APPRO-2024-22 : An Appropriation from Free Cash (account # 01-324001) in the amount of $400,000 (Four Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Public Works Accounts (#402) as set forth herein and for Replacement of Melrose High School Skylights and Partial Roof Replacement at Franklin School

Transcript (~10 min @ 23:30)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 23:29 Maya Jamaleddine: And thank you Mrs. Uh, gold. And now we have appropriation 2024 dash 22. Um, and appropriation from free Cash account number zero one, uh, 324 0 0 1 in the amount of, uh, 400, uh, thousand, uh, four, $400,000 to Public Works account number, uh, 4 0 2 set forth and for replacement of Maryrose High School skylights and partial roof replacement at Franklin Street, at Franklin School. I'm sorry. Um, we have a director, uh, Ellis, and we don't have Mr. Troop with us.

▶ 24:10 Speaker 9: No, he's not gonna be here tonight. Yeah.

▶ 24:14 Speaker 10: Um, so this project is, um, it's two critical projects right now that, uh, one at the high school where the skylights have been, we had one that actively fell in recently. Um, and the other is over room 26 at the Franklin School. There's a small roof section that requires replacement because that room has been compromised year after year from roof leaks.

▶ 24:40 Speaker 10: Um, we had requested free cash, I think it was, it was either last year or the year before for two different, um, projects. One was the evaluation of the roofs at the high school, the Franklin and the Ripley, uh, along with some design work. And then the other was to supplement work at the high school roof. So the design work was 150,000 and the supplemental money for the high school roof was an extra a hundred thousand. Our plan initially was to combine that money with 415,000 of leftover money from an old high school roof bond that's still been sitting unspent.

▶ 25:16 Speaker 9: Um, and originally we were gonna try

▶ 25:18 Speaker 10: to tackle the learning commons roof and a portion of the, the portion of the Franklin roof. Uh, once we got into design, the architects identified for us that the skylights were in much more dire need than the learning commons roof. They also told us the learning commons roof was gonna be a $3 million project, which there was no way we could fund. Um, so we turned our attention to the skylights. So we were actually in the midst of the design phase of the skylights when that one skylight fell in.

▶ 25:47 Speaker 9: So fortunately, we are well on our way

▶ 25:48 Speaker 10: to having the project designed and bid. Currently it's out to bid, it's a combination of the full skylight replacement. There's five different skylight units at the high school. So it's replacement of all of those window systems. And then it's replacement of the small roof at the Franklin. And then our long-term plan is that the, um, the remainder of the Franklin roof and the learning commons roof will be future MSBA accelerated repair projects where the state covers half the cost and we have to cover the other half of the cost. But the, since those are two very big ticket items, um, that's our plan for the long term. So what we're proposing now is to take the 415,000 from the old bond, the 250,000. We've already spent a good chunk of it on the design, but we have a little bit left over. And then an additional 400,000 will complete the whole package to be able to construct both the Franklin and the, the small roof of the Franklin and the skylight replacement.

▶ 26:48 Speaker 5: Thank you questions, councilor?

▶ 26:51 Cal Finocchiaro: Um, just to clarify, and I don't know if other people know the skylights are in the main hallway of the high school. Okay.

▶ 26:57 Speaker 10: There are skylights right in the entryway too. Okay. And then it, it's five different sections.

▶ 27:05 Speaker 9: So the ones, I think the ones that, the one

▶ 27:06 Speaker 10: that fell in is over the main hallway. But I think when you're up on the third floor there, there's a whole Yeah. Stretch of them. So it includes every skylight in the school would, will be replaced. Okay.

▶ 27:16 Cal Finocchiaro: And this does not include the, what's the, what's going on in the gymnasium? That's a completely,

▶ 27:21 Speaker 10: No, that's separate and that actually we, um, we're in the process of designing that as well.

▶ 27:25 Speaker 11: Okay,

▶ 27:28 Maya Jamaleddine: Great. Um, councilor Gpe.

▶ 27:31 Mark Garipay: Thank you Madam Chair. Um, couple questions.

▶ 27:36 Mark Garipay: When you said we had someone do an inspection of the, um, skylights, how long ago was that?

▶ 27:42 Speaker 12: Uh, let's see.

▶ 27:54 Speaker 10: I just had it up here. I just had the report up a minute

▶ 27:56 Speaker 12: Ago.

▶ 28:00 Speaker 10: Well, we got the report in the fall sometime

▶ 28:03 Speaker 11: Last fall. This

▶ 28:05 Speaker 10: past fall? Yeah, probably, um,

▶ 28:09 Speaker 9: probably November timeframe when they completed the report.

▶ 28:12 Speaker 10: And then we went into the design phase. So they've been working on the, the final design for,

▶ 28:16 Speaker 11: um, several months

▶ 28:20 Mark Garipay: And prior. The reason why I'm asking, I mean, we were very lucky. Mm-Hmm. This happened probably 15 minutes before the final bell. Mm-Hmm. How often were those inspected prior by the facilities department? Is there, is there an ongoing, um, There Inspection of, of the roof of the skylights?

