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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-02-CEC-minMinutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting October 2, 2015 Location and Time: Town Office Building, Reed Room, 7:30 A.M. Members Present: Jill Hai, Chair; David Kanter, Vice -Chair & Clerk; Rod Cole; Wendy Manz Member Absent: Elizabeth Barnett Others Present: Jon Himmel, Chair, Permanent Building Committee (PBC); Elaine Ashton, Town Meeting member; Sara Arnold, Secretary Documents Presented: • Notice of Public Meeting for CEC Meeting, October 2, 2015 • DiNisco Design Partnership (DiNisco) slides: PBC Meeting, Multiple Schools Construction Project (MSCP), October 1, 2015 • Draft Minutes of the CEC Open Session, September 1, 2015 (Distributed by Mr. Kanter's e-mail, September 1, 2015 3:38 P.M., to the other CEC Members and Sara Arnold) Call to Order: Ms. Hai called the meeting to order at 7:30 A.M. Updates on any new, public, information from the Board of Selectmen (BoS), the School Committee (SC), or other Town bodies regarding the Multiple School Construction Projects: Ms. Hai reported that Bond Brothers (Bond) has been selected to serve as the construction manager (CM) for the Diamond and Clarke Middle Schools (Diamond; Clarke) expansion /renovation projects that are on a fall Special Town Meeting (STM) warrant. DiNisco will be providing the design drawings within the next two to three weeks to both their estimator and to Bond to produce cost estimates for the projects. The two separate estimates will then be reconciled and presented to the PBC at its next meeting on November 10th. The STM discussion of the school projects is currently scheduled to begin on December 2nd, so that the financial committees will have time to review those reconciled numbers. Both financial committees are invited to attend the PBC meeting to hear the presentation. The environmental initiatives being incorporated into those middle - school projects meet Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standards, but LEED certification will not be pursued. The Sustainable Lexington Committee and the Energy Conservation Committee are each submitting standards to be used and there are several issues which remain to be resolved regarding exactly what the requirements for Energy compliance will be and consequently, what cost will need to be incorporated into the project. There is a Conservation Commission meeting tomorrow (October 3rd) at 10:30 A.M. to review the wetland issues at both middle school sites. The potential issues are more significant at Clarke than at Diamond. If the Commission accepts the current plans for mitigating the wetland impacts, the projects could move forward in a timely manner. It was noted that the plans for Diamond now include an option for incorporating the Intensive Learning Program (ILP) facilities. The costs for such an addition, which were not Page 1 of 3 Minutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting October 2, 2015 incorporated in the summer Summit numbers, have been reduced significantly from the first estimates due to reduced square footage, on two floors rather than one. The SC has endorsed the inclusion of the ILP addition with a 4 -1 vote, but the BoS has not yet taken a position. There was discussion about the option for the Town to purchase and renovate the Armenian Sisters' Academy on Pelham Road in Lexington. It is planned that renovations of the current building would allow the school to be used for elementary students by the fall of 2017. It appears that the site could accommodate a larger school if needed at a later date. Glenn Parker, Chair of the Lexington Appropriation Committee, and Kate Colburn also on that Committee, have asked to meet with Ms. Hai to discuss an alternative plan —to rebuild the Hastings Elementary School as a 24- classroom building (rather than 30), and the Pelham Road site be used for another, new, 24- classroom facility. While this Committee generally agreed that there are many unknowns related to the Pelham site and the building, some of which cannot be resolved until the Town owns the property and can conduct a thorough investigation, there was not support to further delay the availability of space which would occur with a new building at Pelham. There was general agreement that there needs to be an alternative plan to cover the possibility that the Pelham site is not usable for a new school or that the current building cannot be reasonably renovated, but that continuing to look at "three -to- five - year" solutions, as posited last winter, was still our best plan to accurately build to our needs and the renovated Pelham property, if opened in 2017, addresses that. There was also discussion about plans to move the pre- kindergarten program (Lexington Children's Place) from Harrington Elementary School to rented space on the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School (Minuteman Tech) property. There will be costs associated with bringing that space into compliance with Lexington's educational practices and possible code compliance, and with converting the current space used by the pre - kindergarten program at Harrington into regular classroom space. In discussing the financing of the MSCP, included were the implications of extending the term of the financing (e.g., possibly to 30 years) and about the use of the Capital Stabilization Fund. Pat Goddard, Director, Department of Public Facilities, is developing a document to show deadlines for Town Meeting (TM) approvals to fund additional building capacity based on material provided by consultants; Rob Addelson, Assistant Town Manager for Finance, is analyzing the financial impacts. A spring debt - exclusion referendum is anticipated, though not officially declared by the Board of Selectmen. It was noted that there are many other capital projects (including, but not limited to the Center Streetscape Projects, a new fire headquarters, and a new police station), as well as renovation to the entire High School which are also in the five -year capital plan published by this Committee at the March 2015 Annual TM. Committee's Action Plans for FY 2016: • The CEC report for the anticipated STM's consideration on December 2nd of the next round of funding for the MSCP should be available on Wednesday, November 25th which is the day before Thanksgiving, if the CEC is to accommodate the usual 7 -day availability before any capital article will be deliberated by a TM. It was agreed to have a goal of publishing it on November 24th if the printing facilities are not available on that Wednesday. It was noted that a draft report can be started using the DiNisco Page 2 of 3 Minutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting October 2, 2015 estimates, and then adjusted, accordingly, if the reconciled estimate by the CM is available in time to do so. Otherwise, that could be presented as a spoken report at the STM. • It was agreed that the CEC would meet on October 7, 2015, at 7:30 A.M. Member Concerns and Liaison Reports: Mr. Kanter reported that the Community Preservation Funds needed by the Lexington Housing Assistance Board for renovation of the house on the portion of the Wright Farm property acquired by the Town for community housing have increased from the earlier estimate of $140,000 to $200,000 —a request that the Lexington Community Preservation Committee (CPC) supported —with the understanding that there may be an additional amount requested to address mitigation of a pesticide contamination discovered in the soil around the barn on that property. Mr. Kanter also reported that Marilyn Fenollosa has been re- elected Chair of the CPC. Approval of Minutes: A Motion was made and seconded to approve the Draft Minutes for the Committee's Open Session on September 1, 2015, with corrected typographical errors. Vote: 4 -0 Adjourn: A Motion was made and seconded at 8:46 A.M. to adjourn. Vote: 4 -0 These Minutes were approved by the CEC at its meeting on October 20, 2015. Page 3 of 3