Shaker Lane Building Committee - Regular Meeting

to me called order meeting call to order at 719 uh public comments any public comments are there any hands raised i don't see anyone okay we'll move on to uh review and approve uh past meeting minutes Any comments on the last meeting minutes? I did make a comment. I think perhaps that was taken care of.

Yes, it was Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

I have the minutes on the screen. If anybody wants to review them or not.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. I'll second.

Okay. Roll call vote. Kelly. Kelly Clencher, yes. Sean? Sean Ahern, yes. Steve Venuti? Steve Venuti, yes. Bob Romley? Bob Romley, yes. Kelly? Michelle?

Michelle Kane, yes.

And Steve Moore, yes. Okay, thanks.

Oh, sorry, Mr. Chairman. I moved it. Sorry. We're now on 4A and B. Mr. Chairman, sorry. Okay. Would you like me to take it from here, Mr. Chairman? Yep, please. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Thank you. On the next item on the agenda, item 4A and B, we'll probably do them concurrently. Essentially, they are essentially the same schedule, except as I show them on the screen, the OPM is a milestone. It just gives highlights like a a cliche 40,000-foot view, whereas the Gilbane, the construction manager, has a very granular 10-foot elevation view of the schedule, very detailed. But I'll go there now. And here is the OPM schedule. I highlighted where we are today and where we look to be in the next, say, 30, 60, 90 days look ahead. On Friday of last week, the design team from Studio G and their sub consultants issued the design development documents, the 100%. They are now in the hands of the cost estimators and also the individuals who are doing the review of the design for any review comments, which will be tracked and cataloged and sent back to the design team for their review and consideration. And we have that discussion that will take place as shown here on the schedule sometime in early July, between the 6th of July and the 17th, where we have on row 147, we prepare and submit the documents to the MSBA package as well. The cost estimate is scheduled to be done is the row above. It's scheduled to be reconciled sometime around the 14th. of July. We do have a little discussion later this evening due to the 4th of July holiday with some staff members from all the offices taking time off. We'll be asking for the meeting, which is normally scheduled, which would have been the, excuse me, look at my calendar. It would have been July 15th. You see here on row 146, We'll be talking tonight to consider having that meeting bumped one week to July 22nd due to the fact that it's a very tight schedule with respect to people's vacation time and the reconciliation in preparing the package and then giving it to the committee in time for the committee's review and then the committee's consideration to make a motion to allow the OPM and the designer to submit the 100% design development package which is the documents, the design documents, the specifications, a complete cost estimate that is reconciled and agreed to, the design review comments, and all the other applicable information that the MSBA requires us to do. What we do on the 22nd of July, the next building committee meeting, we'll prepare this information. It's a large package. Those who remember the similar arrangement that was done during the schematic design back last year, same arrangement in the sense that the MSBA gets quite a bit of information. It's all cataloged, three-ring binders, so to speak, tabs. We'll give that to the committee as well, all the members here, for your review. And then we'd be requesting the committee to authorize, as I say a minute ago, to submit that to the MSBA. And that's a requirement that the committee makes a motion, votes, and authorizes for that submission. So that's what we'll be looking at as kind of highlighted here. Shortly thereafter, the design team will get into the construction document phase, as started to notice down there on row 150 and downward as well. And then again, you can see on row 155, it'll be December when we'd be submitting the similar package, but it'll be 60% construction documents in the same manner to the MSBA. That's the OPM milestone schedule. If things change, we will certainly update it and give the committee that updated information. If you'd like, Mr. Chair or other committee members, I get her down. So go ahead.

Sorry. Peter, is this schedule in sync with the designer and the contractor? Yes, it is. Yes.

