 Good morning, everyone. This is the July 14th meeting of the elementary school building committee and thank you, everyone as always for getting up and going on to zoom so early on Friday morning seeing we have a quorum. I'm going to make sure everyone can hear and be heard and I want to note that Mike is with us we're wonderful to have him back. And he can only be with us for a short amount of time so we may reverse some items on the agenda to get to the items that we need to vote on. But first I want to make sure that everyone can hear and be heard and I'll just call out your name Sean here. Paul. Present. Rupert. I'm here. Mike. Here. Jonathan. Here. Simone. Here. This is the night of March, August. And that's just fantastic. Okay. And I'm just looking. Allison is coming on. So Alison I just called out names can, when you can unmute, could you make sure we can, you can hear us and we can hear you. Tammy is here as well. Tammy is here as well. Tammy, Kathy, I hear you. Okay, Tammy. Yes, good morning. Good morning, everyone. So we are now, we are now a significant quorum. So if it makes sense, Mike, Margaret, I'm turning it over to you to figure out whether we go to first, the invoices. Yeah. And the budget. Because there's a vote required and because Mike is short of time this morning, I'm going to reverse the order. So we're going to start with this item seven, which was added to the agenda earlier this week where I'm going to make a brief presentation on the materials that were sent out that summarized the recommended fees for answer and Dinesco. And then we do have four invoices that are tied to those agreements. So I'll try to make it snappy so that we can spend at least a little bit of time on design on design issues with Mike here. So first, I'm going to go to the memo that I sent. So I'm not going to go through this in detail, but I think that I'm going to just sort of dwell on a couple of important nuggets. So in this document, I noted that there is a, we are the feasibility phase is complete has been completely billed. And there is an amount of money about a little over $88,000. That will not be billed to the money that was of the money that was appropriated and that will be used to reduce the cost of the town and lower the amount to be borrowed. So now having started this ex phase, and this is pretty common, we're sort of playing catch up on getting the contracts executed. So both Dinesco and ourselves prepared proposals that were reviewed by Paul and Sean, and we had some back and forth. They had questions that we responded to, and we have settled on this recommendation, which I am making to you for your consideration. So the, what I did in this document as I compared what was in the total project budget to what is actually being proposed in, in our case, it's a little bit less because we were able to do the same thing. And then we did the same thing. And then we did the same thing. We did the same thing in San Francisco. I basically use the number they had proposed. So it's the same. And then there's a big chunk of what are called reimbursables, which are listed down below, which are tasks, which are unique to this project. And therefore they aren't considered that part of basic services. So the total of all of those fees is a little over $9 million. And I'm sure you would have too, as how these fees sort of fall with regards to others. Unfortunately, the MSBA does not publish this data. And it's been pretty hard to find. I did find a couple of points of reference. Historically, before the recent run up in construction costs of the last few years, the typical benchmark had been three and a half percent for the architect. And, um, and, um, eight percent for the architect. And sorry, eight percent. Yeah. 10% 10% for the architect. So, um, the. Now, of course, with the construction costs coming up so much, you would not expect those numbers to be at that level. And they're not here. So the OPMV is all about three percent. And Dennis goes to you is about eight percent. And that is inclusive of everything that we can currently anticipate. And we will remember that there is a quote unquote soft cost contingency. So if something comes up in the process of the project, there is a pot of money that can be used to pay for those things. Um, but that's kind of the, the kind of super short. Survey. I also included a list here and I'm not going to go through them all of all the things that are reimbursable expenses, which include, you know, just to hit a couple important ones. I think it's the some fees that are associated with the, with the geothermal system and ground source heat pumps, as well as the solar. And in this case, also some work associated with the peer review process that is part of the town's bylaw and for which this project is anything. So, um, that's all I'm going to say about that. I'll stop and take questions, but I do just want to point out the contract, the contract language for both contracts is an MSBA standard that is, we are given, we can't modify it. But if you're interested in looking and seeing what's in those contracts, I provided those links in the memo. So I'm going to stop talking for a minute and just to ask if anybody has any questions about that, because I think what would probably be appropriate here is to take for you all to take a vote on this, and then we can take a second vote on the four, the four invoices. So does anybody have any questions? I am not seeing any hands and Phoebe whose hand I usually miss is not here. So, okay. So, um, does someone want to make a motion about accepting these fees for the project? Sure. I'll make a motion to accept these fees for the project going forward. I will second it. Okay. So Kathy, do you want to call the roll or would you like me to do that? I think I have to. So I will do it. Okay. If you want to take a dam or just so I can make sure I don't miss anybody. I'm just going to call out people's names in the order I see them. That's easier for me. Sean. Yes. Paul. Yes. Rupert. Yes. Mike. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Amy. Yes. Allison. Yes. Simone. Yes. It is unanimous with several people absent. So Margaret will make. Angelica, Alicia and Phoebe. Right. That's correct. And Ben. And Ben. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So then now I'm going to take the screen again. And I'm going to, we're just going to look quickly. So there's four invoices that are related to this that I will again, scroll quickly through. So I'm going to first look at the Dennis go invoices. And I just so here is their invoice for the end of May. And then I'm going to go to the bottom and point out that. What they are billing for here. Nothing for me. The next one has. Yeah. So here is the core quest for this period is really part of their basic services. So it's 297,800. And attached to that is the backup paperwork. That is required. And they're reporting on workforce participation. The second invoice they have. Just to go to the bottom. The line of minutes looks like the same invoice. 630. Yeah. Sorry. The first one was May and this one's June, but I imagine that with a designer, it's going to be sort of a flap equal. For each month. Design development. That's right. So. Sorry, let me go on the right page here. So, yeah, so same. Same amount. So here's last month's, here's this month's 297. 800. And then. There's no billing yet for reimbursables. So the, the answer invoices are definitely. Sort of smaller than that. So our invoice for. This is our invoice for June services is 12,000 540. And as always, we have this. Kind of detailed. Billing that spells that out and our invoice for. I pulled up to July invoices. So this is another invoice that is for. June services. And this one. Is 6,000 770. Again. So that's a couple of pages of. How are they billing? So. So those are the four invoices. So I'll just point out. So from this point forward, we actually get reimbursed some of our costs. To this point, everything's been completely on the town, but now, since we're in that next phase. We do get reimbursed. So once we pay these, we can turn around and submit them. Through the MSP as pro pay website. And then they'll turn around and start giving us back. Some money. So that we can kind of pay us as we go throughout the project. So. So just know that we'll start getting some money back for these. And can I just ask all of those are on. In this new period, none of those were the club. That for even that first one. We're done with the. We're done with the last period. So we're all we're completely past feasibility and schematic and now into design development. Yeah. That's, that's why they are for, because we held them until you all could understand the context of the fees. So are there any questions or other comments on this? Otherwise I will make a motion to approve all. Invoices as presented. Second. Approved and seconded. I will, I meant to call on myself before to Margaret. Yeah. I was. Yes. On the contracts. So Sean. Yes. Paul. Yes. Rupert. Yes. Mike. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Tammy. Yes. Alison. Yes. And Simone. Yes. It's unanimous with four absent. And I am checking attendees every now and then, but. All right. So now we will go back. I'll just pull it up again briefly. To remind everybody. Of the rest of the agenda, which is the good, the good stuff. So. This is going to turn us over to Dennis go. To make some presentations on the, that are kind of updates from the sub, the subcommittee meetings. And we'll then we'll kind of close with talking about the timeline. So. Tim, Donna, Rick and Benian, the floor is yours. And I'm turning it over to, oh, there it is. Tim. Thank you. Yeah. So I am going to share some of the present mutation materials from the subcommittee meetings that we. Had this week and we can talk about where we are. And based on the discussion that we had what we are going to look at in the immediate future. My screen should be up. Looking at the. We're going to look at the main entrance canopy. We're going to look at. The main entrance canopy. West elevation. The entrance of the building. We had a good discussion about. Following up on previous meetings about. Extending the. Color that we're using at the main entrance canopy to the administration roofline to sort of amplify that effect. And the material that we're going to use to achieve that. We recommended. Continuing to look at. Putting it in the front of the building. But the other things. I know that some of the other examples of it at the meeting that will allow us to do a. A Chris geometric edge that sort of renders the way this image is. Some of the other materials, be it masonry or single skin metal panel would end up looking like a. A kit of parts on. So we feel that if we use this judiciously at the, at the right areas, you know. It. It's the cost will be worth it in terms of the expression of this. As you also see in this west elevation, the continuing involvement of the music room with the glass wrapping the corner, which led to a discussion about that and the other elements of the music room. So and then in that glass element, we've sort of integrated the mural and outdoor art. There were some questions about the sill height for the glass and bringing it up for the sake of durability, having it right at the ground, ease of cleaning. There was questions about how far around the corner the glass should return and we feel we could probably do less than is shown here and still get the effect that we need aesthetically and allow a little bit of light in from the west side. This doesn't show that there would be a column at the corner, but it would be slender and basically blend in with the articulation of the mullions. It was generally decided that the art