Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2023-09-21
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Robb Stewart ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:15 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Leila Migliorelli Chair Present Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Christopher Cinella Present Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Robb Stewart Late 7:20 PM Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Ryan Williams Absent Jen Grigoraitis President, Ex Oficio Present
INFO-2024-2 Informational An Order on the Status of the Melrose Public Library Renovation Project Place on File City Council City of Melrose Page 1 10/4/2023 4:40 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Leila Migliorelli: Good evening. The time is 7:15 PM on Thursday, September 21st, 2023. This is a meeting of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee, and I am chairwoman Lila Elli. Also, joining me tonight are Vice Chair Jamine and counselors, Ella Eckels, Karm, Chetty, McMaster, Reky, and Reky. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on M M T V. Now, I'll motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comments. This is a portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on the, uh, agenda. On agenda item. Um, we have in front of us tonight. Anyone in person or online? There are no participants online at this moment.
▶ 0:51 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. There's no objection. I'd like to close public comment. Seeing none. We're now closed for public comments. Since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us, I'd like to motion by unanimous consent to suspend rule 37 B before we proceed. Seeing no objection, rule 37 B is now suspended. Um, you just wanna note for the record tonight, we have a full council meeting at 7 45. So, um, we have the option to either adjourn, um, by seven 40 or recess and come back after the meeting. So just wanna give everyone a sense of the time that we have. The first and only order on our agenda tonight is info 2024 dash two, an order on the status of the Melrose Public Library Renovation Project.
▶ 1:35 Leila Migliorelli: Tonight we have Denise Scfe, director of Planning and Community Development, Patrick LaRusso, our C F O, Catherine Armada Treasurer, and Linda Gardner, the library director. And I believe we also have, um, architects, uh, for the, for the project. So, welcome. Please join us at the table. And Mayor Broder is also here. You're, you were hiding. You were hiding behind. I'm leaving, but God, I know you gotta sit up front. Grab some more chairs here. So I'm just gonna, I'm just here to introduce the team on thing for good job for, um, filing this orders. We're excited to, uh, to give you this update. We have a range of professionals that I think are, um, I know, uh, provided some information already, uh,
▶ 2:27 Denise Gaffey: but are very happy to speak to any questions you may have to talk about a little bit more about this project. So experts take it away. Oh, great. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Um, and we, as you can see, we have a full team here. So I think I'll, I thought we'd start with introductions. Mm-hmm. Um, I am Denise Scfe, the Director of Planning and Community Development. And at my far right, your left is Linda Gardner, who is the library director. We have Roy Robley, who is the clerk of the works. He's the gentleman you'll see if you go out on site. He is our eyes and ears. He's there. Um, anytime the gate is open during construction, he's observing the, the work. Um, Patrick Sata, who many of you know from our past experiences, he's, um,
▶ 3:09 Denise Gaffey: he is the owner's project manager for this project. And then we have Catherine Amada, of course, uh, who is the city treasurer and Patrick LaRusso, the auditor. So, um, I, I do wanna thank, um, const Garey for sending me some questions in advance. So I thought I would just try to, um, address those comments, those questions in my, um, my, my remarks as well as I can, and then open it up for, for any questions that the counselors have. Um, to start, I just wanna remind everyone we were here about, um, I think it was around October last year. We were here to, um, to make a presentation, an update on the, um, um, the award or the bidding of the, the project. Um, at that time, we, um, announced that we had opened up bids for the library project.