This has been we just we have weekly meetings with the OPM. Studio G, the designer, Gilbane, the construction manager, we meet weekly and we talk about things such as this as the schedule. So we are all in sync with one another and the dates are aligned and all of our respective support teams behind the curtain, so to speak, back at our offices are also in concert with the dates. So everything seems to be aligned at this point. So yes. Thanks. Sure. Thank you. I'll just scroll down and certainly we can come back to this schedule. This will be in the package that I'll send out after tonight's meeting as well in similar format. And then we have the construction manager's construction schedule. Let me change my screen setting a little bit. Again, this schedule in similar manner, although much more detailed, from the Gilbane perspective, because they're tracking a lot more things than we are as an OPM because they have a lot more things to track. But we highlighted this in similar manner. It's sort of redundant, if you will, what I just showed you. But again, it shows that the Gilbane schedule is in alignment with our schedule and vice versa. But everything's on track and Jonathan Mays on the call here from Gilbane as the project manager. If you want to offer anything, Jonathan, anything besides what I've said, feel free.

Just to piggyback off that, Peter, we received the 60% or the estimating set and are starting that process. So we're aligned with everything Peter's saying and moving forward with this next step.

I'll just quickly show on the left side of my screen, you'll see the thumbnail. It starts on page 12 of the Gilbane schedule, and it goes all the way down to, whoops, page 30. So, you know, that's how many pages there are here. It's, you know, 18 pages of schedule. And this gets updated monthly. We talk about this, and it also keeps everybody in sync with where we're going to be and We'll start to highlight for the committee, you know, five to six key points up and coming. So the next, you know, after this phase will be the design development, as I mentioned. Then we'll get into the 60% construction documents, the 90%. And then we'll be doing contractor pre-qualifications, which is a requirement for the filed sub-bid trades. That'll be happening late fall, early winter, preparing some early bid packages as well for some site preparation. And then looking to establish our fencing and mobilization to the construction site next July when schools dismiss. Let's call it July 1, 2027 as a look ahead. At that point, the contractor takes control of the construction zone, fenced in, barricades, signage. All this will be spelled out in the days, weeks, months ahead. And we'll also be preparing a package that we can give to the school department so they can share it with the school community, such as the parents, teachers, staff, and others. So when they do return to school in September of 2027, they'll have a clear roadmap of the parent drop off and pick up for the students, the bus routes, the deliveries to the school loading dock and things of that nature. So all those kinds of things will be coming into play over the next couple of months. And more, of course.

Hey, Peter, maybe I missed it somewhere along the way, but I thought Trip was the project manager. You introduced Jonathan as the PM.

Trip is the project executive, and Jonathan's the project manager, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Thanks for the clarification. No problem. And then the superintendent is Lucas as well.

Yep, yep.

I'll stop for a minute, committee members, and Mary Lee and John or Chris from the OPM design team and construction manager, anything to add from what I've already said?

None for me.

Okay.

Nope. Well, I guess, yes, I'll add a small thing. I think Gilbane updated the schedule to include an assumption of technology for the early bid package for the for the Oh, my goodness.

Geothermal.

Geothermal. I was like, I kept saying geo wells. I'm like, that's not it. It's kind of it. But yeah, thank you, Mary Lee. That the assumption of if there's a if there's if we find a ledge in that area to mobilize in that area immediately and resolve that so that the growing season for the field in that area would be able to be turned over for the school when complete in phase one.

When will we have that information?

Jonathan, I believe that's in this schedule.

That's in that schedule. We have shifted that back to be able to absorb any of that time while still being able to have that field online, as you mentioned, for the fall of 29.

Now, my question is, when will we know about the ledge issue?

So we know that there is ledge. One of the things we want to talk about later in the agenda is getting the survey done to figure out exactly how much lead. So I think, Peter, do you want to talk about it now or do you want to shift until later?

I would suggest we shift to it later just to stay in sync with the agenda. It's going to be discussed and we have things to discuss with it. So if that's okay.

Short answer, later this summer.

