Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

Okay. This is the Thursday, 04/23/2026 meeting of the Board of Public Works, and I'm gonna make a call to order. Kevin Riley, present. Joe Piper.

Eileen Miklitz.

And seeing we do not have anybody here for public comment comment, what happened to our Yeah. What our pledge of allegiance is in

there. That's crazy. Yeah.

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation undermatter, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That threw me. That was things were out of order. You can tell Judy's on vacation. Keeping

you on your toes, Kevin.

So the next order of business is the approval of minutes from 04/09/2026. Do we have a motion?

This is Piper. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

I second.

We have a first and a second. Any discussion or questions? Seeing none. Take a vote.

Kevin Riley, aye. Piper, aye.

Micklitz, aye.

And moving on to approval of payments.

This round of payments, you've got three payments. None of them are final payments, but do you have any questions on those, Brandon or I'll try to answer?

This is Piper. I'll make a motion to approve payments with a second. Have a question.

Kevin Riley seconds.

Guys, can you remind me or remind us what we're doing with the South Street ramp this year? Is this more of the joint stuff than?

So this was actually the Yeah, it was bid out last year. It was a '25 project that continued on into the spring of this year into '26. But yes, it was primarily we had some beam repairs, some other concrete repair items kind of on the vertical on multiple floors. I guess Joe you can jump in whenever you want to. But really concrete structural repairs on the lower floors and we worked our way up some of the exposed beams, some of the we had some spalling, some rebar exposure that we cleaned up, did full repair there, and are kinda working our way up towards the Top Floor.

Plus we did previously approve that change order to remove the glass block on the top Story, replace that with concrete block and replace some of the windows up there the on

the Top Floor as well. Okay. That's Brandon, thank you. And that's where I was driving is I thought we were gonna knock out some of that old barn glass there towards top.

And that is all complete.

So if you're interested, drive up to the 3rd Floor. It looks a lot nicer.

So this is the 3rd Floor on South Street or this 3rd Floor on Wisconsin side? Probably

It's the entire on Top Floor where we had glass block. So there was a couple different locations up there that that was replaced with

concrete Go take a look. Alright. Thank you, gentlemen.

And the windows and the doors that were replaced were replaced with I forgot what it's called, Joe, but indestructible glass.

Yeah. All the glass was replaced with Lexon. It's a relatively cheap, high impact resistant polymer.

Seeing discussion is finished, we can have a vote on approval payments. Kevin Riley, aye.

Piper, aye.

Micklitz, aye.

Moving on to bids.

Right. There's three bids to review this evening. The first one was received on April 10. This is for the Fire Station 5 HVAC improvements project, the rebid. We received three bids on there. The low bid came in from Helm Mechanical, total bid of $42,107 As you can see, the budget amount is somewhat amended there to be $43,000 with the allocation of about $8,000 that the administrator and finance director has approved to transfer those funds.

Piper, I'll make a motion to approve the bid. With a second, I have a question. A second. So I know Helm Equipment. They're or Helm Mechanical. They're a little bit further south. I think they're they're based out of, Southern Illinois or Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin. Have they done work for the city in the past?

They have done work for the city. Joe, do you remember which?

I'm I'm not sure which one offhand.

Yeah. And we did definitely check references with their prequalification as well and their references did check out.

Okay. And it looks like, I mean I mean, the the discrepancy between first and second was still like $16.

Mhmm. So we wouldn't recommend moving forward with the second blow bid. At this time, they've performed okay in the past and they did get okay references in the reference check.

And and no. I have no doubt. Mean, I know I know Helm from my my my family knows Helm and I've worked worked with them. So I guess my other question is, is this just furnace is it just one furnace? Or is

it Yeah. If you recall, the reason we didn't hold the bid or not approve the last round of bidding due to the amount was the refrigerants of the one that we're replacing in this, the furnace number three was the older style refrigerant. So we did move to move forward with that piece of the project work instead of the other condensers that will be a future project. So that's how we decided to break it apart.

Great. Thanks, Brandon.