should be as discussed down at the music room rather than up where kids couldn't interact with it and walk right up to it. And then this expression on the media center of the vertical stripes of either masonry or single skin metal panel was generally decided should echo what we have shown and was kind of liked a little bit more at the gym. So those are some of the things that we are going to be working on in terms of the general building design. The also we had a lot of samples of masonry products for the exterior palette. We had a whole bunch of versions of the lighter white masonry. There was one particular blend that several people like, but it was maybe a little too dark. And so we're going to go back to our suppliers and manufacturers and maybe get a few more samples that are warmer and and then maybe a little bit lighter but not light enough that they show all of the discoloration and dirt as a building weathers and then bring a palette back in front of you so we can continue to get close to what we want to see. Actually I'm going to go to another, we're just going to walk around the building a little bit. Another change that was made this week discussed with Kathy you have your hand. I hope I didn't walk away from what you were going to ask about. I can ask it just up on the on the library the media center you still have the square for a potential mural and I think we talked about removing that so I just was going to make that as a comment. Absolutely true. We did we do have that up there and we are going to remove it this expression of a frame for art that isn't there is going to go away but for the sake of that was my only comment. Thanks. So the palette and composition of the and then as we're zooming around please note that this site plan is a little bit old and as we get into the other half of the discussion we can talk about the updates but what is rendered here is an iteration ago. The composition layout of the exterior facade at the classroom remains largely the same. One of the changes that I did want to bring to the attention of the committee is to this point we have been showing a stair from the mechanical room to the roof for Rupert and his staff to use. We have for the sake of creating more room in the mechanical room moved the stair to the stair to we're calling it it's the south stair at the entrance from the bus loop and that brings this stair expression to the roof architecturally it does a few good things we think one it brings a little glass higher that will allow light to get into the circulation space on the third floor and it's also a nice point to sort of start to break up the language of the classroom addition before you get to the larger volumes of the public spaces the gym cafeteria and stuff like that. In terms of a cost change it should be pretty close to neutral we already owned the stair to the roof but as we get into DD we'll see that flesh itself out. Sean you have a question. Yeah just really a quick one is that on the third floor is that a window next to where the stairs are and remind me what space that is. So this is the mechanical room that is a louver so it will be not transparent it's intake air for the mechanical room okay it's probably oversized in this rendering because there there is no combustion happening in this mechanical space and it might not be needed on this elevation at all but as drawn right here we are leaving space for a louver which would be probably the same color as the metal of the windows. Okay thank you. Let it blend in we put an accent panel next to it and then moving around to the front of the building here is a more recent expression of the gym volume and then you know it was widely discussed that the media center and the gym you know from various points on the site as you approach and use the buff loops well you'll be able to see both of those volumes and so the language of the two of them should be similar if not the same and so we are going to continue to look at adjusting the volume of the media center and expression and then another comment that we received that we are looking at is that we are getting to the point where on the gym you're looking at a good amount of undifferentiated brick so we're going to look at some patterning and maybe some corbelling and some texture that would you know just break it up a little bit the same extends to you know some of the walls on the main administration space. Paul you had your hand up. Yeah I just have a couple questions so some of the road roofs just be clear so I understand some of the roofs are pitched and some of them are flat roofs is that accurate? That is correct. Okay yeah not a huge fan of flat roofs but I think that's an economic thing right and then on the gym those big blank walls are they crying are they crying out for art you just said you're going to do some corbelling and some differentiation of the brick is that what's or do you think there'll be some demand for something else that goes there because it's like a giant white slate there? Yes I think there will be demand for either art if that is deemed to be appropriate in a location or some architectural expression that you know does not render this as you know the back of the building a large blank wall. Yeah the comment is spot on with what was discussed it's got these this is a large volume it's a big wall you know as part of this drawing it's not that big but when you're standing there it's going to be big so we certainly know that this has to be mitigated differentiated some sort of expression or detail that worked in. Thank you. That is Margaret. So it's interesting looking at it today I'm assuming that you're going to have some benches and other sort of kinds of seating here that are part of the further landscape development. Is that something we're going to address in D.D.? Yes this and then when we get to the slight plans you can see