Right. Okay. Okay, I'm gonna keep moving in certainly the schedule discussion if you don't mind I can come back to the schedule if everybody's okay on the agenda moving down to item 5a I'm gonna go to the budget One second scroll through all this schedule information. Whoops. Here we go project budget. So Here we go, I'm gonna just Make my screen more legible. Okay again committee members. I Here's the budget. You're familiar with the format and the cost coding here in column B in the various stages of the project. I've highlighted the, you'll see here, not this yellow, the bright yellow. These are the invoices that are under consideration for approval tonight that we'll come to later this evening. So the OPM under design development has an invoice shown here. Scrolling down. We get to the designer for their design development activities this month, for the month of May. Then we have some sub-consultants from the design team that we've approved under Amendment Number 9. You can see over here in the far right column, I kind of put a little note, Amendment 9. It's called Permitting May of 26. And this is the Studio G Amendment Number 9, Invoice Number 25. Excuse me, 35 underneath that. And then we have so on and so on. So those are the invoices. This is the budget. No change, just updates to the invoices being submitted this evening. I'll pause for a minute if there's any questions on the budget. I think we're good. Okay, thank you. Moving down, we'll hit just some updates to give an opportunity for the OPM designer and construction manager to do some updates of what they've been working on and things to discuss. So I'll do a quick one here. I'll give one or two to Chris as well, Chris Tremblay from the OPM. So item 6A, number one, is coordination meetings that are happening weekly between the construction manager designer in OPM. OPM is also doing updates to the budget schedule and agendas. Chris, you want to take number three, the underweight with the coordination of the environmental assessment?

Yep. So last Friday, we met with peer consultants, a sub-consultant of SGA, and discussed the environmental site assessment that they'll be performing, planning for the summer. And if you're part of any of the town departments, you may have got a massive opportunity. blast of multiple emails, probably 10 plus different groups, requesting some information of just the historical data that's out there so that peer consultants can review and determine the extent of the survey that they need to provide. A lot of the focus there is for any petroleum products or anything along that line. environmental hazards essentially there. So we are underway of collecting data from the town departments and we'll be scheduling a site walkthrough in early July timeframe. And I'll be scheduling that with the owner.

I would just add to that, that the environmental site assessment is required by the MSBA to take place at this time. That's why we're doing it.

Yeah, and Steve Mark has been great coordinator on our behalf, assisting us with any information from the schools, understanding of the property, and also coordinating with other town agencies. So thank you, Steve. Okay, if you don't mind, I'll jump down to number four on six. Is the, as I mentioned a minute ago, looking to reschedule the July 15th building committee meeting one week to July 22nd to allow the OPM designer and construction manager to finalize the cost estimate, the reconciliation of the estimate, the design review comments, and all the applicable information required to be submitted to the MSPA. And at that meeting on the 22nd, as mentioned, we'd be looking for the committee to make a motion to approve to allow that package should be submitted to the MSBA. Do you want to talk about that now, Mr. Chairman, or do you want to wait until I get to the bottom when we've got it right here, number 13A, either way?

Yeah, let's wait until we get to the bottom.

Very good. Thank you, sir. Okay, I'll stop there. Mary Lee, I guess I'll turn over 6B if you want to speak about the designer's activities that you've been working on from your office and so on. Thank you.

Sure, thank you. So the big news is the 100% DD estimate set that went out last Friday. That's a huge milestone. So thank you so much to everybody who has participated and helped get us to that point. In addition to that, I think it was the day after our last SEC meeting, I appeared on the 01460 on the go podcast with Sean and Jim Duggan and Karen and Charlotte from the sustainability committee. And we had a great discussion, sort of summarizing all of the sustainable features of the school. We also met with Dave Kessin at LEWLD to talk about our connection to a fiber optic cable. We met with them because the fiber optic cable from the town is not yet in place. That is a project that is in process and should be completed within the next year or so. So it will be in place in plenty of time for us to connect to it. So our data communications consultant was part of that meeting, and he spoke with Dave Ketchin and made sure everything's going to work well together. Between now and when we get the estimate numbers back, and even shortly after that, we are anticipating having a couple of value engineering meetings. Usually what we do at design development is we try to capture as much scope as possible at DD to get numbers for things. And so once we get the numbers for it, then we can make VE decisions. So we're expecting the number to come in a little bit high. That's totally normal. And that's what we planned for. Because then we have as much information as possible to sort of carve it down to exactly what we need. And it helps make the decision. So before we get the estimate, we are developing a pretty extensive potential VE list. And we would meet with the working group as we did last time before schematic design to talk about which things are high priority or low priority on the VE list. And then once we get the numbers back from the estimate, we can apply numbers to it and then make the decision. That's sort of what the process will look like over the next few weeks. Last is we are now shifting to assembling the MSBA report. to turn that in the week of the anticipated SBC meeting. So if you guys decide to reschedule the meeting to July 22nd, then we would be submitting the report July 24th, which is that Friday. Any questions?

