REQ-2023-1 : An Order on the Status of the Replacement of Turf on the Fred Green Field

Transcript (~14 min @ 24:11)

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▶ 23:55 Robb Stewart: Aye. Opposed? Aye. Okay. So this will go to the full council, uh, which I believe will be next Monday the 12th. Uh, you do not need to be there. Uh, we'll be voting on it at the full council. Great. Thank you Mr. Chairman Committee. And, uh, shall we talk more turf? That's up. Thank you very much. So we have, uh, one, request, request 2023 dash one an order on the status of the replacement of turf on the Fred Greenfield. Uh, this was sponsored by Cons Gue, president of Grigoraitis and Councilor Osky. Council Gue.

▶ 24:32 Mark Garipay: Thank you Mr. Chair. Uh, we filed this order, uh, because, um, we just wanted the status on, on the replacement of the turf at the Fred Greenfield back on May 5th, 2022. We approved $600,000 of free cash. And, um, just wanna know if, if it's gonna be completed for the school year, um, starting, uh, in September. Um, there's a lot of expenses that, uh, if this isn't completed, there's a lot of expenses that could be incurred by the athletic department with buses and, um, uh, way games. Uh, also we've, um, I believe have held off on all camps for the summer in order to get this done. So, uh, we kind of just wanted the status on, on where we are on this, where it's been out there for about a year.

▶ 25:19 Robb Stewart: Thank you, counsel. Gabriel, we, uh, rules are still suspended. Uh, if Ms. Be you wish to come forward and speak.

▶ 25:37 Speaker 5: Are we All right. So, an update on Fred Green.

▶ 25:42 Speaker 5: So we, we are,

▶ 25:47 Speaker 5: um, about to go out to bid on May 22nd. The bids are due back on June 21st. The, um, the, um, materials have been ordered. So we're all set with that. Um, I spoke to Field Turf today. They see still no issue with the materials coming in on time. Um, there's been a process that we've been working through to get to this point. Um, in November, we reached out to Weston and Sampson, um, to get a scope of work with the fees. We had a kickoff meeting in January to do the project scope, the schedule and permitting. Um, we went over the scope of work with conservation in February and any questions, um, that Eric, we spoke with Eric Devlin, the cons conservation agent. Um, any questions that he thought that they might have, we incorporated into the application to them. So all those questions were answered. Um, we, um, the materials were, like I said, um, field testing, the soil testing in the, um, 75% progress review was done in April. So that's kind of where we are. Mm-hmm. If you guys want, if you have anything you want to add,

▶ 27:09 Speaker 3: This is Amanda from Austin, Samson, Arkansas. Hello

▶ 27:11 Speaker 5: Everyone. Um, so the, we're gonna be submitting the permit, the permittings on, uh, May 22nd, and then the actual hearing is on June 15th. A few things can come out of that. So if approved, they could either issue the order of conditions that night and then there will be a 10 day, um, business day Grace period for a butters to appeal. Or they have a 20, if they approve it, they have a 21 day, um, period to issue it. And then an additional 10 on top of that. So once it's issued, we can award the contract we are anticipating because all of the material materials are here, um, a very short construction period of between four to six weeks. Um, so if we can get the contract awarded, depending on that timeframe of, uh, getting bids in, and then how long it takes the city to award the contract, um, we should be able to begin construction in late July and, and hopefully mid to late July. And then, um, have it done for September.

▶ 28:22 Robb Stewart: That's update. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the committee?

▶ 28:29 Speaker 2: Wanna go first? No. Council Gar. Thank

▶ 28:33 Mark Garipay: You. Um, mid to late July does not.

▶ 28:34 Speaker 5: No. And I don't think we're anticipating, I think we're anticipating of the, um, conservation being on board with us, so that Yeah, that was worst Case scenario. Yeah.

▶ 28:45 Speaker 3: Sorry. Sorry. That was the worst case scenario. That's if, if the Conservation Commission takes the full 21 days and then the 10 day appeal period. But we don't anticipate that.

