ORDER-2022-64 : Authorization to Appropriate $75,000 to Fund Feasibility Study and Schematic Design for Roof Replacement Projects at the Hoover and Horace Mann Schools -Fund #3383. (Item #9580)

Transcript (~13 min @ 14:22)

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▶ 14:23 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. We love a field trip. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Our next item on the agenda tonight is order 2022 dash 64 authorization to appropriate 75,000 dollars to fund feasibility study. And schematic design for roof replacement projects at the Hoover and forest man schools. Fund number 3, 3, 8, 3 item number 9580. And I believe we have Denise from the office of planning and community development joining us.

▶ 14:51 Speaker 1: We do. Ms. Gaffey, I'm going to unmute Ms. Gaffey because it's not giving me a panelist option. Denise, can you hear us? I can hear you. Yeah.

▶ 15:04 Jen Grigoraitis: We unfortunately cannot see you, just hear you. But you can hear me. Correct. Okay. That's odd.

▶ 15:14 Speaker 7: That's unfortunate. Should I proceed? Yes, please go right ahead. All righty. Great. Well,

▶ 15:19 Denise Gaffey: Thank you. I'm pleased to be here this evening to speak about this order. This order is to authorize funding for a feasibility study for both the Hoover School and the Horace Mann School roof repairs or roof replacements, I should say. And this order will be familiar to most of you on the Council. um i was before you excuse me last may at that time we indicated we would be expressing a statement of interest to the massachusetts school building

▶ 15:53 Speaker 8: authority for this grant program and um

▶ 15:56 Denise Gaffey: that's the first step in the process is to submit a statement of interest and um and at that time we reported if we were successful and being invited into this program we would be back in front of the council so um we were fortunate to be invited into the program this was a very this is a very competitive process um but um are the the roofs on both of these schools um would appear to meet the criteria which at this point is that they're at least 29 years old we believe they are older than that so we're not concerned about meeting the criteria um but at this stage the way the msba works they will invite us in to do the engineering and design work um sufficient in order to identify what the scope is going to be and then um then we will go back we'll have an estimate for the total cost to do the projects into in these two schools and then we will be back in front of the council once again for the full authorization for for the work so at this point um this is this process is completely prescribed by the msba through their accelerated repair program so this language in front of you is actually the language that um that they require um and um of course the benefit of this program which we've used for other projects in the past including the hoover window replacement and also the science lab project among others at the high school this MSBA reimburses about approximately 50% of the cost of this project so we know these roofs really desperately do need to be replaced they have been a source of concern for the school department for the facilities department for for many many years so we welcome this opportunity in order to take advantage of this grant funding and do this work so I'm happy to answer any questions

▶ 18:10 Jen Grigoraitis: folks might have humans gaffey councillor Williams has a question hi

▶ 18:15 Ryan Williams: thanks for bringing this order up it's the first time I'm reading it I'm I'm curious about the timing of signs and input into the roof and whether there's been any discussion of facility features, not just talking about solar panels here, but in-roof features and the like. And if you could tell me what the timeline of opportunity might be to introduce those ideas into this discussion.

▶ 18:38 Denise Gaffey: Certainly, yes. So we are at the very early stages. We haven't done any design work whatsoever. So, during this initial phase, once we have an engineer and a project manager on board, that is when we would start looking at identifying exactly what the scope of the work is going to be. And we would, we would talk at that stage about sustainability measures and, you know, the appropriate levels of installation and the types of materials to use. I mean, I think we all share the same goal here and trying to be as sustainable as we can. So, um, that is certainly something we are going to pursue.

▶ 19:29 Robb Stewart: Thank you Councilor Williams, Councilor Stewart. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Ms. Gaffey for being here this evening. In reviewing the letter that was sent out by Mr. McCarthy. It states that the City must approve funding by January 28, 2022. And it is now January 31st. Is there a cause for concern about that?

▶ 19:48 Denise Gaffey: Yes, we missed the deadline and that was apparent to me back in December when I was preparing to submit this order. I think the January meeting schedule was not, how should I say, not a typical January meeting schedule. So it became It became difficult to meet that deadline based on the way the schedule was set up with the election and a few other things. So, I reached out to the MSBA and asked for an extension and they granted it. I have a letter that that verifies that. So they're comfortable with that.

▶ 20:31 Robb Stewart: Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. And what is the extension deadline to?