Thank you, Mary Lee. Thanks. Sure. Yep, we can always come back if somebody has a thought after all these discussions or updates are made. Jonathan, May, if you don't mind, I see you have, your team has done a few things under Item C, 6C.

Yeah, definitely. You know, the primary overall... function here is the support of Studio G and the design development as we go through. So we obviously worked out the schedule items and just further coordination, the geothermal with this anticipated testing results that we spoke about earlier. So now we've worked that into the schedule to hopefully better for the town as well. Then next two items are the support of that design development as we go through. So we'll continue that throughout the entire design process. And then we received the design estimating set. So we'll work through that and meet up later in July to further review and provide some input on those VE items that Mary Lee mentioned. And the exciting item here, we did mention last month, but Mary Lee and myself also participated in the Can Do Critters podcast with Sean and Kelly back in May. So that was a fun time.

That wasn't me. It was Tripp. I was a little bit jealous. It looked like a good time.

Great. Thank you, John. Um, okay. We have another opportunity, uh, item D if there's anything from, we call the owner, the town of Littleton, any, any way, shape or form any updates or things? Nothing at this point. Okay. Very good. Moving down to item seven. Uh, this is an area where we have some, uh, adjustments, contracts, change orders, amendments, and purchase orders standing. I think I might, well, let me do this. Mr. Chairman, I think we talked about this earlier, maybe a month or so back, just trying to establish what I would say is an opportunity for the financial working group to approve changes financial changes to the contracts, purchase orders, or contract amendments, what have you, in between the monthly billing committee meetings. As we start to get, well, there's opportunities that will be creeping up on us, and there's kind of one lingering right now that we're going to discuss under item 7B that kind of just came to play. And If by chance it came into play a week from now, we'd have to wait three more weeks or four weeks before the next building committee meeting. And as things roll forward, that duration of time waiting to get approval is going to have an impact to the project overall. So I've written up a, I'll call it a change order contract amendment process. I could show a draft right now on the screen. But I think what I'd like to do is certainly warn, or not warn, that's a bad word. alert, inform the committee that I will be sending a suggested process, communication process, to the financial working group for consideration. And we can discuss it in the next couple of weeks and then maybe have a motion for the full committee to authorize the financial working group in the months ahead, in the years ahead, quite frankly, to authorize any immediate financial changes that are necessary to keep the project on track in between the building committee meetings.

So that's kind of the... We did talk about that in the past and I'm of the opinion that the caliber of firms that we have on this project can plan far enough in advance that we don't have these last minute surprises. But I do understand that things happen. So I'm not really in favor of it, but I'd be willing to entertain your proposal.

Yes. Thank you. Agree. We will certainly forecast, all of us, the construction manager, the OPM, and the designer, everything we can possibly do to keep the committee informed on a regular basis for the meetings. It's not a system that once in place that we're looking to abuse by any stretch, but things will, I think, happen. unbeknownst to us and just creep up on us and we'd be caught behind the eight ball. It's not immediate as in this evening because we're going to get on to 7B. But in the next three years, there's going to be an opportunity or an issue or an item that will creep up behind us at a moment's notice that was unforeseen. So I'll stop there. I'll get the process to the financial working group. We'll discuss it in the days ahead, then we'll share it with the full committee and discuss it at the next month's meeting for a consideration for a motion to approve a process, if you will.

Mr. Chairman, maybe one suggestion would be if you do, and this is Steve, if you do it, maybe you put a dollar limit on it or something. So, you know, anything under $100,000 or whatever the appropriate dollar amount is, anything over that limit would have to go to the full committee. Just a suggestion.

No, that's a good idea, Steve. I appreciate it. No, that is exactly what the language will say. It could be a range. I'll just share this with the committee and my experience on other projects I've worked on, depending on the level. the committee's um suggestion it's typically 50 to 50 000 or maybe as upwards as 75 000 um but 50 000 is probably a good healthy median if you will and that's already drafted in my draft language now um i'm not going to bore you by putting it on the screen i'll get it to the financial working group but please don't and uh peter i think uh you know a 50 000 cap is appropriate and that would give us

the ability to give an NTP to get them going and then finalize the change order, you know, down the road.