▶ 3:58 Denise Gaffey: We had received, um, only two bids for the project, and both of those bids were higher than our estimate. If you recall. Um, the lowest of those two was actually $1.8 million higher than our estimate. Um, which obviously was discouraging for us, but it wasn't incredibly surprising given the the market conditions that we were dealing with at the time. So, I don't, I'm, I'm not gonna go all through with that all, all over again, but just suffice to say that the mayor decided, um, that it was beneficial to award the contract. Um, because we, we realized that there was very little we could take out of the project. There was not, there's no additional scope that we could remove. And we felt that there was, um,
▶ 4:38 Denise Gaffey: very little chance that we would get a better number if we bid it again. In fact, it was probably likely we would get a higher number if we bid it again. So, um, um, the mayor chose to award the contract and, um, and start the project. And at that time, um, we, we described how some of the, um, some of the, some of the thoughts we had about addressing the additional, um, the funding gap. Um, we, we mentioned that we had a $500,000 grant from the, through the Green Communities program that was gonna help with that shortfall. That was not originally accounted as one of our revenue sources. In addition, the, um, mayor's office had allocated $500,000 in ARPA funding to, um, towards the additional sustainability measures and mechanical system,
▶ 5:26 Denise Gaffey: the costs related to the mechanical systems for the project. And we mentioned at that time, so that was about a million dollars of the $1.8 million shortfall that we had. So, and at that time, we were going to, um, um, understanding that we weren't sure how much money we would need for, for project contingency. We would just, we would use the project that we were funding, that we were holding for FFF and e furniture fixtures, fixtures and equipment, which would help to allow us to, um, to, um, award the contract. So, um, subsequent to that, I think we also mentioned that we had a lot of ideas about additional funding sources. There was some other grants we were looking at. We had a, a donation,
▶ 6:07 Denise Gaffey: um, from a gentleman and the amount of a hundred thousand dollars that the friends group was intending to, to fundraise, to match. Um, and after that, we actually got two additional, um, grants like that, the total of $50,000. And, and, um, the fund, the, I can, I'm pleased to report today that the, um, the, uh, friends group has actually matched the full $150,000 in donations that, that were offered. So that's a $300,000 right there, which was really, um, which is great news. Um, we have also, um, recently been told by the M B L C, the funding agency that is awarding us the $8 million grant for this project, um, that they are granting us another $843,000. Um, and this is, they're calling this pandemic relief funding because they recognize projects
▶ 6:59 Denise Gaffey: like ours that bid during this really volatile time with the pandemic, um, confronted really high costs, uh, in the construction market. So, so we're really pleased that we, that they recognize that, that we're getting this additional award award and that helps us to essentially fill that funding gap that we had a year ago when we were here. So that's, that's the great news. Um, if you recall in the original budget, we also have a line item for contingency and construction contingency is, is, is needed on any construction project, but, um, on a project that's, uh, involves a really complex site like this, a historic restoration on a tight site, you know, it's, it's even, it's even more important. So we, um, at that time we had, um,
▶ 7:47 Denise Gaffey: in our budget a contingency that was slightly less than 5%. It's about 4.8%, which, um, is not an unhealthy contingency, especially for a project. There, there are projects that involve new construction where you might not even, you come close to using 5% contingency on your project. Um, on a project like this, which is a historic restoration, it has a lot of, um, complexity. You know, we, we knew that would be tight. So that is one thing that we're mindful of that we have, we have kind of a narrow contingency on this project. Um, we have, we have encountered some, um, you know, conditions that we did not anticipate. Um, probably the most significant, um, issue that we've encountered has, is related to asbestos in the soils below the parking lot. And,
▶ 8:38 Denise Gaffey: um, that's kind of an interesting situation. The, there used to be a house, um, on the parking lot that was taken by the city back in the sixties to build the addition to the library. And so when they, when they demolished the house, they actually left all the demolition debris on the site and just buried it, which we did not know. We were unaware of that. We had no reason to think that might be the case. And when the contractors were building the foundation for the new addition, they encountered some of this asbestos. And unfortunately, under today's very strict, um, guidelines with the Department of Environmental Protection, um, that basically meant we had to kind of shut down the situa shut down
▶ 9:22 Denise Gaffey: the construction for a time being to, um, document and apply for a permit in order to, um, remove all of the asbestos. And it ended up being quite a lot of asbestos. I don't have the actual tonnage in my, in at my fingertips at the moment, but, um, it's a, it's a, was a lot of material that we had to remove. We essentially had to remove all the soils. And if you walked by the site during any of this time over the last couple of months, you probably saw this, there was a, there was a period of time when there wasn't a lot of activity and there was a big, um, you know, you know, empty pit on the site and that was the soil being removed. Um, it had to be taken to Ohio. 'cause that's one of the only landfills that where you can, we can, um,
▶ 10:05 Denise Gaffey: store this material. So, um, that began, that ends up being a pretty, um, you know, a costly change order to the project, which we did not anticipate. And, um, it is also contributing to some delays in the project schedule, which, you know, I'm never happy to report that. Um, but I think, um, you know, the, the, the good news on that front is that that is, that issue is now behind us. And if you've been by, or if you've observed the activity in recent weeks, you've seen that there's been a, a lot of activity, um, on the site. So we're really pleased that, um, you know, the, the work is really, um, you know, that act that issue is behind us. There's a lot of activity. We have really excellent subcontractors.