And I think you answered my question, Brandon, about why this was a rebid. The first bid we were kind of came into We

was well over budget. So we did have to repackage that into smaller pieces to be within the 2026 budget and delay the remainder of the project entirety into a future year.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Then I'll enter We've already had a first and a second, so I believe we can go to a vote. Kevin Riley, aye.

Piper, aye.

Micklitz, aye.

Moving on to the next bid.

The next bid was received same day. This is the West Sunset Drive and Barstool Bridge ceiling rehabilitation project. We did receive two two bids. We recommend moving forward with NORCON Corporation's bid for both the base bid and alternate one and two in the total amount of 255,585.5 NORCOM dollars has completed this project in the past and the budget amount is $300,000.

This is Piper. I'll make a motion to approve the bid as presented. I'll second that.

The first and a second, any questions or comments? Seeing none, we can move to a vote. Kevin Riley votes aye.

Piper aye.

Mikkel it's aye.

Motion passes. Three to zero. Moving on to the next bid.

On the next bid, we're going to put this on hold. We need to talk to the finance director. It came in slightly over budget. So we do have funds available in another project. We just need confirmation from admin and finance director on transferring those funds. Bring that back next time.

Just a point of information. Can I ask a question?

Yes.

How close were we to the

$277,000 over budget on a $1,000,000 project. This is replacing two pump stations. So the majority of the work involves replacing generators and controls and things like that in new buildings. So it's a substantial amount of mechanical and pumps and that type of equipment. So we got a good bid, but we just need to confirm we can transfer some funds around.

You for explaining that, Alex. Any other questions or comments before we move on to the next item? Seeing none. On to discussion and recommendation to counsel regarding.

So letter A there, it's review and act on contract change order number one with Lee Mechanical for the library HVAC placement project. I'll turn this over to Brandon and Joe to report on.

So So I'll just give a brief overview a little bit of this change order and then Joe Welter, our Facilities and Instruction Manager is also here to answer any questions that you may have regarding this change order. But this project was an HVAC improvement project at the library. A big piece of this project not only was it replacing HVAC mechanicals, but a big element of that was automated building control. Previously, with the multiple iterations of projects that we've had at the library, there was an HVAC system that had three different types of control across the board. It was a we'll call it a hodgepodge system, so to speak, that was pieced together on multiple projects and this project was going to be executed to really clean up all of those elements, have a one automated building control system, a BAS, that really takes care of everything and will give us better management of that facility from an HVAC perspective moving forward.

Once we got into the project, some of the locations of the ductwork and the pieces didn't line up with the plans that we had and it did cause us some additional elements of work. There was four additional items that we did have the contractor do additional work at the request of the city related to dampers, relief hoods, tying in the park bathroom that also is connected to the library as well as ceiling temperature monitoring control panels. So it was an additional expense, a lot of it building control related. The amount total of this change order is just over $30,000 If you do have really specific items on each one of these four additional elements of work, Joe is definitely gonna be the best one to provide some explanation on really fine details of that.

Entertain a motion.

I've got some questions first.

Sure. Okay. Absolutely.

Gentlemen, thank you. So I guess I'm gonna work my way up from the bottom. So number four. So there is this I guess my question is, I know we we talked a lot about this is the old Carnegie space. Right? And we talked a lot about having to put sensors above the ceiling for fire and everything else. I guess I'm just curious I know it's $1,400, but I'm just curious, what was I mean, we spent so much time on that. I'm just curious what was missed or what why are we why are we having to spend another $1,400 when we just did that like two years ago?

For that location on Number 4? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So the space above the old Carnegie area, there is exposed piping. There's sprinkler piping, hydronic piping up there. Some of this cost is to provide additional monitoring up there. So it's an older building, sometimes it's temperature sensitive a little bit more outside. So we want to be able to monitor that. We want to be able to control that above ceiling space to ensure that all the mechanicals up there are taken care of and not bursting pipes and causing damage.

