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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-10-26-CEC-min Hi: Immediately following are the proposed minutes of the October 26th meeting of the Capital Expenditures Committee. If you find any errors, please let me know. Following the proposed minutes is a schedule of upcoming meetings. -Tom G- Capital Expenditures Committee Minutes October 26, 1999 Meeting 1) Meeting was called to order by the Vice-Chairman at approximately 7:40pm. Members present: Shirley Stolz, Karen Dooks, Narain Bhatia, and Tom Griffiths. Prospective member George Burnell was present. The Appropriation Committee was represented by its liaison members, Deborah Brown and Sheldon Spector. The Schools were represented at the Meeting by Robin DiGiammarino and John Moynihan. 2) The Clerk passed out minutes of the October 14th meeting to those who hadn't received them by e-mail. He also passed out a list of future meetings. 3) School Task Force for the Elementary Schools: Robin DiGiammarino said that a school task force was about to begin meeting concerning plans for the elementary schools. The task force will deal only with educational policy, like whether there should be separate rooms for art and music. These decisions will lead to a recommendation concerning the desirability of a seventh school. The task force will complete its work by February, 2000. 4) Status of the Elementary School Renovation Plan: John Moynihan estimated the following states of completion of the plans: Hastings---100% Harrington-100% Estabrook-- 42% Bridge----- 25% Bowman----- 25% Fiske------ 0% He also noted that a decision to add a seventh elementary school would necessitate a rework of the plans. 5) Cost of Completing the Elementary School Renovation Planning: John Moynihan estimated the cost to complete the current plans as follows: six schools if we know whether or not to add seventh-$1 million six schools with addition of seventh left open-------$1.25 million seven schools----------------------------------------$2 million This would provide plans with sufficient specificity to allow hiring a contractor. (The middle figure, above, did not include any planning per se for a seventh school.) George Burnell made the point that, if the actual construction of the elementary schools were to be staged over the next ten or fifteen years, it maybe made more sense to pick the schools most likely to need renovation, and concentrate on their plans. This might reduce initial planning costs and also the cost of redoing plans outdated by the passage of years. 6) Plans could be ready in August, 2001. 7) Estimated Cost of Completing the Elementary School Renovations: John provided the following estimates: six schools----$50-to-$60 million seventh school-$11 million 8) Comments about Specific Elementary Schools: a) Fiske: The estimated costs for the reconstruction of Fiske are about 80% of the costs of rebuilding, so rebuilding is an option. John said this was the most problematical school next to Bowman. b) Bowman: The School Committee is considering a capital expenditure of about $400,000 at Bowman. This will be non-reimbursable. It breaks down as follows: $375,000 for carpet/tile replacement and $25,000-to-30,000 for exterior paint of fascia that has a lead paint problem. (The carpet is old and moldy. It's glued to asbestos floor tiles.) Also planned are expenditures of about $25,000 for roof maintenance. John believes that, if these improvements are made, Bowman will no longer be the most problematical school. c) Bridge: HVAC work not quite done. The recently notorious leaks resulted from things like incomplete flashing and a problem with an exhaust vent. The collateral damage from these leaks amounted to less than $5000. John says he is applying all the pressure he can to get the contractor to finish the job. John has a lot of financial leverage, but contractors, in general, are swamped with work. d) Other Elementary Schools: Carpets are not so much a problem. The roofs, eight-to-nine years old, are in reasonably good shape. 9) Lexington High: The project cost will be about $29 million with about $24 million of that for actual construction. 10) Administration Building: An estimate from 1997 was that it would take on the order of $750,000 to bring it up to code. Some of the people at the meeting expressed reservations about spending any money for renovation of that building. 11) Scenario 1 from the Town Manager's Small-Ticket Capital Memo: For the schools for 2001, Scenario 1 showed the following: Completing the Elementary School Renovation Planning-$1,000,000 Technology Program------------------------------------$ 800,000 Portable Classrooms-----------------------------------$ 300,000 John said that, currently, there is no known need for the portable classrooms, so it may be possible to finance most of the Bowman renovations within the $2.1 million dollars shown in Scenario 1. 12) Five-Year Plan: Capital Expenditures members pressed John and Robin for a five-year plan. John said he worried that plans get cast in concrete, leaving little flexibility for modification as needs change. Members of the Committee made the point that they expect long-range plans for near years to be reasonably accurate; for far years less accurate. 13) John committed to having a five-year plan by January, but hopes it won't be used unreasonably to limit future school options. 14) Fifteen-Year Comments: In response to questions from Narain, John said $60 million of elementary school renovation/construction MIGHT break down something like this: $12 million in the first five years $25-to-30 million in the second five years $18-to-23 million (balance) in the third five years 15) The Committee discussed the status of previous projects with John and Robin. 16) Tom is willing to be the Committee's liaison to the school task force discussed in Item 3, above. 17) Narain is willing to be the Committee's liaison with the Town Building Utilization Committee. He may request help from other members if this takes up too much of his time. 18) George Burnell described his background to Committee members and discussed what role the Committee saw itself playing in Town affairs. Among other things, George is a former Chairman of the Appropriation Committee. 19) The Committee discussed who will be present at future meetings and decided to have a meeting on December 7th. [Note: A schedule of future meetings is attached.] 20) The meeting ended at approximately 9:20pm. Minutes by Tom Griffiths Capital Expenditures Committee Future Meeting Dates 02-November-1999 7:30pm, Rm 105 Meetings with Rick White and Carol Mahoney from the library. 08-November-1999, Board of Selectmen's Meeting (of interest) This Selectmen's Meeting will hear and discuss Town department capital spending requests. 09-November-1999 7:30pm, Legion Room (Cary Hall) Meeting with DPW representatives. 16-November-1999 7:30pm, Rm 105 We will join a Recreation Committee Meeting and then convene, ourselves, to discuss Senior Center relocation plans with Jackie Davison. 30-November-1999 4:30pm 2nd summit meeting on the budget between the Selectmen, School Committee, and finance committees. 07-December-1999 7:30pm, Rm will be announced Discussions with the Conservation Commission, and with the Police and Fire departments. 10-Feb-2000 Pre-budget meeting with the Appropriation Committee. 09-Mar-2000 Post-budget meeting with the Appropriation Committee.