some of it but it is not all there but there is a bicycle rack right here in the foreground of this image there is another one over north of the music room there are going to be benches there is a level of detail of site furniture and furnishings that is one not developed and two not shown in this. Not in the modeling. Okay I figured that was the case thank you. Tim just to build on Paul's question on the gym I think you're going to tell us we want to meet again but my question when you come in with some choices is I feel like I'm always the person who raises costs if there are less expensive or zero costs so if the differentiated and then trade off so if we differentiated the brick with the UMass has a couple of these where a couple bricks stick out and they're a different slightly different color I don't know whether that's a labor cost expense and then if we were leaving space for potential mural do we have to do anything is it better not to do anything to it because I saw the way the Fort River mural is attached it's just kind of ratcheted it makes it a it can be this mural now and some point in the future could be another so just when you bring it back to us bring us that kind of information because I don't know enough about materials and surfaces to know what removing the big white pure white or one under differentiated color would mean absolutely I mean there there is a world of things that we can do in terms of pattern within the same color and using different colors and they all have slightly different cost implications so as we present and discuss them we will provide that information in relative terms you know yeah and I'm not even sure whether UMass buildings a few I'm not sure I like what I'm seeing but I did see that they broke up a big red wall with a colorful brick that sticks out um you know something that just didn't make it look like a a wall Sean and I'll probably be the boring one um Rick said something when we did the looking at the materials that you know people are sometimes afraid of a plane you know a plane surface nowadays um in some ways there's so much detail going around going on in other parts of the building that having some sort of like sections that are just kind of not so you know not so much going on it almost adds to the building I worry if we go to do too much that it's going to make it too much you know too chaotic like I like having that sort of backdrop from this view um of sort of a solid background and replicating that on the library side I think would look nice from the front so that would be my input if when we start thinking about ways to differentiate it that we just don't go too far because there is so much going on with other parts of the building yeah I think I said the same thing Sean that I like plane plane is often a preference but Paul yeah I think my point was that when you see a big blank slate like that people will say oh we can put something there and I think as a committee if we're settling on that a blank wall or a wall that is an architectural feature in and of itself which is what I'm thinking is sufficient we should just because I think we will be asked oh can't we put a mural there and I don't think that that's necessarily the best use of that space necessarily so I think this we need to be prepared for that kind of that we should have a thoughtful discussion like no we don't want a mural there instead of like saying oh that's an idea okay any other comments on this and they you know the last building committee subcommittee meeting was in person so we're not going to have videos of the actual meeting but what's Tim's bringing us are the materials we were looking at with whatever changes we decided on so just so people understand there's potentially in the packet for that meeting are more choices and now we've gotten to where we made some choices should I move to the site discussion yeah I think so I'm not seeing any hands so here we see the site plan as presented this week just as the iteration before still had separate playgrounds two with open play space in between displayed basketball courts and an area of outdoor planting gardens and an outdoor classroom and then the most current site plan the playground is combined for one continuous space of the place surface that will have structured play equipment and some space left over for free play the basketball court there's two single hoops were turned to face each other so you could have a full court game although this is larger than a typical full court basketball court but a lot of other things will happen on this outdoor heartscape the two bullcourt basketball courts in the east of the building were pushed together and then there are the outdoor planter gardens and the outdoor classroom structure in this plan they moved a little bit further apart there were some comments from the staff that in the last version they may have been a bit too close to each other and that there's a very good chance or 100 chance that both of them would be used by classes at the same time so a little bit more separation to prevent distraction and overlap would be better and then there was a lot of good discussion about how the site would operate and drop off and pick up I should bring up we had a few renderings images that would show in concept what the outdoor classroom and a few of the other areas would be like here you are southeast of the building looking at the shade structure it's a little over 500 square feet which is a little more than half of a indoor classroom but obviously there's no walls there's no storage so a typical class size on loose seating could fit under this and be in the shade but this is about the level of structure that we would be looking at this is a a heavy timber posts and columns with a metal roof framed here's another view of the planter garden you can see that the outdoor structure for the classroom