2010-10-27-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 27, 2010 • Third, to state their position that the school building should be replaced with a new building in the near term. Dr. Ash and DPF Director Goddard will be submitting on November 5 an emergency statement of interest (SOI) to the State regarding assistance in paying for a new building, and expect to receive a response four to six weeks later. If the State approves the request, there will be a limited time -frame for the Town to appropriate funds for planning and design work. If the emergency SOI is not accepted, the Town may then submit a non - emergency, i.e., a regular, SOI. If no SOI is accepted, the Town will need to consider whether it wants to proceed without State assistance. If Question 3 passes on Nov. 2, the State will not have the funds to provide assistance. The total cost of a new building is estimated to be roughly $30M. The new Harrington School may serve as a model for a new Estabrook School. Based on recent test results, the DPF will implement a set of relatively simple remediation actions throughout the building over the next two weeks using DPF and contractor personnel. The test results indicate that there is a reasonable likelihood that the work will bring PCB air concentrations down below EPA guideline thresholds. A measurement of the PCB air concentration will then be conducted in every classroom. Dr. Ash and Mr. Goddard reviewed current and future spending. To inform this review, Mr. Goddard distributed a sheet summarizing the costs. $80K of the $250K transfer from the Reserve Fund voted on October 13 was used to support remediation work after the date of the A.C. transfer vote. The Town just learned that EH &E has billed (or intends to bill) the Town an additional $179K for work beyond that covered by the $80K. This work was not envisioned when EH &E was first engaged. This led to a discussion of EH &E's qualifications, capabilities, and role. Members of the Committee urged the Town to ask for itemization of the bill and to discuss this bill and billing practices with EH &E, given that the work has extended far beyond early expectations. The expenditures related to the PCB problem are expected to reach a total of about $943K over the next few months. Since $400,000 has been covered by Reserve Fund transfers, and $51,910 has been redirected from various capital article budgets, this leaves a shortfall of approximately $491K. The shortfall has been covered by the DPF budget ($421,102) and the school system budget ($70,401). In addition, it is presently anticipated that there will be a request of approximately $273K at the 2011 annual town meeting for remediation work to be done next summer. This amount is not included in the $943K figure. The cost summary presently includes $100K as contingency, but some of this is now expected to cover the testing to be done prior to the annual town meeting. The remainder will be the true contingency amount that will be available, for example, for fixing any high levels of contamination found in the next testing round. In response to a question, Mr. Goddard said that he would look into heating costs at Estabrook given the recent changes in ventilation. There were unresolved questions about this spending proposal; Dr. Ash and Mr. Goddard will review the details and offer a revised budget by Wednesday, Nov. 3. -2-