Exactly right. Exactly right. I agree. So thank you both, Mr. Chairman and Steve Mark, for that conversation. Yes. Okay. We'll get on to 7B now. 7B, so... Going to ask for some side assistance from the designer, Mary Lee. This is some activity that's happening when they did some borings. There's a proposal that came in, Amendment Number 11. Apparently, there's down in the geothermal field, and I'll put the map up in a minute, where the geothermal field is, there's a considerable amount of bedrock close to the surface of the finished grade down there now. And we're going to be putting in 70 or 80 wells, Mary Lee. And then we have the horizontal piping that goes from well to well per circuit, if you will. So you want to jump in, Mary Lee, and just maybe offer some thoughts as well?

Sure. So as we have been doing the site investigation, we are getting more familiar with the site. We're learning more about it. And the initial site investigation has identified a few other areas where we need additional information. And that's why this in particular is a little bit difficult to predict far in advance because we have to first find the initial findings and then figure out what we need in addition to that. So this in particular is for two areas of seismic refraction survey. These are really about managing the risk, right? So during construction, that's when we find out exactly how much ledge there is to remove. So what this is, is an effort to figure out as accurately as possible, how much ledges that we have an understanding in advance of how much it will cost. We've seen in our experience, lot of times during construction you find unexpected things and it throws a wrench into it and all of a sudden it's an added expense so this is really about managing that risk and making sure we have as much information as possible as early as possible and we can plan for it um there's also the other uh additional investigation of the soil sampling because there was some suspicious soil found in a few locations So this is additional soil sampling in a couple of locations.

What does suspicious mean?

In the initial site investigation, they thought urban fill, which is kind of a blanket term for any number of things. But this specifically was some wood ash, other kinds of ash, some construction debris. And so this is another instance of managing risk where the testing is to figure out how much is there and figuring out exactly what's in it. Because how much it is and what's in it, it's going to need to be disposed of properly during construction. And there's an additional cost to dealing special instances of soils like this. So understanding how much it is and what kind it is now will help us figure out how much it's going to cost during construction.

Hopefully no Indian burial ground

Mary Lee, if I could just jump in a little bit here. So for the committee and those looking at this map on the screen, the green clouded area up here is currently the lower playing field, and that's the location for the geothermal well field, both the wells and the lateral piping that's going to go for each circuit, correct? Correct. And so this is an area that will be surveyed for bedrock that we're going to talk about in a minute. We have some proposals. The design team has submitted some proposals. And then the blue area and similar is also an additional extent of seismic refraction survey at the upper field. That's for the building. And of course, we're going to have a series of not only the building foundation in this blue zone, but there's also going to be a tremendous amount of underground excavation for utility work, be it septic piping, be it stormwater collection systems, underground subsurface detentions, underground electrical lines coming into the new building. So while we're considering surveying to find out to what extent there is bedrock, to what elevation and to what quantity. We're proposing that a firm come out, a company come out, which we're going to talk about in a minute, to survey both the green area and the blue clouded area to give us a report on how much bedrock there is and where it's located to the best of its ability and to what depth. Is that relatively accurate, Mary Lee?

Yes, very much. Thank you.

And so with that, while I'm here on the screen, I'm going to move it around. You can see Mary Lee has also colored in red clouds, which is the urban fill she just mentioned based on the soil samples of the work that was done in April. The report comes back that strongly encourage additional sampling to determine what is that urban fill, to what extent. And then down in this zone, there's four other clouds It looks like some presence of acetone. So again, Mary Lee, that's your soil sampling sub-consultant is looking to do some additional sampling above and beyond the original anticipated scope. Correct?

Yes, exactly. Thank you.

Sure. No, no problem. So committee members, that's what we're looking at this evening. There's a... I'm going to scroll down. So here is the paperwork or the backup documentation. There's 31 pages of explanation. Whoops, let me just adjust my screen.

Excuse me.

