 2021 the first meeting of the Jones library building committee congratulations and thank you all for offering to be here and join in so. Pursuant to chapter 20 the exit 2021 this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of public who wish to access to me may do so. By clicking on the link that has been provided. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time, which they have done in the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic. No, I have to read that part. So, we are here. And so, what I'd like to do we have a relatively small agenda but important agenda what we want in the agenda includes doing introductions of our committee membership. We're having an overview of the library project from the library director and overview of the finances from the finance director and talk a little bit about the schedule and where we are. And so I will do introductions and then I'll call on people to introduce themselves and what what their role is here. So I'm Paul Bako man the town manager, Sharon. And I'm Sharon Sherry, I'm the director of the Jones library. And Austin. I'm Austin, Sarah, I'm a member of the Jones library board of trustees. Alex. Alex LeFave member of the Jones library board of trustees and George. George and representing the town council this one time. To George's. Go ahead George the other George. Sorry, we're gonna have to number ourselves. George takes Richard's the facilities supervisor for the Jones library. Shawn again a finance director for the town. Christine. I'm Christine Graham Mullen. I'm one of the two residents that will be selected for the building. And Angela. Hello, I'm Angela Mills, I'm Paul's executive assistant and I am stopping this meeting today. Thank you for doing that Angela for doing the minutes and everything so we appreciate that. So, Sharon, this is exciting first day. Do you want to give us an update on where we are? Yes, absolutely. I have a, I'm going to share my screen. I have a small PowerPoint presentation. Hold. Here we are everybody. Thank you so much for being here today. We thought we should start by taking a moment to celebrate. Take a breath. We did it. We're here. This is really an exciting moment for the town. And now the hard work is going to begin. So what we're going to be doing as the building committee our charge is to be working with a team of consultants. We're going to be working with NBLC, which is the Massachusetts board of library commissioners, the OPM, which is Collier's project leaders, and our architects find gold Alexander architects out of Boston. We're going to be developing designs for an expanded and renovated Jones library. And then we'll get those designed to prove designs approved by both the library trustees and the town manager. And then we're going to be overseeing moving out of the Jones building. We do have to provide services, library services during construction. Construction will take almost two years, then we'll be moving back in and then the grand opening is expected to happen in the spring of 2025. Along the way, we're going to be giving presentations, lots of them to the public to town council, the library trustees. We're going to be working with the mass historic commission on the designs. We're going to be working with many different town boards and committees in order to obtain all the appropriate permits. We're going to form various subcommittees at various stages of the project, such as outreach, design and landscaping. We're going to review and approve change orders. We're going to work with the butters and keep them informed. We're going to work with the capital campaign committee and in raising extra money. We're going to work with ever source on energy incentives, and we are going to plan for the grand opening again in 2025. The design looks something like this. We're going to start over the next 13 months. We're going to go through schematics, design development, and the construction documentation phases of the project. And during this time we'll secure an interim location. We'll plan for the relocation of our existing landscaping. We'll work with an interior designer to choose furnishings, and we'll receive an updated cost estimate. Once the contract documents are complete in about January of 2023, we'll enter the bid phase of the project. That's when the bid documents will be distributed, the bids will be received, and the construction contracts will be finalized. Then we'll move into construction, which is scheduled to begin in April of 2023 and last for about 23 months. As I said earlier throughout this time period, library services will be provided elsewhere in town. Once construction is complete, it's expected to take about two months to move the furniture into the building and the fixtures and the equipment. After which the grand opening will occur in early 2025. And then project closeout includes certifying that all our leans have been released and submitting the as built documents to the MVLC. So a few of our immediate next steps include electing a chair to this committee and a clerk completing the committee. We still need to one or two more residents to join us. We're going to bring fine gold Alexander architects, putting a deed restriction in place more about that later, meeting with the Massachusetts Board of Library commissioners about our designs, meeting with the Mass Historic Commission about our designs and establishing these subcommittees. So that's the next four years of our lives in a nutshell. I