Yes. Joe, and I know this was before your time. And as you guys know, individually. This is directed at the building. I just was because I know we talked about that when we did this when we did the Carnegie Room remodel about all of the sensors and everything up there. Was it just something the technology change? Was it just something that that that that we missed? Or did we realize that we just didn't we didn't have enough sensors up there given the first scope?

Yeah. Think with the with the building automation system change, having additional sensors up there provides us a little higher level of control in that space. So it provides for monitoring and it provides for alerts if it does fall out of temperature scale for us. So some of it is kind of that behind the scenes work where staff is getting notified when things are out of whack and it goes continually monitored so we can actually pull it up on the computer, understand exactly where we're at and not have to just trust the equipment.

Okay. And then number three, the park bathrooms. So those were that project was done four three four years ago? Yeah. Three four years ago.

The addition the addition of those park bathrooms.

Yeah. Mhmm. So I get again, I guess my question is, was this something that was that was discovered that we we needed to we needed to do this work? Or why was I guess my other question is why wasn't this in the original scope of work when we put the bathrooms in?

This is this is something we discovered throughout the project. It's it's not ducted the way that we would expect it to work. So the library or the the park bathrooms are supported by the library mechanical system. The way it's set up right now, there's a transfer fan in the conference room that is blowing, essentially taking exhaust air from the conference rooms and blowing it into the bathrooms. There are unit heaters in each of the bathrooms that should be maintaining temperature in the bathrooms but they never run because that transfer fan is constantly dumping tempered air into the space.

So we're not running efficiently right now. The cabinet unit heaters that are in the bathrooms, which are designed to heat and temper the bathrooms should be the primary source of heat. Right now they're not being utilized because we're constantly pushing exhaust air out of the conference rooms into the bathrooms.

So is it so, Joe, is it more efficient to use those kind of those electric heaters than it is to try to just continuously blow warm air in normal

ductwork? Absolutely.

Okay. Okay. And I I just as as we all know, love the library. Just very challenged by the physical building. So thank you, gentlemen. Joe, thanks for coming tonight. You bet. I'll make a motion to approve the change order as presented.

I'll second.

We have a first and a second. Any additional questions or discussion before we move on? Seeing none, Kevin Riley votes aye.

Piper aye.

Micklitz aye.

Motion passes. And

we are up to the matter of your report. No real report. No actual report tonight. I just have the official notices. Greenway Terrace Playground resilient surface project, Prairie Park And Vanting Park facilities upgrade project, and the sanitary sewer lining project for the year. So those projects are being prepared and going off for bid.

And Kevin, before we before we adjourn, I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome Alderman Miklitz to the Board of Public Works. And also just acknowledge Alderman Eric Payne and his probably over twenty years of service on the Board of Public Works as an Alderman. So Eric's not here this night here this evening with us, but I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank Eric for his time, not only as an Alderman, but also his time on the Board of public works and on the transit commission.

We 100% appreciate his service to the board of public works. Absolutely.

That doesn't require a vote, but I will wholeheartedly second both of those motions. I do have one thing that I'd like to just ask the Lomaira, I mean not Lomaira, the Prospect Avenue construction. My guess is that it got a little bit slowed down because of weather, but do we are we still on track for that?

Schedule wise, we're still looking good. There were some more than expected poor soils encountered on prospect during the removal of the existing pavements on stretch that slowed them down a little bit. Obviously, we had a week of a lot of rain. That also didn't help. But schedule wise, we're still looking good. We will start removals of sidewalk on Bidwell very, very soon as Jonathan has put out a couple updates today with that schedule. So they are plugging away and plowing forward. As far as contract time, we'll definitely be on schedule regarding that project, but still in the target where they wanted to be complete ahead of schedule.

So I'll be able to get out of my driveway in the next three weeks?

Yes. That is the goal.

The underground contractor out there, I feel, did a fantastic job getting that completed in a real quick manner. So with the road project.

It's totally understandable with the weather. Any other comments or things before we adjourn? We are adjourned. Alright.

Thank you. Thank you.