▶ 10:48 Denise Gaffey: We mentioned this a year ago when we were here to talk about the, the, the award of the contractor contract that we had really great subcontractors on this project. And they're, they're now mobilized and really excited to get in there and, and get, and get moving on the projects. So we've seen a lot of progress over the last couple of weeks. Um, and so, um, so there's, so that's the good news. We are definitely like back on track, but at this point, I know one of the questions that was asked is whether we're encountering any delays and when we think we might be, um, when the project might be complete. So I can say affirmatively, we have encountered delays and the project is behind schedule. But, um,
▶ 11:28 Denise Gaffey: so at this point, instead of opening up, um, for, in the new library in the spring, um, it's anticipated that Linda's programs are, her summer program is going to continue at the BB school through the summer, and that we'll be ready to open around the 1st of September next year. Um, in terms of, uh, project budget, we are, we are on budget. We have not, we've spent about 45% of our contingency at this point. Um, we do expect, we haven't received, we haven't sorted through all of the, the costs associated with this, um, um, concealed condition with the asbestos. So once that happens, it is, you know, we'll, we'll have a better sense of our overall cost for that and where our contingency is. But,
▶ 12:15 Denise Gaffey: and it is possible we'll need to increase the contingency beyond the 5%. But, um, you know, the mayor has set aside, um, additional ARPA funds, which is what he mentioned announced a year ago when we were, we were here. And I, I'm quite confident we can just cover any of that additional contingency if it's needed, um, through, through those additional funds. Um, the ff and e but portion of the budget, the furniture fixtures, equipment technology, that is all that number, is all, you know, in place. Those funds are in place. We fully expect to, um, to open this building fully furnished and with technology. Um, and let's see. I think those were the primary, primary, uh, questions that, that we had. In terms of the,
▶ 13:06 Denise Gaffey: the budget and the schedule. Um, at this point we, I think everyone's really excited to see the steel go up. We expect that to happen sometime in the middle of October for the steel to arrive. It's all been fabricated. We, it's been verified, um, but it, we're just, we're just waiting for the right, the site to be ready for it. So the steel will start arriving in October. We are hoping to have a top off ceremony sometime in early December. You'll all be invited. The neighbors will all be invited. They've been extremely patient through this project so far. I have to say that Linda's been terrific about keeping them, um, updated on the progress and, and keeping them informed when we do expect to have noisy activity. So,
▶ 13:48 Mark Garipay: and they're being really, really patient through, through this. Um, I think that was everything I have to say. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Um, just wanna note for the record, Councillor Stewart has joined us. Um, questions from the council. Councillor Repe, Thank you. Thank you for answering a number of my, uh, my questions. But I'm gonna go through, um, it's gonna take me a few minutes. Um, on the budget for asbestos removal, um, what was the actual budget line item for that? Uh, in here it's a c summary and there wasn't a summary in here. So do we, do we know what the actual budget line item was for the asbestos and where are we cost to date on the removal of the asbestos? So
▶ 14:36 Denise Gaffey: I don't recall what the number was for the asbestos. So there, and there's, and when we talk about asbestos, just to be clear, there's two issues. There's the asbestos in the building and then the, as there's the asbestos that was encountered in the soils, we had no, we did not budget for the asbestos that was encountered in the soils. 'cause we had no idea that we would encounter that. Um, but there is a, there is a number in there for asbestos removal in the, in the budget. I'm just not sure what that is. So there must have been a change order for the asbestos in the soil that we received. Exactly, yes. Was There, was there a dollar amount associated with that? Well, we are still, we are still sorting it out. I think it's,
▶ 15:14 Mark Garipay: it's going to be a big number. It's going to be in the, in the five to $600,000 range When it's all complete. But it's when it's all complete. Right. Um, okay. Um, am gonna jump around if you don't mind. 'cause I don't have 'em in any order. On the 5% assumption on the bond on the 10 million ten eight two one four fifty three, is that still the, uh, a good interest rate right now That's Consistent with what we're planning now? Yes. And it's still, you think it would, still will be hopefully the way things are going? Uh, yeah. All right. Yes. Um, how many other change orders have we had in the project? We've processed three change orders so far. Totaling how much? Totaling about 380. 383,000.