didn't know if so on the call is our opm stop sharing is Ken Gayet and Paul I didn't know if it would be okay if I invited him into the room to to introduce himself and to say a few words. Hang on you're muted. Let me intervene for once I got what I should done first is, we have not elected a chair I've been I've sort of called the meeting to order we should. And what I am suggesting is that we've not elected chair today that we wait until we have a fuller complement of our committee and that would be our next meeting after the first of the year I believe. But the committee should decide who would like to have run this meeting, and anyone can step up to do that. So I should have done that first. And I see no volunteers. So with that, then I will continue to run the meeting with the permission of the group. And then, then at the first order of business our next meeting will be to elect a chair. Thank you. Yes. Angela, can you bring Ken into the room. Certainly. And maybe it's a good time to explain. What the project manager and what that role is for folks. John, do you want to take that role or I can. Yeah, go ahead. So we will have a couple part we'll have probably three partners along the way maybe more consultants but our, our first partner in all this was the owner project manager, who represents the town and our interests. We'll be with us has been with us from the beginning and we'll be with us through the end. And they will really just they have the expertise in the construction world and in the project management world where they will review everything on our behalf or most everything on our behalf and try to steer us in the right direction or give us their their recommendation. So whenever we get invoices in the future they'll review those. They will be the liaison between us and the designer and us in the construction firm somewhere along the way. And really they are just our go to resource for making sure we stay on schedule. A lot of what they do again is actually a scheduling and making sure we hit all our milestones, which is particularly important with this project because of the MVLC and that there's, there's actual tasks that we have to achieve in order to get the MVLC payments. It's really important that we stick to our, you know, to our timeline that we've laid out so they will do a lot for us. So my experience has been really positive with Colliers. And then the next partner sorry real quick will be our designer which we've all met fine gold and Alexander, and then at some point along the way we will do a bid process to select a contractor to build the library. And as, as the name implies owners project manager is that the owners opm represents us, they're on our side, and they are representing our interest to the other vendors and also, as Sean said helping us to stay on track. It's a very important role and opm is really worth their weight in gold so. So I'll turn it back over to you Sharon, do you want to introduce Ken. Yeah, so I can, I can actually go on about Ken Gaillet for a really long time which I think he would enjoy but you all would eventually get bored Ken has been with us. Oh my God, I think I've known Ken for at least 10 years now. It's been a really long time. He and his colleague, George Barnes have been working on this project since the beginning and we're lucky to continue to work with him. So Ken, say more about what you'll be doing with us. Sharon you're making me blush. Well thank you very much very excited to be here today this is, this is a huge milestone. Everybody should be very, very proud of making it this to this point at that. And there's still a lot to happen so the immediate first step as Sharon mentioned would be to bring the design team on board. To get the designer on board is going to be a series of design working group meetings design process, we're going to do our own independent design review process during the design phases as well. To make sure we've got the tightest set of documents that we can have before we go out to bid. We're going to work with the committee in the town to make sure we get a good group of contractors to bid on the project. It's a large project it's one that's going to generate a lot of excitement in the area and so we're looking forward to getting a good turnout for that as well. And like Sean had mentioned earlier we're going to be making sure that we're getting all our milestones and working hand in glove between the town and the MVLC we've got a long standing relationship with the MVLC, going back well over with me well over two decades so it's it's a continuation of that process and we're looking forward to jumping right in and getting to work on your behalf. Thank you Ken. Anything else you want to talk about Sharon, I mean you've been at this, as long as anybody so. And I think that's a part of my problem, it's like I know too much. And so I, you know, I didn't know I know Sean wants to talk about the financing piece but I didn't know if there were questions from the group or maybe you want Sean to speak first and then we'll go to questions. Let's do Sean, let's do the finances and then come back to questions for, for anybody. Okay, so I was going to talk about the finances and sort of two levels sort of the, the overall funding for the project and then what to expect. Day to day as we go forward in our role as the building committee. So the overall funding for the project has been secured. There's multiple funding sources there's the NBLC grant. There will be