▶ 28:55 Mark Garipay: How I'm just, how come this wasn't sent out to bid earlier? We've had a year and now it seems like we're scrambling to get this completed before the start of school. Why wouldn't this have been sent out early? Why wouldn't the bid have been sent out a few months back? Why wouldn't we have already, um, received a bid and gone through the Conservation Commission at that time?

▶ 29:21 Speaker 5: I, I think that honestly, we knew that the, the bill period was gonna be the summer. So we knew that that's the dates that we were shooting for. I had a couple completions on some other projects. I don't think there's, I think that we're right where we should be. I mean, we're, if everything, if the submissions go in conservation approves, which we've had the conversation with them, it's a replacement. We're not doing anything differently. We're not changing grades. We're not, um, that we will have, we're shooting for a July 1st. Mm-hmm. And then it's a full week. So we will be right where we're supposed to be.

▶ 30:01 Mark Garipay: And when we say the, say it's six weeks field installed, lined everything, so all the sports are ready to go on that.

▶ 30:09 Speaker 5: All the lines are embedded into it. Okay. So it comes, it comes that way. And depending upon which company we get, field Turf is a company that we have used that put in the, the initial field right now, and it's a four week turnaround. Winchester just did theirs. It was a four week turnaround. So that's kind of the, the window that we're shooting for.

▶ 30:29 Mark Garipay: If we don't, if field turf is not the bidder who's awarded the contract, is there any possibility that it will not be six weeks or, I mean that's what I'm, that's, I'm just worried I'm,

▶ 30:43 Speaker 5: I I think that's the norm. The normal is a four week turnaround, no matter who's doing it.

▶ 30:49 Speaker 3: I think we've also found there are only a couple, only a couple companies who specialize in this. It tends to be the same handful of bidders. Mm-hmm. Um, for the installation of these. So, you know, the, there's very little risk in some, you know, fly by night company coming in who doesn't know what they're doing. It's a very specialized application. So,

▶ 31:12 Speaker 5: Um, we're also gonna be specifying that they need to have installed x like 10 amount, 10 previous 10 to 15 previous synthetic turf fields. Um, and there's a whole list of criteria that they need to meet in order to even, uh, be able to install it. And if they don't meet that criteria, then they need to, um, provide a subcontractor that does meet that criteria

▶ 31:35 Mark Garipay: In the bid. Then let goes, oh, can we put some sort of, uh, language in there that, uh, if they're not within the four to six weeks, that there is some penalties because yes, we're as a community going to incur penalties with additional transportation. Uh, they're gonna have to reschedule, uh, games. And that's,

▶ 31:52 Speaker 5: That's it's standards standard in the contract.

▶ 31:54 Speaker 4: Okay. All right.

▶ 31:55 Speaker 5: I think it's the same as Boston, right? I think we're looking at $500 a day that, yeah.

▶ 32:04 Mark Garipay: President. Oh, do you have more Questions? So we feel comfortable midap April when, when the kids are back, that they'll be playing on that field August.

▶ 32:12 Speaker 5: I do. Thank you.

▶ 32:14 Speaker 2: President Gregory Reds,

▶ 32:16 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you for being here. Um, just a few follow up questions from some of what you offered. I know, um, that you mentioned that there's very few companies that do this work, given that, are we concerned about their capacity to take us on? Just to kind of echo Counselor Gee's comments that since we haven't gone out to bid, there's only so many vendors, there's only so many weeks in July. Um, do we have assurances that there's actually gonna, these companies have the capacity on their schedule to meet what feels like a really, um, tight timeline?

▶ 32:47 Speaker 3: We, we know that at least one company does. And so, you know, any responsible bidder, if they can't show that they can meet the requirements, we don't have to accept their bid. Um, so we anticipate getting at least one bidder who we know can meet that schedule. And then hopefully we'll get more so that the pricing is competitive.

▶ 33:07 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. And then, um, in terms of being able it to be a four week turnaround, is that in any way impacted by weather? If we have significant rain like we had last week, for example?

▶ 33:18 Speaker 5: I, I wouldn't think so. No.