▶ 16:08 That's the 45% of our contingency that I mentioned earlier. Okay. Alright. And, um, the original bond number was, uh, gonna be 10 million 8 21 453. Is that still still gonna be the case when this project completes? Yeah, That was, that was reduced by the half a million dollars. I can't hear you, Patrick. 500,000 from opera as well was applied to that. So the city's cost for bonding will not increase as a result of this conversation tonight. I'm sorry, can you repeat that? 'cause I can't hear you. What the city's going to have to bond is not going to be greater than what was already authorized. Okay. Um, so the total of the project was 21 million, 10,000 is what we, we voted on back in October.
▶ 17:10 Denise Gaffey: So that was the authorization two years ago that, that was the original authorization was for, for, um, $21 million. And then a year ago when I was, when we were here to talk about the bids, we mentioned that the low bid was $1.8 million over that. So our budget now is 22,000,008. And we we're supplementing, we're, we're, we're filling the gap, right, with the, the gen, the green community funding, the, sorry, we're filling the gap, the 1.8 million with the $500,000 in green community grant. $500,000 in the, um, a allocation and the $843,000 that we just received from M B L C, the additional pandemic relief fund. So yeah. So our budget has gone up, but, but that was, that was the case a year ago.
▶ 18:03 Mark Garipay: Our budget went up from the original authorization. So we had to do an authorization back two years ago just in order to kickstart the project to do the design work and to get the grant from the M B L C. Okay. I'll have to go back. I, I thought for some reason on that October 13th meeting on that order last year, I thought it was 21 million. Oh No. If you look in the, if you look in the order, you'll see the budget that we provided you. Okay. Um, on, on the F F E, uh, the original budget was 1 million 354 500. Um, we had taken 777,000 out of that to use for construction costs. That left a balance of, uh, 577,500. What do we, are we, is any of this extra money going towards the F F E to get us back up to
▶ 19:02 Denise Gaffey: Yeah, it's All been replenished. It's, I'm Sorry. It's all been replenished With, what was the F F E replenished with? 'cause we got 800, it's The additional pandemic relief funding that we got from the M B L C, the 843,000. Okay. And which was part of the 22 8 is what, which brought it up to Correct. 22. Okay. Okay. Um, have we put the F F E out to bid yet to get an idea on what we're looking At? No. Yeah, we've been working with the architect on, um, on the plan, you know, on selecting the different furniture. Um, sampling, oh, sorry. Sampling the furniture. There's, uh, there was a exercise at the library recently in terms of just, you know, trying them all, trying the different pieces out and,
▶ 19:46 Denise Gaffey: and going through a process to identify the, the appropriate furnishes. But it hasn't been bid yet. We're very comfortable with that bid number. Um, the number that we're holding, I'm sorry, the budget number that we're holding. Okay. Um, do you feel that we have enough contingent to, to the architect or the clerk of the works? I guess, um, do we have enough left in the contingency do you think? When we're only what I would think we're, what, what 25% into this project, construction wise, maybe. Right. Which is why I said I think we're probably gonna need more contingency, which is why it's great that the mayor is holding some additional ARPA funding. And how much ARPA money is the mayor holding? It's,
▶ 20:33 Mark Garipay: It's 1 million, 51,000 and, and some change. Okay. And is that the original opera money? That was, that, that was told to us back in October that they were gonna hold opera money. That was the, the balance. But then when the schools were in front of us for 2.7 million, we were told there was still opera money left. But based on the sheet that we had received, that there was stuff that was encumbered. Are we not encumbering stuff now to, to make that, make that up? If I may, um, through the chair, the mayor, I believe it was probably a year ago, said we were gonna hold that money until we had certainty that this project did not need the funds. And that's exactly what we're doing. So the million dollars is still there and just going through this process and
▶ 21:19 Mark Garipay: hopefully within short period of time confirm that we we're not gonna need any of it or some of it, but that'd be it. Okay. 'cause it was also mentioned that we had Apple money for the schools. We had 800,000 left for the schools in a meeting, um, last March. And I can go back and get the recording, but, um, it was stated there. I just wanna make sure we're not double committing. We've already seen that once in the city, so I wanna make sure we're not double committing money, especially opera money. So I guess my question is, is it possible that we're gonna take stuff that we're encumbering, that we're planning on purchasing and not, may not purchase and use to offset any, any deficit we have in this budget? Or, or, or to balance this budget?