donations from the Jones library. There is the town's local share, and then there's also the Community Preservation Act funds. So all these different funding sources have already been approved by the council, and which has helped establish the budget that we have to work with. We received our first NBLC payment already, which is great so that's in the bank we've got a separate account set up and as these payments come in, we will record them separately. One of the things we're working on right now in terms of the high level financing is how do we want to pay for this project we have a couple different ways we could do this. And our financial advisor David Eisenthal, who has been at the town for a long time is really adept at modeling different things that we want to do so. There's there's two options one option is where we can start using the grant money right away and use the grant money first and borrow as far into the future as we can so that we don't have to take up the debt right now. The other option would be to borrow right now, and save the grant money for the future. And so we're looking at these models. So the preliminary thing on my mind is that interest rates are super low right now. We don't know what they'll be in the future. And if we put the NBLC payments away into a bank account they can generate a modest return that we can then reinvest into the project. And so I'm sort of leaning that way of think of recommending to Paul that we and our treasure that we, we use the, we borrow sooner rather than later to lock in a low interest rate, set the money aside and a bank account generate that interest and then reduce the overall cost of the town by earning some money that way. We've talked with Ken and some other town another town that had done it this way and it seemed to be pretty successful. The NBLC was was open to either option so. We still need to see the hard numbers on both of those options before we, we commit to one. I don't think that's anything that this committee will have to weigh in on but we just wanted to share that that's sort of our decision, one of the things we're working on right now with this project. Then the finances at a more granular level in terms of this project we've talked with kind of a little bit so the OPM will be providing regular updates to this committee on the status of the project. Again, can fill us in more if you if he wants to add but they will be providing regular budget reports to show our progress how we're doing. If we're starting to get off track in any particular area that they would identify those. One thing that people if you if you're not already familiar with these, you'll become familiar possible change orders things that might come up that were not in the original design or in the original plan that then this that we have to decide whether we want to do sometimes we don't have much of a decision, but sometimes they are decisions that we could make. So a lot of that will flow through can and through the designer, and we'll come to this committee invoices will come to this committee for approval as well we've had some discussions about how that will happen. Probably not for today but at some point we'll decide does the whole committee just want to approve them do we want to form a subcommittee. The committee will be reviewed and approved by the opm first. So that by the time they get to us we know they will look at them as well but we'll know they've been vetted by the our representative who's looking at the details behind the invoice to make sure they're on track. Yeah, so I think I think that's what to expect is that there'll be regular invoices that meetings to approve there will be regular budget reports and our main role is just to try to make sure that the ship is heading in the right direction and is on track. Good. Thank you Sean. We already talked about timeline so let's see what kinds of questions concerns people have comments, whatever we like to use either raise hand verbally or virtually is either one either way Austin. So thank you Paul. Just a couple of observations and then really a question for can which will reflect a little bit of my on nervousness or anxiety. So I think since this is the first meeting of the committee, I do want to say yet again and it cannot be said enough how important a Sharon Sherry has been in this process. She has been a steady hand on excited cheerleader for the project and really a never say died force for the library and most importantly for the people who use it. So whatever this whatever this comes to and I am confident will come to a beautiful and functional library which will serve the town for decades to come. I also want to thank Paul and Sean leadership in the town played a critical role throughout the process but but really in the lead up to the town council conversation and in the lead up to the vote of Paul and Sean played a critical role. And last thing I want to say and George can convey it is to express the trustee's gratitude to the town council for their really very careful they put us through our paces when we started this I was six foot for and blonde and this is all that's left to me because of the things that George and his colleagues on the town council met made us answer but that process which was no fun are actually rebounded to the great benefit of the of the of the project. Now enough celebration here's to anxiety. We're a long way out from a bid process for contractors so I know the answer to my question is who can say