▶ 33:20 Jen Grigoraitis: No. Okay. And then, um, obviously in July and August, many of the high school teams have, I think they're Captain's par. I don't know what the right terminology is, but those, I know those fields are in use that are, isn't just the recreation department, are all of those,

▶ 33:34 Speaker 5: I've already come up with Plan B for all the day camps that we have done at Fred Greenfield during the summer. Um, the nighttime schedules have not been accommodated. Um, I've accommodated up until July 1st, which is my anticipation that it'll go offline. Okay. Um, and it's mostly adult leagues. It's not so much the kids that are out there at night. Um, the high school, um, there's, there's a, there's a few that have games out there that were, were making accommodations across the street, which we normally wouldn't put people on grass fields during the summer, but because of this, we would. But for the most part, all day camps, anything that we have running down there, um, eight to eight to three has been accommodated.

▶ 34:16 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. And what about, I know there's, um, like, or like 5 30, 6 o'clock in the morning, some of the like soccer team practice? Yeah.

▶ 34:22 Speaker 5: We can put, there's lots of places for them to go. Yeah. Okay. Between Pine banks, east? No. West? No.

▶ 34:28 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you.

▶ 34:31 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Any other questions from the committee?

▶ 34:35 Robb Stewart: I have, uh, a couple questions myself actually. Um, you had mentioned a hearing, the public hearing on June 15th. Uh, will that be posted and published in local newspapers and so forth?

▶ 34:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's, that will be a regular hearing of the Conservation Commission. So it would follow all the normal posting and abutters notices and everything.

▶ 34:56 Robb Stewart: Okay, great. Great. And, uh, I wanna honor one of the questions that, uh, cons made. Uh, when this first came to us, it was regarding the, uh, recycling of the old turf. Uh, can you talk a little bit about what the plans are for that?

▶ 35:10 Speaker 3: So, uh, we had discussion about early on, about the infill and about the carpet. So fortunately, and I don't remember where we were in the process at the time, the last time we were here, but fortunately, all of our testing has revealed that the infill material, it still drains properly and it's still in good condition. So we'll be reusing the infill. So there's no need for recycling. I know know, at one point we were talking about, you know, if we were to specify that that had to be recycled, it was gonna add, i I wanna say it was $60,000 or something to the, to the price because it had to be transported to somewhere out west where they actually recycle it. Um, so that's now off the table because we're reusing the crumb rubber that's there in terms of the carpet. Um, we did deem that that was too significant of a cost increase to require the recycling of the carpet. So we don't have anything specific in the specification other than they have to dispose of it properly. I dunno if you have anything to add? No,

▶ 36:15 Speaker 5: That's, yeah, that's pretty much

▶ 36:16 Speaker 3: It. Yeah. So, you know, we didn't find a, a good market or good use for the, um, recycling of the carpet, so that's not part of the project.

▶ 36:25 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Ms. Progra. Um, one following question on that, if the infield is gonna be reused, does that lower the cost?

▶ 36:33 Speaker 7: Yes.

▶ 36:34 Speaker 4: By how much? It's,

▶ 36:35 Speaker 5: We got a credit.

▶ 36:36 Speaker 3: Yeah. It's not as significant as you would expect it was 50,000 if that. 30 I think 30. Yeah. So

▶ 36:43 Speaker 5: We got a 30,000, like a $30,000 credit.

▶ 36:46 Speaker 4: Okay.

▶ 36:47 Speaker 5: So what we're gonna do is that material that's, uh, gonna be, you know, taken offsite, put aside, put back in, they do all the testings, um, to make sure that they meet the concussion protocol, all that stuff. And then they'll refill it up to where it needs to be.

▶ 37:00 Robb Stewart: Great. Great. And, and what happens to that 30 k?

▶ 37:05 Speaker 5: It's within the budget.

▶ 37:08 Speaker 4: Okay. Okay. Great. I guess

▶ 37:09 Speaker 3: If we have extra though, what's what?

▶ 37:12 Speaker 5: It's, it'll be fencing. Fencing, yeah.

▶ 37:14 Robb Stewart: Super. Any other questions?

▶ 37:20 Speaker 2: What is the Royal committee motion to place on file? Second.

▶ 37:22 Robb Stewart: We have a motion to place on file by counsel Gar, seconded by Vice chair son on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. This is placed on file. Thank you very much all for, uh, coming here. That concludes our agenda. What is the will of the committee?