▶ 22:04 Denise Gaffey: I'm not, candidly, I'm not seeing, um, that type of an exposure here. I just, I'm just not seeing it. If I, if I did, I would say so, but I don't see it right now based on everything I see today, I don't see that as being, um, a make or break for the city at all. So you, so where we stand now, you are confident we're not gonna go over the 22,000,008. What, uh, what was the budget now? 'cause I thought it was 21, uh, 10 22 So's. It's more like 22 8, right? It's 22 million, $800,000. Yeah. Right. That's the budget today. That's the 4.8% contingency Included in that. It's included in that. But since we are at 40, since we've spent 45% of that, and we haven't, we haven't re we haven't assessed all of our costs yet for the soil abatement.
▶ 22:52 Mark Garipay: I do feel like we're probably gonna spend more than that contingency, which is why I think we may need to tap into the additional, some of the, some of the additional ARPA funds. My concern with continuing to, I mean, continuing to dip into ARPA money, um, and other revenue sources within, uh, the city budget, uh, to, to balance this project, if it does go over, is we're taking from other departments. Um, that's, if, if you use that opera money that was maybe encumbered or could be used somewhere else, could be used in the schools. So that, that's my concern is that we're, we're on top of this and this doesn't get outta outta control. Yeah. Right. And of course we would love to say we aren't gonna need any additional funding.
▶ 23:40 Denise Gaffey: Um, I don't think anyone, again, we didn't anticipate a, such a costly, um, change order occurring with the abatement, the asbestos in the soil. That's, that's the, that's really what we're talking about here. That's the significant, um, cost that we didn't, couldn't have, couldn't have foreseen. We Don't do test pits. When we, um, like before the construction, when they were, when they were Survey, I think we did do surveys. We did test bits in the area where the drainage infiltration system is planned, which is on the front of the, this area. Mm-hmm. But, um, they weren't, they weren't done back in the area where the, the asbestos was encountered initially. So the library trustees, um, said in that memo on the 14th of, uh, October last year,
▶ 24:30 Mark Garipay: that they're going to, they're going to, um, give an additional 200,000. Right. And that's already committed. They've already signed off on that. I know there was talk in here that they were going to, but have they already committed that 200,000 they Voted on? So I can let Linda to speak to this, but I understand that they voted to commit the funding as needed. Mm-hmm. Yes. So if at the end of a project they are still short, they have committed that 200,000. Okay. Um, I guess to the mayor, would we use the 200,000? Well, I don't even, um, may maybe talking to a, a different mayor at that time. But would, would the goal be to use a different, um, oppa money or go to the trustees for 200,000?
