. Berto said that’s something that would have to be worked out with the company. D. Berto said the application is done online, via the Federal Home Loan Bank site, which then forwards the application to the organization for authorization. He believes the final authorization would be through the organization’s home office, but he will research this question. R. Campbell asked when that funding round is; D. Berto said it’s the end of May.
R. Campbell said that if the WHA isn’t funded in May, D. Berto needs to talk to two banks in June and spend time going over requirements to ensure they’re truly willing to get on board – and then give them one week to sign on, so that there isn’t a repeat of what happened with Rockville Bank, twice.
D. Berg suggested making sure the banks that are contacted have experience with this kind of project. R. Campbell suggested Liberty, Eastern, the Savings Institute. D. Berto also suggested Dime Bank.
R. Campbell asked whether, when work actually begins on the site, if there should be a groundbreaking ceremony, to get some publicity. The consensus was it would be a good idea.
There was discussion about whether the WHA has to choose the low bidder – R. Campbell said he believes the bidder also must be qualified to do the job, and that requirements may vary according to funding sources.
New Business: none.
Approval of minutes:
W. Gangaway moved to approve the Dec. 10, 2012 minutes; D. Berg seconded the motion – R. Campbell abstained because he was not at the meeting – motion passed.
Treasurers Report:
R. Campbell handed out the report. Balance is $3,711. D. Berg moved to accept the report as given, W. Gangaway seconded the motion – motion passed unanimously.
Correspondence: Notice of Senior Living Symposium Webinar.
Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 6:46 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Recording Secretary Brenda Sullivan
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