▶ 20:37 Speaker 7: They had asked to they agreed to an additional 14 days. Which I think if this is voted on by the meeting. The upcoming meeting will be more than adequate.

▶ 20:52 Robb Stewart: Okay, and then in looking at this. When they say randomly assigned consultants. That that gave me pause. consideration can you talk a little bit about what that process is i don't know if you've been through this process before but to me without having you know some way of you having an input uh and comfort in the consultants that they assign uh you know we want this to obviously be

▶ 21:24 Denise Gaffey: uh thought through so could you speak to that yeah i can i can absolutely explain that that does I know um it so the reason one of the reasons they call this an accelerated repair program is they are trying to they recognize that these these need these capital needs are critical by the time we get an application and so it gets approved by them these are critical repairs that are needed so they try to take some of the some of the work out of it by pre-selecting design engineers and And project managers, so, instead of my going through a designer selection process. Which would add another 6 weeks to 2 months to the project. At the front end, once they, once they, once we submit. So, this language authorization, they'll go ahead and assign us an engineer through. So they've already pre selected qualified engineers. they have pre-selected qualified project managers through their own procurement process and then they assign them out to the different municipalities the different projects so my experience with this has been um been excellent they they typically or they they've always um identified and qualified very

▶ 22:46 Speaker 8: very qualified uh consultants through this process

▶ 22:48 Robb Stewart: thank you and my last my my last question is regarding uh the submission to uh the council where it stated that um this this uh request for the appropriation of seventy five thousand dollars uh is for a grant that we may be eligible for but is is that a guarantee or is that something That is, we may have to eat that 75,000 dollars.

▶ 23:18 Denise Gaffey: So, this again, as I said before is, um. This is required language of the, um, I'm. Uh, they, they require all of their grant recipients. For all the recipients who are invited into this process. Um, to, um, sign on to that language. And what they are saying is they haven't, they have not guaranteed us a grant until after they approve. The scope of work that's developed during this feasibility phase. The only thing that would jeopardize our ability to get a grant would be as if. If the consultants we hire. We're to say, we're to say that our roof, the roofs in these 2 buildings were not. Oh, twenty nine years or older and our, our view based on the records that we have is that that's not a concern. And so we don't think that's going to happen and I think. Even if it were to happen, which I don't again, I'll repeat. I don't think it's going to happen. I mean, the money wouldn't exactly be wasted. We would still be developing design plans for roof projects that need to happen.

▶ 24:32 Robb Stewart: Okay, okay. Thank you. Ms. Kathy. Thank you. Thank you. Counselor Stuart counselor.

▶ 24:39 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Madam chair. Thank you. Uh, Miss Kathy being here. Uh, just 1 question, uh, counselor Stewart and, um, brought that up the date, uh, the January 28 date. Um, my question is, what's the process, um, that we take from from the time we're notified on, um. On grants or being accepted into this program, what's the process in order to that your department takes in order to send that down to the council? It looks like we were notified October 27th.

▶ 25:12 Denise Gaffey: On this, yeah, I mean, we weren't. We weren't actually planning to send the order down right away just because we were dealing with some other. Other work, just basically from a workload standpoint and. Other constraints that we have mean, if you read the original letter, it does talk about a February 25th deadline. For all the prerequisites, so that was really the deadline that we were targeting. So, I, I feel like we have plenty of time to meet that that deadline.

▶ 25:52 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions from his gaffy?

▶ 25:58 Speaker 5: Seeing none, what is the will of the committee motion? I recommend for passage.

▶ 26:08 Jen Grigoraitis: second you have a motion to recommend for passage made by councillor Eccles seconded by councillor Jamala Dean is there any discussion seeing none madam

▶ 26:20 Speaker 1: clerk can you please call the roll sure before I do that I just want to capture council Williams vote on 2022-61 I overlooked him sure thank you

▶ 26:35 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor

▶ 26:45 Speaker 1: Garipay. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Karim Chady.

▶ 27:01 Speaker 1: Yes. Councilor Obremski. Councilor Williams. Yes. President Cinella. Yes. Chair Yes.

▶ 27:05 Speaker 5: Unanimous.

▶ 27:07 Jen Grigoraitis: 11 yes, so the motion carries. This will be recommended to the full council. I believe, Ms. Gaffey, you're sticking around for our next order. I am.

▶ 27:16 Speaker 8: Thank you very much. And yes, that's correct. You're welcome.