 Okay. Welcome everybody to today's meeting of the Jones Library Building Committee. I'll just ask you to indicate your presence vocally, Sharon. Here. Alex. Here. Jennifer. Here. Christine. Here. And Austin is here. Okay. Prove of the minutes of September 27th. There's the emotion to approve the minutes. I'll make a motion to pass the minutes. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Okay. Any corrections to the minutes? Okay. So, on the motion to approve the minutes, Alex, how do you vote? Yes. Thank you. Jennifer, how do you vote? Yes. Christine, how do you vote? Yes. Thank you, Sharon. Yes. And Austin votes yes. Okay. Town manager report. There's no town manager present. So I think we will skip the town manager's report. Number four, finance update. Jennifer, I don't have anything to update, but I have the bills ready to be approved when we're ready. We could do that now whenever you want to present them. That would be great. Okay. I don't have the ability to share screen. I don't know what I need to do for that. That's okay. There you go. Sharon's going to make magic happen. Oh, perfect. Okay. So can everybody see this? Not yet. There it is. There it is. Okay. So there's three bills to be approved. The first one is the OPM bill. And I'm just going to scroll down a little bit so you can see. So total due for this bill, 7,984. And just remind us, Jennifer, this is an invoice for what period? This is an invoice for through September 30th. Okay. Thank you. Okay. The second one is for FAA. This looks like the revisions. First, and this was at September 30th also. And I'm just going to, if you need me to stop anywhere, just let me know. Yeah, it would be good to see what the total is that we're being asked to approve. So the total for this one is 18,177.25. Okay. And the last one is the standard. I don't know if it's standard, but it, this is a monthly one for the month of September. And for FAA as well. And this looks like schematic design, design. Development. Oh, wait a minute. What are we? I'm sorry. I'm trying to read this is, this is for construction documents. This part. That's more than a month. But this is at 70%. So the other other these two are already at 100. So it's a portion of this. Yeah, it looks like. It looks like that this is for a portion of the construct of that 70% construction documents. So basically they're saying they're up to 70%. But I was just trying to look up the last bill to see what. What percentage they were up to. Okay. So, and this is the total for this invoice 136 to 50. So there's three invoices one from Collier's to from FAA. Correct. Okay. The FAA invoice is 136 to 50. Tim again, can you clarify what. What the 136 to 50 is covering. That's for the construction documents portion. That's not any of the ad services. That's. You know, they have a contract for $681,250. Construction documents. And it looks like they're. They submitted a bill. On. At the end of August and then at the end of July. The August bill was the same amount. 136 to 50. The. The bill at the end of July was for 204 375. And this one is dated 930. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. So. Yeah, they have. So this is the third bill for their construction documents. I'm sorry to be confused, Tim. The fee says for construction documents, the fee says 681 to 50. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Earned. What does the earn mean? Basically how much they, they're billing against that 681 to 50. So they're saying that they're, they're billing 70% of that 681 to 50. Okay. So they're saying, you know, this is how much we've earned a date. This is what we've been paid to date. So the differences are current bill, which is this 136 to 50. The difference between 681 and 176 is 136 to 50. Well, the difference between what they've, what they've earned. All total and, and previously billed. So they're saying that they. They've their fee of earned today is, is 1.3 or 1.348. But they've billed 1.212. So what they haven't billed, which is this bill is the 136 to 50. I see the 136 to 50 is the difference between the total fee and the previous fee billing. Thank you. That's very. I just also, I just want to apologize. I don't know why my camera keeps on turning off on me. So I just noticed that it is, it's coming and going. So if that happens. So we have three invoices of someone would move the approval and then we get a second, then we talk about them. Someone move the approval. So moved. Okay. Are there any questions about these three invoices? Okay. Voting to approve Sharon. Yes. Alex. Yes. Jennifer. Yes. Christine. Yes. And Austin votes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Jennifer. Do you have anything else for us? Jennifer. I do not at this time. All right. Thanks so much. If you take down the screen share that would be very helpful. That's fabulous. Okay. Number five on the agenda. Colliers. Okay. We just talked about a little bit about what we've been what's been happening on the project. Great. We are out for 75% estimate with with for the two estimators. And we'll, we've been dealing back and forth asking for. Making sure they're covering certain things that we're required to do. You know, for some of the grants that we're hoping to get so backing, making sure that we're having an estimate based on. Whether we have to use Davis bacon wage rates or whether we have to buy America, build America buy America program. Well, one of those coming in, we have an estimate reconciliation meeting next week. Yes. That is next Thursday, Thursday, and we're hoping to get the estimates this Friday, or maybe given through the weekend, we'll get the Monday. Great. And we've gone through a couple of meetings with the historic commission in town. The first one was really based on site. The second meeting more interior exterior of the building. A lot of focus on. You know, the landscape, the book drop and different things like that. But that was approved. So that's a milestone that we can check off, which is great. Planning is still in the works. So submission has been submitted. And a meeting is scheduled for the 15th of November. With the planning board. We met with the fire department to review the drainage that's going to be going through their, their lot. Just make sure that they understand the scope and durations timelines. That sort of thing. Also just looking at any of the other impacts we may have on street parking or the bus stop out in front of the library. Just all of those types of issues and trying to either meet with neighbors to talk about the project is let them know what's going to be happening. And anything that