▶ 25:12 Mark Garipay: Alright. That, that, that, that's all the trustee money can be used for. So we would certainly, again, subject to that, the limitation that we would have to go, they're not gonna do that to reduce the bonding that we've contemplated. But the money will help you square up over to the extent there are. I would, I would like to think that we're gonna go to the trustees first before we go and take, um, proper money or some money from somewhere else that could, could go to another department for capital, capital expenditures. I can't imagine why we wouldn't since that. That's the only thing that trustees money. Okay. Um, and all the donations we have right now, we're currently, um, we got an extra, I think when we were here last, last year,
▶ 26:04 Mark Garipay: extra 50,000 plus, um, match. So really we got an extra 75,000 out of that. Right. 'cause we had a hundred thousand dollars donation. The trustees originally were gonna fundraise for another a hundred. We got 50 and they match 50. So we are up, up another a hundred thousand dollars that's going to overage. Correct. Potential overage or increased costs that we've run into. Well, These are, um, I I guess I'll let Linda speak to this. Sorry. Oops, I'll let Linda speak to this. These are, this, this is funds that the friends have raised. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I think they are, they, the idea is to allocate the funds towards needs of the, the, the building once it's opened. But, um, The, and there's two separate things here.
▶ 26:50 Paul Brodeur: There's the trust funds for the 200,000, and then the friends of Melrose's public libraries a separate group. And that is where the a hundred thousand amendment, additional 50,000 were matched. So about 300,000 my friends are intending to use to the benefit of the library project. Um, This is really a substantive answer, but I don't want to gloss over the bigger, the bigger point here or what we should be thinking about in terms of these donations. This is the only public building in the city that the public or private sources of funding have been made available for. And let, let us not forget the remarkable feature of that, that private donations are covering as we sit here today. Roughly 10% of what we're doing.
▶ 27:43 Mark Garipay: But I mean, that, that is, again, that is a tremendous investment that I, I would welcome folks to do for our other buildings. I'm not sure if that's gonna happen, but I hope we can keep that, that in mind as a big cost containment piece as we go forward with what is ultimately a public project. Yeah. I wanna make sure we're using every available source of revenue before we go back. Um, well, we're not gonna go back to the tax base before. We have to go back and, and find revenue that could come from other departments and other capital improvements. So in this memo here, um, you had written that it's a hundred thousand dollars donation and is in hand and a plan to campaign to match these funds,
▶ 28:28 Mark Garipay: which will make additional 200,000 available to the project. So my assumption is that would go to the project and not after it opens. That's how I, that's kind of how I read this when this memo came out last October. Um, so that's why I was just asking that, asking that question. So, um, I think that's all my questions for right now. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Garber, just noting for the time, it's 7 44. Are there any other counselors with questions? Councilor Stewart, Do we get to go, Do you Or do we have to go? Can Adjourn and then come back? I'm just as a point of order. We have to gavel into the full council by eight 15. So if, I dunno how much time you think you Need, Um, I don't know.
▶ 29:15 Denise Gaffey: All right. We'll start and we'll, we'll, Depends on what their answers are. Reassess at eight o'clock. Councillor Stewart, go ahead. Thank you Madam. Madam Chair. Uh, and thank you for being here this evening. I'll try to be brief. Um, uh, uh, the 383 for the three change orders, what were those for? So, um, they were, for a large number of issues to be honest. I mean, mostly for conditions that were different from what were originally anticipated, either because they were, they were cons for the most part 'cause they were concealed conditions. Um, a big portion of that over, over 200,000 of dollars of that was related to the, um, asbestos in the soil. And we're still, like I said, assessing the additional funds, the additional costs related to that. But, um,
▶ 29:57 Denise Gaffey: really there were just a number of different issues. There was a hidden fireplace, for example, that we encountered that is, needs to be restored. There was, um, some, some electrical issues. There were some additional technology changes that the city, um, city requested. There was some additional hardware changes that the city requested in order to conform with our standards, things like that. The packet, Denise. Pardon? Great. In the packet. And so the, the f f E number that you talk about, this 8 43, um, does that include all technology as well? Um, 8 43. Hold On. That's, that's what you had mentioned. So the, um, the number we have for f, F and E is 1.2. 1.2, okay. And it's, it includes,
▶ 30:44 Denise Gaffey: um, all the, um, book bookshelves, which is millwork the, um, or, uh, uh, book, the bookshelves in the building, the furnish, all the furniture and all the loose technology. So yeah, all the, um, all the technology, computers, printers. Okay. Copiers, great. Servers, everything. Okay. Um, you talk about the being behind schedule. How behind are we? So, um, we are at this point, um, well, it's a good question because we are trying to push the, um, we got, we've gotten behind with this, the asbestos issue. So we're, we're pushing, we're trying to push the contractor on a recovery schedule to try to, to make up some of the time. So, um, at this point we are, you know, we're several months behind, but, you know,
▶ 31:38 Denise Gaffey: we're hoping to squeeze that back if we can. Okay. Would you anticipate there's additional costs because you're gonna, you're gonna ask them to work an aggressive schedule? Um, I mean, they're not, they're not to blame, right? So, Right. Yeah. Right. That, no, that's a good, that is a good question. I think if they, there, there might be, if they were to, to try to work like evenings or weekends, um, you know, that was beyond, um, the normal hours. They might, but we think they could also, they might be able to, to make some of this time up just by, um, in the, with, with the regular schedule too. So. Okay. And when, so you're looking for September one next year? Yeah. At, at the latest at this point, that's what we anticipate. Okay.
