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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2011 STM(NOVEMBER 14,2011)
<br /> Warrant Article Analyses and Recommendations
<br /> Article 2: Funds Requested Funding Committee
<br /> APPROPRIATE FOR Source Recommendation
<br /> BRIDGE AND $21,670,000 General Fund Approve(5-0)
<br /> BOWMAN SCHOOLS (Excluded Debt)
<br /> RECONSTRUCTION
<br /> "To see if the Town will vote to appropriate a sum of money to remodel, reconstruct and make
<br /> extraordinary repairs to the Bridge and Bowman schools, including architectural and engineering services,
<br /> original equipment and landscaping, paving and other site improvements incidental or directly related to
<br /> such remodeling,reconstruction or repair...."
<br /> "DESCRIPTION: ...Funds for the costs of design, engineering and generation of construction documents
<br /> were appropriated at the 2010 and 2011 Annual Town Meetings."
<br /> [Town of Lexington Warrant to the 2011 STM,November 14, 2011]
<br /> This article enables the Town of Lexington to preserve the Bridge and Bowman Elementary Schools for
<br /> educational purposes for the foreseeable future. The work entails repair and general construction of
<br /> essential mechanical, electrical, and heating, ventilating, & air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, as well as
<br /> the addition of classrooms to accommodate present and anticipated enrollment.
<br /> The total-project cost—which includes the $1,030,000 previously appropriated for the design &
<br /> engineering (D&E) ($750,000 at the 2010 Annual Town Meeting [ATM] under Article 16(c) and the
<br /> $280,000 at the 2011 ATM under Article 13(a)—has increased from the $19,370,000 reported at the
<br /> 2011 ATM based on the estimate at what was then the schematic-design stage to $22,639,000 based on
<br /> the just-completed 80%-construction-drawings stage. (Note: Still to be determined are the extent of, and
<br /> additional costs for, screening of roof-top air-handling units at both schools for acoustic and esthetic
<br /> purposes.) An increase of that magnitude—$3,269,000 or $16.9%—is not that extraordinary when taking
<br /> a phased project of this complexity from schematic to just about bid-ready.
<br /> The biggest contributor to that increase is an additional $1,121,000 to help ensure the phasing can be
<br /> accomplished so as not to cause unexpected impacts on the use of those schools during the academic year.
<br /> The next biggest is $850,000 to recognize that the bidding environment is now not expected to be as
<br /> beneficial to the Town. The process of the more-detailed design accounts for $773,000 with the HVAC
<br /> and electrical work being a major factor. The more-detailed review of what's needed to meet building-
<br /> code requirements accounts for $300,000. And finally, refined hazardous-materials (hazmat) abatement,
<br /> for$125,000, and noise abatement, for$100,000, account for the balance of the increase.
<br /> In the continuing process of evaluating what project scope is appropriate so as to provide an educational
<br /> capability in those two schools that is comparable with other schools in the district and provides the
<br /> needed facility upgrades, in building the current estimate, $375,000 of items were found that were not
<br /> needed in this project: $114,000 of exterior painting, lockers, and FF&E (furniture, fixtures, &
<br /> equipment) and $261,000 of generator enclosures, new doors, and excess capacity in uninterruptable
<br /> power supplies (UPS). Also, $1,120,000 for window replacement that is currently included in the project
<br /> estimate may be structured as a bid alternate.
<br /> This Committee has considered the arguments for replacing, not renovating, these two schools, but find
<br /> that approach is neither fiscally wise nor prudent when considering the educational impact.
<br /> –Fiscally, there's no reason for expecting the building of two new schools wouldn't cost at least about
<br /> $80 million (twice the rounded-up, currently-estimated cost of the new Joseph Estabrook Elementary
<br /> School, without considering inflation). Even if the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA)
<br /> were still to be operating under the current procedure with regard to one project at a time from a
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