may have to change to make sure that we have a temporary plan in place for that type of thing. There's also some investigation going on on this inflation reduction act and what potential grants that might be possible to be achieved based on federal monies that we could get. And then we had, we've been going back and forth about bringing on a hazardous material consultant to do some additional testing. So there's some testing done 2016. But now that we have more comprehensive design bringing them on to really look to see how where we're going to be impacting the existing building making sure we're covering all the bases of what our scope would be for that. So they'll be also be doing the design specifications. They'll be working with either them or a different party during construction just to monitor the actual asbestos contractor or abatement contractor. But a lot of different activities going on. I don't know well if there's something major that I missed. But those are kind of a sprinkling of some of the activities we've been doing. Wrapping up the, well, the FA is wrapping up the actual documents and collars on our and we're getting ready for the next phase, which will be bidding which majority of that will happen. End of this year, beginning of 2024. Okay. Questions for collars. So I have a question, Tim. As our owner's project manager, could you talk to us a little bit about in your view the performance of FAA. Sure. I think, you know, FAA is is doing doing well and they got some things that may have typically been in their scope that we were broken out and we're having them do and so it may appear that some of the stuff is, is being done at the last minute but it was really just that it's kind of about a sequence maybe a little bit, that things are being added to the project that maybe they might not typically do or sometimes they would typically do but for whatever reason it was broken out earlier on but I think overall they're doing good we were passed our seem to be passing our requirements for the tally and energy measurements. They were very helpful and instrumental in getting the all the information needed to all the different boards and committees and Amherst is a little bit different than other communities. They ask for a little bit more information than maybe would be typical. That's been provided. You know what really will be the biggest judge of how good their documents are as once we get bitters on board or bitters up to bed and see what kind of questions we get from the actual trades. Again those two estimators are not just looking at what the cost of the project is going to be. They're looking at the scope of the project so how detailed are those documents, so that they may not agree that a brick, you know, a square foot of brick cost this or, you know, the other one may say cost something else but if they're looking at the square footage or the interpretation of the thickness of the slabs or the amount of steel. So you want to make sure that there's a consistent view by two independent parties of what is included in this project. And that hopefully translate into bitters all looking at it the same as well so you don't get a wide range of numbers. Right so I'm going to repeat back to what I've understood you, you worked with a lot of architects on a lot of projects, and so far as you're able to say collars collars FAA is doing a good job on this project. Yes, I think so. Right. Any other questions for collars. We appreciate the work that you're doing with FAA to get us, you know, keyed up for the various boards and committees. That we have to that we have to deal with in the in the town. That's an important part of the work, not only just to make sure that we satisfy the various requirements, but also it's an important part of what I would call the public education part of the project where we are educating various boards and committees but also the public participants in those those events. Okay. So no other question for collars then subcommittees design. Christine, I have nothing to report. Thank you, Alex outreach. I don't have anything specific per se to report but just wanted to let the committee know that the library has a justice equity diversity and inclusion committee and they recently released a survey to the community looking sort of a broad scope about how welcoming the library is, but we're looking forward to them expanding on that survey and possibly informing when it comes time to put everything back in the building that we're doing it in a way that is welcoming to our entire community and I just want to put that on people's radar is something to be thinking about when we get to that phase that we want to be getting information back from that committee that we use as part of our decision making process around art, where things go in the library, etc. Great. Thank you. Okay, any question for Alex. Thanks. Next item is correspondence. So the board, the committee has received correspondence from Robert Pam dated October 11 2023. Mr Pam asked will the board room or the Woodbury room have facilities to record entrenchment meetings and performances. It might make it easy for us to hold publicly accessible meetings of our committees and if we host lectures debate shows etc. Might be good to be able to share them simultaneously or subsequently I don't know whether we can hook into the town. Sharon, do you want to answer that question? Yeah, so my initial response was it really the wiring will all be in place but ultimately it will come down to the funding that we have will determine what kind of equipment we can, we can purchase. I didn't know if, you know, Tim or well if you wanted to expound on that. So we will have data drops in the room will have wireless access points. But whether we have mounted cameras in the room or something to facilitate a public meetings. Any kind of a mixing board that you would use to put together some sort of broadcast, if you will, I don't know that we would have that we're working to bring on and get that design finished up for get estimates for the estimated cost of equipment. So we don't have that just yet, but the building will have the basics and then equipment may need to be brought in. If we can't fit it within our budget. It's something that can be purchased at a later time to make it a permanent installation. Other facilities to record and transmit meetings built into our budget at this point. I would say, no, we have, we're talking about some smaller meeting rooms where we were having a setup to have a new zoom meetings and that sort of thing, but in the larger main meeting room downstairs. We don't