is over to the left in front of the building here you are looking to the east from the end of the bus loop and then beyond the planter gardens you can see the full court basketball court to the left and then the tree line in front of the Fort River in the distance here is a view of the forest floor garden which is at the east end of the site there are saplings planted there's a stone dust path and wood chips and then you can see logs that would be reused from the site for benches and learning opportunities in the forest floor garden and then here is a view of the learning area at the rain garden east of the half court basketball courts so it's a depression with a meadow mix and other grasses this area will contain water in a storm event the rocks will allow you to walk through they're rendered a little bit larger than they will be there will be stepping stones these sort of look like boulders but and then you can see the athletic fields to the north beyond and then there will be a framed low platform where a class can stand and have an accessible surface to look into the rain garden and see what's going on in terms of species rocks all of this stuff that is growing there and then one more change that we brought to the attention of the subcommittee is we're doing some tweaks to the southern drop-off loop it was sized so that a bus in any vehicle that would be expected to deliver to the service area would be able to make the turn comfortably but you know as we got into it in fine detail our traffic engineers and our escape architects if a bus or even a car were parked in just the wrong place it would be difficult for a large vehicle to move so we're just going to adjust the geometry such that two large vehicles can turn next to each other since it is a two lane drop-off loop and then there's also considerations as there are areas that are going to be fire lanes so we just want to make sure that we have everything controlled and then one more item that we are continuing to work on based on discussion from last week it was brought up that there are a certain population of students that may need more time you know as they transition in and out of the building and so this is a technical drawing in process so all of that is if it's not as legible as some of the others but what this shows is we are starting to look at introducing an area outside of the main entrance with a mountable curb where four cars give or take could pull off to the side and have and not obstruct the flow of drop-off or pickup traffic this would be a different surface than the parking lot and drive out itself it would probably be the same as the plaza and there would be staff outside to control who can pull in and who could not but this extension with a mountable curb of the plaza would allow cars to pull off and not obstruct the process and give those who need it a little more time to transition into the building yeah just just excuse me just to add to that but this is for parents bringing students or their children in versus the van drop-off that we've also identified so yeah the van drop-off is right here and even closer is the parent drop-off yeah bus and general student drop-off is at the loop here are there any questions or comments for those who weren't there for I mean this discussion actually happened in the morning and then in the building and then continued into the afternoon Ellison yeah I just want to say thank you because I know that reworking things is not easy and I think the symmetry of that is just beautiful where children on on the van drop-off and the parents drop-off they're they're symmetrically the staff can be kind of near each other I think that's beautiful thank you very much Paul yeah I just want I thought that was an elegant solution so thank you for listening to Ellison's concerns and Tammy's concerns and that was that's a really I like that a lot the other thing I want to think about um so the town we talked about bike racks but the town also has a bike share program that is now going through some transition but when those when we if we were to put a bike share thing here it would need electricity so it's just something we might want to start to think about um where if we were to put that there if this we'll continue with that because these are electric bikes that need to have a charging station so we typically tie them into something so Paul um when we're talking about that does it make sense to bring it closer to the building or closer to the I'm just trying to think who might be using them um well it beats a general public so it's not necessarily yeah so I'm not sure if it's a good if we even thought about it for the potential location but it just occurred yeah thank you yeah so we are we will be putting um I think all we're doing Tim correct me if I'm wrong is conduit for for vehicle charging stations I don't think we're including the charging stations themselves within the parking lot I don't know if we've identified those have we Tim uh not on this drawing but they are identified but that the location can move it's more a function of reducing the length to the uh services then so you're saying for the conduit and everything to the building yes yeah well it's from a separate service over here okay so I don't I don't know Paul I mean it's a parking lot I don't know you know if you could build on utilizing the conduit for the yeah we could charging stations so typically what we do is we put them we try to adjust put them adjacent to uh bus stops because it's like the last the last mile the people go on these electric bikes um and then usually there is electricity oftentimes it bus stops so we just tag into that or type tag into a streetlight I'm not sure if it should be on this location if it should be out on the street but just yeah thank you if it if it was a community use more than a school use would it make sense to have it