Then I'll zoom out. So ThermoLink and GGD is a subconsultant proposal. The OPM has reviewed this proposal. We've had some review comments back to the design team, Studio G. They've responded back with some feedback. valid information. At this point, the OPM's office is recommending the committee consider spending some additional monies to determine the bedrock and to do the additional soil sampling as suggested there. There's a whole bunch of backup here, but let me do this. Here's another illustration, if you will, of that area, not the lower playing field, but the building zone in the utility zone coming off of Shaker Lane where electrical power will come in.

So Peter, I think we get the idea. Can we just move on to the... I'm sorry. Yes.

I didn't want to miss out. Okay. So bottom line, let's go to the bottom line. Here's the bottom line. Looking for $52,000, $52,938 to move forward with the seismic refraction at $13,420. at the well field, 16,000 at the upper field, and 22,000 for additional testing for a total of $52,938.

Is that lump sum or T&M?

It's more of a not to exceed. And actually, Peter, do you want to talk about a reconciliation amendment or would you like me to?

Go ahead. You have the floor.

Sure. Thank you. So if you'll remember, at the end of schematic design, we did a reconciliation amendment where basically we looked at the actual funds spent as opposed to the funds that were approved to be spent. And that resulted in, I believe, a little over fifteen thousand dollars going back into the bucket. And so at the conclusion of this, which is when most of the site investigation will be done, it seems like a natural point to do another reconciliation. From what I understand, especially from the geoenvironmental, he puts in his proposals based on a maximum number of soil samples and testing to be done. And then he just tests as many as he needs to. And he had given a previous proposal under Amendment 9. And he says that he's come nowhere close to using the whole amount. So there's money coming back into the bucket for these reimbursables. So I'd like to do the same thing again so that at the end of this, we have a clear picture of exactly how much money is left.

So essentially, Mary Lee, I think to answer the chairman, it's essentially a time spent arrangement as opposed to a lump sum.

Yes.

Yeah, I'm comfortable with that. Okay. Mr. Chairman, at this point, we're looking for any questions, comments, and a motion for consideration to approve Amendment number 11 to the designer, Studio G, for those services just mentioned in the amount of $52,938.

So, Peter, why don't you make a motion for us and we'll vote on it. Okay.

Committee members, the motion is authorized Studio G to move forward with Amendment 11 to perform seismic refraction survey work at the geothermal field, geothermal well field, and the upper playing field where the building structure will be, along with supplemental slash additional geo-environmental soil sampling, all total in the amount of $52,938 under amendment number 11. Not to exceed. Not to exceed, please.

Yes, thank you. Yeah. Okay, is there a motion to approve? I'll move it. I'll second it. Okay, roll call vote. Kelly? Kelly Clenchy, yes. Sean? Sean O'Hearn, yes. Steve Venuti? Steve Venuti, yes. Bob? Bob Romley, yes. Michelle?

Michelle Cain, yes.

And Steve Moore, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you very much, committee members, and sorry if I got a little long-winded. It just keeps coming sometimes. Okay, moving down. Item 8, nothing that we have to report under previous business. Number 9, new business, nothing from our end unless the committee or others have some new business to mention. Not that I'm aware. Item 10, nothing really to report that we haven't already said. It's just more or less informational. Moving down to number 11, the invoices, I can report that the OPM has reviewed Studio G Architects invoices number 34 in the amount of $498,000 for design development phase services, and it's in accordance with their billing schedule. So a recommendation for consideration by the committee. Same with Studio G invoice number 35, which is sub-consultants for services that were performed during May in the amount of $47,113. I will not comment on item three, which is our invoice, the OPMs. But the OPM recommends Studio G's two invoices, 34 and 35.

And you don't recommend your own?

Oh, I certainly do, but.

Is there a motion to approve the three invoices presented in item 11? So moved. Okay, roll call vote. Thank you. Roll call vote. Kelly? Kelly Clancy, yes. John? John Herron, yes. Steve Venuti? Steve Venuti, yes. Bob Romley? Bob Romley, yes. Michelle.

Michelle Kane, yes.

And Steve Moore, yes.

Motion carries. Thank you very much, committee members. Appreciate the action on that. Item 12, nothing on our end from other business not reasonably anticipated within 48 hours of this meeting, unless someone else has anything.