have that equipment built into the budget. Okay, so if we're going to have that equipment, it's going to have to come from funds, not part of the building budget have to come from some other source. Either some other source or we do really well at bid day and things come in well. Hopefully. Yeah, Alex. I just want to clarify that what Sharon had commented that we would much, much like the cafe where we are going to be wired and plumbed for something in the future. That is the same. So it would be a matter of purchasing equipment, not a matter of having to go into and rewire things. I just want to clarify that's that's the case. Great. Good. So hopefully a grant or a good bid. Okay, thanks. The second question is at the ground floor garden level it appears that the Civil War tablets room in the Special Collections room across from the Burnett Gallery are part of the original building and therefore are three steps higher than the hall they connect to I don't see any stairs in the drawings am I missing something Sharon. Yeah, I don't know how to describe this but there are stairs there. Yeah, all the rooms are handicapped accessible stairs are there. Okay. All right, Alex, did you want to say something your hand is up. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, I think but in the meeting packet I think you included. So in the meeting packet, there's actually where the stairs are I think you circled it so pointing that out. Yeah, I just want members of the public to hear what the responses are if that's okay. No, no, no, yeah, I'm just making sure members of the public knew if they looked in the packet and they could see it. She was able to describe the spot. Okay. Anything else topics not anticipated 48 hours in advance. Nothing to me public comment we have eight members of the public. Anybody wanting to make comment if they'd raise their virtual hands bring you into the the zoom. Bob him. Two points. So one is that at your last meeting you had deferred until this meeting, my comments from September 20. I would like to add those back in. The second is with respect to the second question that that you've responded to. The stairs that you refer to lead not to those two rooms but rather to other rooms in there in the back, the only doors into the Civil War and the room for the special collection. There's only once entrance to each of those, and it is not connected to any stairway. You also behind it. There is a hallway which leads from an exterior door behind all of those rooms to the rest of the original building in the special collections. And that unfortunately also is a connection between a high floor and a low floor, and I don't see any connection between those two. So there's three different entry ways, which as far as I can tell, involve a foot or more of raising or jumping up jumping down. And I don't think that the answer of there being one, you know, 100 feet down the hall is in fact useful at all for these questions. Thank you. On the new question. Bob, if you just hold on that one, Tim, do you want to say anything about what Bob just observed. Well, I'd have to take a look at the drawings and pull them up, but certainly all the rooms will be accessible. So, if there are different levels, there might be a different elevator stop or ramp, but I'd have to pull up the drawings. So let's get an answer to this question. Okay. Yeah, so this is access to the special collections area and what was the other room. The ground floor garden level. It appears that the Civil War tablets room and the special collections room, of course, from the Burnett gallery are part of the original building in there for a three steps higher than the hall they connect to. I don't see any stairs in the drawing. Am I missing something? I then supplemented that with the question about the hallway behind it. Tim, are you looking at the drawings? Yeah, I'm trying to hold them up. It just takes a while. Okay. Yeah, let me go back to the first question that I had asked in September. And there the first question I had asked was that, although in all other areas, the budget constraints have been very tight and increases in any one area have been limited for the landscaping which was added to the site plan. That added almost 40% to the costs. And given that it is now been reviewed by the historical commission and everybody else. My guess is that you are now committed to the design and the cost that's associated with the landscaping. But I was just curious why that one had not been subject to the same kinds of cost limitations as everything else in this project. Everything has been subject to the same kind of cost limitations. We've looked at everything from the perspective of what its costs were and how it fit within the budget. Landscaping was not exempted from it. We didn't do the same kind of value engineering exercise that you were describing. If I'm not saying what you were describing, but everything in the project has been subject to the same scrutiny in terms of where it fits in the budget. Then let me ask the question differently. Up until this most recent budget estimate in June, the amount that was set aside for site work was $2.1 million. The amount that was set in June was $2.9 million. That is an $800,000 difference. And that is a lot more than anything else that you have done. I will not go further with this. I just pointed out because that seemed to me to be inconsistent. The other question that I had asked was about FF&E, which had not been subject to any of the cost estimators giving any inflator value to that. And so it has been carried at basically the same number for a long time. And I suggested that it's probably not accurate to assume that there has been no cost changes for any of the FF&E. And based upon what the other things have been marked up, it looked like that would have to go up by something around $400,000. Okay. Do you have anything else you want to say, Bob? Those are the two points that I had raised on that. There were two other points that I had asked, which had to do with rainfall and therefore the capacity of the drain pipes and of the swale. And the fourth point, I guess we have addressed at the last meeting, which had to do with the stonework. The third point was also addressed at the last meeting about the drain pipes. Okay. Thank you, Bob. Okay. Any other member of the public wish to speak? Okay. Nobody else wishing to speak. Okay. I think we are all set. Sharon, just remind us when is our next building committee meeting? November 15th? Yes. At 4.30. Yes. Okay. All right, everybody. Meetings adjourned. Stay well. Thank you very much. Thank you.