toward the athletic fields and it might just a question wherever there's already electricity I would think yeah what they have is a concrete they put them on there also can be a consideration that after you struggle to reduce your plug loads in the building now you're connecting vehicle charging stations and now electric bikes to your building load and what does that do to your energy usage so there's a element of thought about what why you pull this stuff off of uh there too good point well when we do that Rick right we're we're providing conduit and and electricity to the backstop right and that's not being tied into the building is that correct we're looking at that being a different connection so I'm just wondering if it as as we think about all these auxiliary site requirements that we look at look at pulling off of that area which is where Tim's cursor is right now maybe that makes the most sense so that it doesn't drop from the building even for the uh charging stations for vehicles um I don't want to you know over now but it can be an unintended consequence yeah Jonathan your hand was up was this on this hey it was just the the notion that if the bike share is on the site maybe it's more appropriate for it to be by the playing fields yeah I had this my hand was up for the same reason I'm getting it closer to there and using that separate electrical connection you know getting it off the building okay any other comments on the site plan I don't see any hands up so I I think thank you very much and I do thank you you you're showing us on Friday things that were raised on Monday in design so it's very responsive I really thank you for doing it um did we want to talk about next meetings now or I'm sorry Margaret I don't remember where we are that that that would be next meetings and when we have the everyone has a hold on their calendar for the full committee meetings but um Tim you wanted to talk about some additional um subcommittee uh or design development meetings you yes uh so so the building design we've gotten certainly a lot of good input and we thought that the in-person meetings were very productive at but we still have a lot to do um so I am hoping that we can schedule another in-person building subcommittee meeting the week of August 31st if possible obviously um there are a lot of calendars involved with the people on the screen here so there's some but um then we can come back with what we talked about in terms of modifications this past week uh also we have not shown any interior space development in quite some time so we we've spent a lot of time on the exterior and I think we're making certainly good progress for DD but um there's a lot going on inside the building too that we want to share and talk about so for the building that would be two weeks for the site we feel that it could be longer because we have a lot of good clear information and our team our landscape architect and our civil engineer have quite a bit of work to do so we think uh at the end of August or early September where we could really start to talk about playground design would be more appropriate for a site subcommittee meeting um and then the third subcommittee sustainability uh we would very much like to have a meeting but we are still unfortunately in a holding period with that tradition of the code with all of the new energy requirements is in effect now but DOER has yet to publish the modeling guidelines that will allow us to say with certainty that what we have designed and document will allow us to meet that so there could be slight tweaks to the envelope basically the type of how much insulation we need um and then there could also be some changes to the mechanical system design mostly programming to get demand control ventilation but possibly some actual physical changes to the design but we can't really say with any degree of certainty what those changes would need to be until we get more clarity from the state so uh it would be we can't really suggest a time for this thing Billy unless there's another major topic that we want to discuss so yeah so to recap building we'd like to meet in two weeks uh site we'd like to meet in a month or so and then site we would like to meet as soon first same ability we'd like to meet as soon as possible but we don't know when that is so Tim like when you said building you actually said august 31st but you meant nope i meant july 31st you meant you're not correct sorry i just want to correct that so you're talking the two weeks you just said it's in two weeks so um well i'm not going to poll people right now so it's the week that starts on uh july 24th is the week you're talking about correct uh i was talking about the week that starts july 31st because july if it was early in the week of july 24th that would be one week from now essentially and we just want to make sure that we have so the week that starts july 31st is the first four days of august also correct right yeah i'm just i'm just looking at my calendar so yeah yeah so i will send out um whether there are date preferences um you came out um do you have days that work better for you to come out do you want us to send you something after this kathy after we no i will send out so if you send me the days that work best for you then i sure then i will poll people um so just people should be looking at their calendars for monday the 31st through friday the fourth um and um i i actually have some restrictions that week so uh so yeah so we'll send out some days and we probably would be looking at a solid two two plus hours maybe um happy to bring in coffee and donuts or coffee and whatever or or we can meet whenever um or later in the day if that works for people but we'll get we'll get you our schedule but we're it is a chunk of time i think we want to present um further design considerations for the exterior and then start talking about