▶ 32:27 Robb Stewart: To open the doors and let all the people go read books. Okay. Um, so is there a possibility that this could be tracked, uh, in say Excel? Just in terms of where you are in terms of your, your forecast, what actuals are hitting, what are the anticipated costs, then the unanticipated costs? 'cause um, I don't know if that has been put out there, uh, to just give us a complete picture. Uh, I think that would be very helpful in just simplifying a lot of the questions that are coming across for you. Um, is that something that could be done? What, what are you asking for for a spreadsheet Forecast? Actual, and, and what the plan is. So it can be tracked. And so that way when we ask for an update,
▶ 33:20 Robb Stewart: we don't have to kind of go through and try to figure out and write numbers down, but just, it'd be much easier to consume mm-hmm. And get a much clearer picture from a budgeting process so that when we come here and you, you come and we need to have a conversation about potential additional finances, we're already aware of what's going on, as opposed to having to be more reactive and have to go through a whole bunch of questions, that would be helpful. Sure. I understand. Yeah. I mean, and just for the record, we're not actually asking for any more, any funding. I understood. Understood. I'm just, what I'm suggesting is, uh, a communications vehicle, whether it's in Excel or however you want to do it,
▶ 34:00 Robb Stewart: but something that just shows clearly, um, the revenues that are allocated. Okay. What's been spent to date, uh, what are the unanticipated that have come through, uh, and what we may potentially anticipate. So for example, you're potentially anticipating five to $600,000 of additional cost because we gotta finish cleaning up the soil and gotta bring it to Ohio and dump it in Ohio and all that. Um, that's something that I don't think we should just say, well, we think it's five to $600,000, but it's not part of the numbers yet. It needs to be part of the numbers. And for, and I know you're thinking about it. I, you know, I it will Be part of the number. I mean, No, you're thinking about it,
▶ 34:39 Denise Gaffey: but I think in terms of communicating to us and to the public mm-hmm. It'd be a lot more informative if we just kind of saw the, the big picture. Okay. That's my ask. I I appreciate that. And we can, we can endeavor to do that. I think it's a little bit hard 'cause we don't know that, we don't, we just don't have that cost information right now. 'cause they're still putting it together. Mm-hmm. And that's kind of how this, this, this process works. They, and, you know, they encounter things. Um, they'll issue a, you know, a, they might issue a request for information or they might issue a, uh, A P C O, which is a potential change order. Then it gets reviewed by, by our team. It gets reviewed by the architect. It kind of goes back and forth.
▶ 35:18 There's a lot of complexity with all, all of that process. Mm-hmm. But we can estimate. Sure. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Sure. Any other Questions? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to place on file. So moved. Second Motion to place on file made by Councillor Sella, seconded by Councillor Eccles. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? This motion is placed on file. Thank you for being here tonight. And now I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to Adjourn. Second. Second. Motion to adjourn made by Councillor Sella. Seconded by Councillor Eccles. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We adjourned. Okay. Good evening. Today is Thursday, September 21st, 2023. The time is 7:53 PM And this meeting of the Melrose City Council is called