Yep, this is Steve Mark. We had talked about, and I guess it's up to Kelly and Steve Venuti and Steve Moore if they want to bring this up now. We had talked about a potential MOU between the school department and the building committee to help offset some of the kitchen equipment costs when the time comes using a revolving fund that the school has for the cafeteria. Mr. Chairman, do you want to talk about this now or do it at a later date or?

If you guys want to talk about it, I was just a little concerned as to our previous conversation, Steve, that whatever money comes over from that revolving fund does not get any reimbursement from the MSBA.

Yeah, and I'll let Steve Venuti, I think, has a response to that, I think, Steve. I don't want to put you on the spot.

One of the things, Steve, that we talked about, and Steve Mark put it in his email to me, is that number one, just because the money is there doesn't mean we need to spend it. So the only reason that money would come in is if that FF&E line item was to be overspent in some way, or we found that we need to start to cut things. They could purchase the kitchen equipment, which is an allowable use in the revolving fund. And then those dollars could be used to backfill and purchase the things that aren't either going to be cut or wouldn't have been purchased because of the amount in a line item. So anything that they bring in from that account would stay in that FF&E line item, wouldn't go anywhere else. I think the main thing is, again, it's up to the school department to tell us what that amount would be, and it's up to the building committee to say, yes, we want to accept it. No, we don't. But we wanted to get this on the table before Kelly left. We requested a MOU for it, and I think it's a good idea, and it gives us some protection in the future if we need it.

That's all. So, Steve, this only is – we can only use it for the FF&E line item. We can't use it. If we overrun somewhere else.

Nope. FF&E only.

Strictly, yeah.

Okay. And for kitchen equipment, because this is a revolving fund that's specifically for kitchen and cafeteria operations.

That's what their monies would be used for. But anything on that FF&E line, we could purchase. So, you know, the cost of... So whiteboards goes through the roof all of a sudden. We can't afford them for the school department. And we could give them, the school department can give us the money for the kitchen equipment and that money that's set aside for the kitchen equipment could be used to purchase food. The whiteboard, so whatever else we need.

Kelly, is that your understanding, Kelly?

Yes, it is. I'm obviously in support of this. I do anticipate, I'd like to think differently, but experience tells me it wouldn't be true. We're going to end up in situations where we... thought we were going to get something. There are so many moving parts in a project like this. And I just want to make sure that we have some money set aside to take care of some essential things rather than be faced with having to cut them because we haven't been proactive in planning. So this is just one area. I'm certainly, when I'm leaving, I've already talked to the school committee as a whole. If we are closing out our budgets and we find some extra money, I highly recommend that we put that in the Shaker Lane Building Fund so that we can take care of other expenses that may arise. And if we don't have any, we can use it to bring down the tax requirement for our community.

So I'm in favor of this, but is this a Shaker Lane Building Committee decision or is it a school board decision?

It's a shaker and Steve can help me if necessary. It's a shaker lane building committee decision. Revolving funds are under the direction of the superintendent of schools.

So the school department, the way it's written right now, Steve, is that the ability to give money is up to the school department. The ability to accept the money is up to the building committee, whether we want to take it or not.

Right. So the idea behind the conversations was we get an MOU in place to this agreement and this arrangement because... Who knows two years down the road from now in 2028 when the contractors are buying equipment, who the players are going to be. So we wanted to put this in writing and kind of codify the agreement so that it came as no surprise to anybody, both on the school side and the town side and the building committee. So that was the idea of generating the MOU now.

So, I mean, from my perspective, it sounds like a good idea because it's money we can tap into if we need it. And if we don't need it, we don't need it. We don't need it.

Right.

Yeah.

That's definitely the intent, Steve.

Yeah. So, Steve, do you want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion that a... MOU between the school department and the Shaker Lane School Building Committee be negotiated and authorize Steve Moore to sign on behalf of the Shaker Lane School Building Committee.

I'll second that. Okay. Okay. How's that? Whatever that means.

Whatever it is, you're going to sign it.