the anterior okay so i i will send him out and with mike's return you know the only i have some restrictions but mike's back and he was on that subcommittee so um so i will i will poll everyone yeah that would be great and and having allison and tammy as well just because as we start thinking about the interior and having their input would be really helpful too and i think as everyone knows these subcommittees particularly when the design team is coming out they're wide open if people want to come to them and if we've been jointly posting them in case seven of us show up um with a quorum so um it's it's an open invite but we we we need a core group to at least react to what what we're seeing and we're not making decisions we are asking we ask as many questions as we offer final so anything else tim and donnie you're also trying to set up a meeting with um and this is with staff that you've got to go before the planning board and the conservation commission so you're doing a you're trying to set up a pre-meeting with internal staff is that correct yeah um did i lose paul oh no there he is sorry i don't know i lost you paul um it's like a design review team or technical yeah so we bring we bring all the you know fire department building inspection services dpw everybody into one room we go through the project everybody understands what the permit path is um and if they see any sort of major problems right off the bat but it really is about facilitating permitting and making it the path is as seamless as possible yeah it's wonderful for everyone to hear each other's um goals or needs so that one's not making a decision in a vacuum and and um taking everyone's uh considerations and needs it it's a wonderful approach to this so i think we threw out some dates to dave uh zo maxo yeah they have a coordinator who'll work on that everybody's schedule for you yeah and as far as going to conservation commission step i'm assuming um oh my god how did i lose her name who's the erin erin how did i totally yeah uh would be part of the design review or development review part of the team too yeah um but we will be planning we weren't planning going to conservation commission um during design development until we are ready to submit the um no i but but we'll we're it would be great to get our input we're right where we said we were going to be when we last met with our so now we're just doing all the documentation yeah so i think that meeting will help clarify what their expectation is with your expectations so you're all on the same page early yep perfect yeah it's great it's really helpful any other yeah the only other thing kathy um is it the disability commission or are they are they part of this as well paul so the the building commission the this group does bring up the the ADA stuff um if they need if there is going to be a visit with the disability access advisory committee there is someone from the planning department that's that provides staff support for that commission and i think we were saying we were going to do that kathy you're going to maybe make an introduction yeah well something at one point paul an email came in from the disability access so i should just talk to you about how best to when best to bring them in um yeah yeah i think it's best to go through our normal process yeah okay we just want to make sure we um hear everyone's comments now absolutely yeah so it'd be really helpful and the library just went through meeting with them the library designers so um but they it is a meeting that they like to have yeah no it's it's perfect so are there any other comments questions scheduling so if not i'm going to open it up for public comment um and we do have public so any one of the attendees who would like to join um i will bring you in hi uh can you hear me yeah we can welcome to thank you tony conningham um i had a few questions i was wondering about the size of the playground and the half court hardscape how do they compare to other projects school projects in the state on a per student square footage they seem huge to me but i would need the expertise of denisco to know whether these spaces are a reasonable size or if it would be logical to reduce them i wondered if you could look into the relative pros and cons of using engine engineered wood fiber instead of board in place and some of those factors would be first and lifetime cost the chemical makeup and safety of materials surface heat etc with the proposal for artificial turf at the high school there was a lot of discussion about um the harm from i know you cut artificial turf from this project but there was discussion about port in place also being harmful and so i just want to make sure that we're registering that question now and not putting it in without fully looking into the repercussions um the next thing i wanted to ask about was i sent an email asking about the walking route that for example a parent and child might take from a parked car in the western most or center parking aisle to the front of the building and i was wondering if the logical route would be for them to walk through the drives um you know behind parked cars or if there's a plan for a pedestrian path down the center of the parking lot linking it up to the center uh to the crosswalks so i know when i'm walking in like the whole foods or target parking lot some of them have paths between the parked cars um which feels a lot safer when i'm walking with my kids than having to walk down the middle of the driveway um and then lastly in may you had scheduled a meeting to discuss the library and the location of the steam room but the meeting has was cancelled i don't know if you had that meeting at a later stage i was wondering if there has been a change in the location of the steam room and if i recall correctly the librarian suggested putting them adjacent so that they could use the steam room