▶ 28:41 Speaker 10: There hasn't. There's, we're up on the roofs of all the buildings all the time just because of the age and the leaks. Um, in terms of specifically inspecting the skylights, we would look at them whenever they were leaking,

▶ 28:51 Speaker 9: but not, you know, there wasn't like a routine inspection.

▶ 28:55 Speaker 10: I was told though by our facilities manager that it wasn't, that the type of glass that they are is not, you know,

▶ 29:03 Speaker 10: when it falls, it doesn't shatter in a dangerous manner. I guess the principle is supposedly like picking it up with his hands. I don't know if it's a plexiglass that shatters into pieces that don't have like shards, but, um, you know, we were certainly lucky that nobody was standing under it, but I don't think it would've necessarily been as dramatic

▶ 29:21 Speaker 9: as what I pictured when I heard about,

▶ 29:23 Speaker 11: you know, glass shattering.

▶ 29:26 Speaker 10: Um, that's what I was told secondhand. And

▶ 29:28 Jen Grigoraitis: I, I think to your point, councilor Repe, that's why we wanted to fund replacement of all of them, not just the one that could have been really bad. Clearly there, there's a problem there. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 29:37 Speaker 4: And just, um, who's gonna manage it?

▶ 29:40 Mark Garipay: It says it's gonna be managed internally. Will this be completed before school starts?

▶ 29:46 Speaker 10: Yes. So we have, uh, Gail Architects, they're on board as the design engineer and also as the, um, they'll be the construction inspector, um, supplemented by our own, uh, staff who will also be overseeing the project.

▶ 30:01 Speaker 9: And sub bids will be open, I think next week.

▶ 30:06 Speaker 10: And then general contractor bids will be open a couple weeks later.

▶ 30:10 Speaker 9: And so we should have a contractor on board very soon.

▶ 30:12 Speaker 10: And we've been told that, that the lead times should be doable for completion this summer.

▶ 30:16 Mark Garipay: Will we make sure this penalties in the contract? If not, 'cause this could really cause cause

▶ 30:22 Speaker 10: We, we will have, we do have liquidated damages and that's standard in all our contracts. But I will say that if it is literally impossible to get the materials in time, it's hard to penalize the contractor for that if they get behind schedule because they don't order them in time or they don't construct them in time. That's a bit of a different situation, but I don't know that we'd penalize for lead times.

▶ 30:42 Mark Garipay: And when you talked about the previous bond on the unspent bond, how old is that bond?

▶ 30:49 Speaker 9: It predates me from eight years ago,

▶ 30:53 Speaker 10: but, um, I believe it was from when the learning commons was built and it was high school. It was specifically high school money.

▶ 31:00 Speaker 4: So it had to be used in the high school. Yeah.

▶ 31:03 Speaker 9: That's why we were originally looking at learning Commons roof.

▶ 31:06 Speaker 10: We were trying to tie it that closely, but where the skylights were a higher priority

▶ 31:10 Speaker 9: and the learning commons roof was so much more expensive.

▶ 31:11 Speaker 10: Uh, Catherine Armada said it was acceptable within whatever the language was of the original bond

▶ 31:17 Speaker 11: order for to spend it on this.

▶ 31:19 Mark Garipay: Do we have any other bonds out there that unspent?

▶ 31:22 Speaker 10: Not that I know of. No, not that I know of. I wish we did.

▶ 31:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean, it was a good fine.

▶ 31:27 Speaker 10: Yeah. I actually asked that question just recently. 'cause when I, when we first started talking about this

▶ 31:33 Speaker 10: money, probably three years ago, there were a couple of other very small bonds that hadn't been spent. But I believe those have all been spent on school projects since then.

▶ 31:39 Speaker 4: Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

▶ 31:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Sorry. Anyone else? I also look for Kiara.

▶ 31:47 Cal Finocchiaro: Sorry, I I was start talking before you tell me two. Um, so this will not cover the Learning Commons roof.

▶ 31:54 Speaker 10: The learning Commons roof is the $3 million project.

▶ 31:58 Speaker 9: So that one will have to be okay.

▶ 31:59 Speaker 10: MSBA accelerator repair where the state pays for half of it, unless we wanna find 3 million for that. But I think it's, it's best suited to that MSBA program.

▶ 32:08 Cal Finocchiaro: It's leaking. Is it? There's no, like, it's not caving in or anything like that. There's

▶ 32:12 Speaker 10: No, it's not caving in or anything, but next time you're in the Learning Commons, if you look up at the, at the drop ceiling, there's a lot of stained tiles and it's, you know, it's sad to see that in a built in a room that's so new. Yeah.

▶ 32:24 Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you.

▶ 32:29 Maya Jamaleddine: And any other questions? Comment?

▶ 32:34 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. What is the will of the committee?

▶ 32:37 Speaker 7: Madam Chair? I'll make a motion to Recommend to the full council.

▶ 32:40 Speaker 5: Second, we have, uh, a motion

▶ 32:42 Maya Jamaleddine: to recommend made by Councilor Stewart. Second by Councillor Repe. Mr. Clerk

▶ 32:49 Speaker 4: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Brosky? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Mag? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. And Ms. va.