So we have a draft of the MOU that once the authorization is given, we can send that draft refined and finish the draft and then have – the various officials from the school department uh the town and their building committee i.e the chairman to sign that agreement so and then it's in place for two years from now if it's needed you know it really sounds like a win-win it it you know it gives the school committee the option to you know participate if needed and you know it helps out

this committee if we need the assistance.

Yeah, I guess one question I have for the contractor for Jonathan from Gilbane is, you know, like, I guess what's the impact if the school department direct buys equipment and has it shipped to the school for installation? Does that pose any kind of a liability issue with anybody or anything like that?

We could definitely procure it as a furnish-only item. There's many items that are owner-furnished contractor installed. The one item that would just require coordination is the warranty aspect of it, where now you get into the situation of if something's not working correctly, the contractor could point that it's the equipment, and the equipment people could point that it's the contractor, and then you kind of get into that negotiation of who's at fault versus if the contractor provides it wholly, they own that warranty period as well.

Okay, so how do we solve that in the future?

Well, we don't. I mean, it's a – I don't think that's a big issue.

I don't know if you can see it, Steve, but Suresh has his hand up.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. One thing I could suggest, Steve, would be that you can get things like pots and pans, which are just delivery items only, part of the FF&E. which are delivered directly, but they don't come under the warranty from the kitchen equipment, you know, people. And the warranty on pots and pans is basically that they're tented, but they're not tented. That's the question about them. And, you know, you take reputable vendors and you can buy them from the state list and, and again, bypass the situation of, because the kitchen is a file subreddit. So you have to kind of be careful how you, or phrase that or how you buy those so if you buy them as items which are loose items whether it's like you know toasters uh your small electric blenders all handheld handheld tools that the kitchen uses those are the things you can buy from this money and if you directly ship to you yeah thanks resh um

I don't think we need to get into the weeds on this. This is a kind of a 10,000 foot level discussion. And I think that Kelly's, you know, recommendation should be entertained here. And any discussion?

Just that school committee supports this and appreciate the forethought from Steve Mark, Steve Venuti, and Kelly on this one. And again, to reiterate, Kelly's made school committee aware.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Second. Roll call vote, Kelly. Kelly Clenchy, yes. I would assume so. Sean? Sean O'Hearn, yes. Steve Venuti? Steve Venuti, yes. Bob Rowley? Bob Rowley, yes. Michelle?

Michelle Kane, yes.

And Steve Moore, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. We'll send the draft to everybody for final review. Thank you.

Yes, thanks, everyone.

Great. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to keep moving down the agenda. Item 13 is just the next meeting dates. As we discussed, is the July 22nd meeting date accepted for rescheduling as opposed to the 15th?

I don't know that we need to vote on that, but I think that's, you know, given it's better to have it right than right away. You know, we need to have We need to have the correct information to submit to the MSBA. Agreed.

Okay. So you can see the dates forward, committee members, for the balance of the calendar year. The bolded and highlight ones are the times when we would be looking for the committee to make a motion, again, to allow the OPM and designer to submit the design development to the MSBA on July 22nd, which is the 100% design development, and then the 60% contract documents on December 16th. Just a heads up, so you're aware that we do have a full quorum on those dates.

Yeah, I was just going to say that, Peter. I know for myself, that's going to be a questionable meeting for me, so just make sure that other members will be able to make it.

Yes, thank you.

Good point, yeah. Before we adjourn, I just want to take an opportunity to thank Kelly for his years of service to the town. And, you know, without his leadership and Steve Mark and others, but this project would not have happened. And I just want to thank you, Kelly.

Thank you, Steve. I mean, we have a great team, and I'm looking forward to watching this project become reality from a distance, of course. It's exciting, and this is going to be so great for our youngest learners, and it'll be good for our district and community as well. So thank you for those kind words.

Good luck in retirement, Kelly. Yes. Good luck.

Enjoy. If anything comes up, we have your number. You bet.

All right. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, committee members, that is the presentation this evening on behalf of the OPM designer and construction manager. I move to motion item 14. Motion.

Adjournment. Oh, yeah. You know, I know Bob is the first to, you know, vote for this, but is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

I'm assuming this is unanimous, and thanks to everybody for their participation tonight.