during library class and not require additional staffing to monitor the students if there were windows between the library and the steam room and they were next door to each other and a door access so i was wondering if that change has happened or if that discussion has happened thank you thank you tony and i think there are answers to some of these so maybe what we'll do is um to the extent we there have been decisions we will get them out to people um so uh maria i have brought you in thank you maria kapiki south amherst um first i want to thank denisco um for adding those what i'm thinking of is a little bit like short term parking at that southernmost end of the loop i won't speak for cpac the special education parent advisory group but the parents in that group this was this isn't a very important issue for them so thank you for incorporating that and thank you to allison and tammy for advocating for that at the site visit really appreciate that in terms of the electrical for some of the the community use bikes i think that is a great idea and my understanding is that there's going to be i don't the technical term i don't have but the the the plugs basically for field lighting and for comfort station you know all of that stuff and then in the north area won't won't be set up and ready to use but it seems to me that that would be a nice tie-in it would also uh as you point out have it be on a different metering system from the building so that seems to make a lot of sense i want to second tony's comments it just it weighs in general to minimize artificial and impervious surfaces minimize parking i know that some suggestions were made i hope that there's still looking at at different ways to decrease the amount of eliminate hopefully all if not most of the port in place for engineered wood fiber to decrease the amount of asphalt for parking that big circle um of the additional the two half quarts uh that could maybe be have a smaller diameter anything that can help with that it'll help with stormwater drainage it will help with initial and maintenance costs um and it will be far better for the environment so i hope we're thinking always thinking of the environment and climate in all of these decisions that we're making um hopefully i hope that i don't know if it makes sense but it would seem that there's a lot to talk about with sustainability so even before we've got all these directions um from from state and federal levels it seems like there's a lot that could be talked about with sustainability um i know that the energy budget i'm not sure where we are with that part of the of the project uh that's it thank you very much again thank you very much for those changes i'm sure they're going to be very appreciated for the parking oh sorry one other thing i know that they did um uh the the cpac parents also had concerns um uh inside the building and um i'm hoping that they're able to participate in the site visit that talks about that in a couple weeks that their concerns around observation and transitioning once the kids come into the building you know at the beginning and end of the days with the the very busy uh areas there in the foyer if that can be addressed i'm sure they would really want to be involved in that thank you thank you maria uh bruce okay can you hear me we can uh oh i might have removed you sorry we can hear you bruce i'm sorry i hit the wrong button okay i'm back again yes okay um i said uh all of what i my comments and contributions and so forth to the designs and so forth during the meetings in the fort river school in the weeks i don't need to repeat that but i just wanted to state publicly again how impressed i am with the design team and the committee's way in which this project has been moved forward um this is not always the way public buildings are handled and it's not always possible to say repeatedly how satisfied and uh one as an observing member of the public is but i think this is a project that is that way and it should be said nine will say it thank you very very very much um finally um kathy i guess this is for you the planning board for the last year now that i've been on at the chair has read the list of attendees uh somewhere around the beginning of the meeting um and uh i think it would be very helpful if we could do the same here it's always good to know who else is in the audience i mean if it was a real public meeting of course you would walk in the door you'd see what's who's there uh i think it would help everybody if uh if everybody who was in the attendance knew who the other attendees were and if that could be done that would i would i would appreciate it anyway i'm not sure how who else might but that's it for me thank you very much thank you bruce um and i should say thank you to all three of the public attendees and i who have been active and often and always uh thinking about possible changes and options which has been very useful at least i'll speak for myself on that um including the public comments you know that when people have sent us written comments you should rest assured that i'm always sending sending them forward so it's not that they fell into a black hole and i one of the things i haven't done with copying well 13 of you is the amount of emails we get that i'm worried that we just inundate but um i do always send them forward so i think um unless someone has any remaining comments um we margaret has been capturing both in the minutes but to the extent there are answers to some of these um things that have raised i can certainly do for example these attendee readout um but if we have answers to some donut then we can include them and make sure we flag them in the next meeting as well so without seeing any other hands up except for bruce and i think that's just a remainder um i think we are adjourned at 9 33 thank you all very much see you soon yeah thank you