what will be. But I wonder if you can talk a little bit about your expectation about how competitive this how attractive this process is going to be to contractors and subcontractors, and in most importantly, how you will help us with Sean. How do we keep within budget as costs on inflate. So first, whatever you can tell us about the attractiveness who's likely to bid on the contract and secondly, what can you tell us about the fiscal management, how we're going to keep to our budget, given that the project budget was set a long time ago. Great questions. So for the for the first part of that question. So we know, having done a tremendous amount of work in the Pioneer Valley. You know all the contractors in the area so in addition to making sure that we're going to have a good project to put out on the street. We're going to make sure that we're going to be out there actively soliciting these contractors well ahead of time make sure they've got slots open in their schedule that they know that they can come and take a really hard look at this project. So extremely. It's going to be a very big project for a lot of contractors in the area that is not a lot of libraries that are at this size around and there's not a lot of big projects happening in this area outside of outside of say Springfield. There are some really good general contractors that have a lot of horsepower that can really put their mind to getting this thing done and done on time. So we've got good subcontractors in the area, and we're going to make sure that we actively solicit all of them. Just in point of reference, Cape Cod Tech was a project that we just finished up out in Harwich, Massachusetts, not exactly Amherst but still it was, it was one of the projects that we actually went out to 80 different contractors to solicit and make sure they were aware of the project ahead of time. That project ultimately came in about 10% under budget. So by getting that breadth of contractors not only on the general contractor side but also on the filed sub bid side. We're going to hopefully get a really good spread and a really good participation from a lot of different contractors and that'll help drive that cost down. How we look at this as we're going forward costs is always paramount to us we're always thinking about cost quality and schedule as we're going through any of our projects. You know that that is a stool that you take one of those legs and that stool is going to fall over so we have to find that right balance when it comes to the schedule. When it comes to ensuring that the quality is appropriate for the building type building that's going to last 50 plus years that's going to, you know, again be a mainstay in the town for a long, long time to come we want to make sure the materials are appropriate. But along with those materials comes a cost so we're going to be constantly weighing all three of those aspects as we're going forward. And, you know, Sharon mentioned that we're going to do at least one more cost estimate during the design process. We have more than one estimator look at those the designer has their estimator, the owner has an estimator, and we look at it together and we reconcile those costs to get a really good idea of what that value is going to be in terms of whether we're on budget at that point or not. We still look at value management how we can come up with alternatives to ensure that when we go out to bid that we're going to have a successful bid opening and that we're going to be able to bring the project through into construction. That means maybe setting up a list of alternates to ensure that we've got that cost certainty when the bids come in and make sure that we've got a very viable project to move to move forward. We also have escalation built into the budget. You know, again, this is a budget that was established back in 2016 so we only had a certain amount of escalation there but there's contingencies and other things in there to that we can hopefully ensure that we're going to have a very, very good project for the town going forward. And answer your questions Austin. Other comments or questions people have Alex. Thanks. Can I say two questions one's a follow up to Austin's question. So, COVID put us behind a year and then obviously the vote put us behind another six months and so. And then I think we're now waiting for our new town council to be elected to really move forward and so I guess what I'm trying to understand is for our time when do we really like how long can we delay making decisions like when do things really need to happen. And because my worry is the longer we wait to start making decisions, the more the cost escalates. And the second question which is unrelated. I've had community members approach me about the contractors that we would use for the project and if there's a way to build into the process using contractors that are owned by BIPOC. And so I think understanding, if we're constrained by anything in terms of doing that if that's a possibility or understanding our ability to try to make sure we're using contractors or subcontractors even that might be the more reasonable option that are black owned or people of color owned businesses. Yeah, so we will have to answer the second part first we will have thresholds that we're in goals that we're going to have to try to achieve on the contracting side so that will definitely be part of the contracting process for subcontractors and for general contractors. So we will absolutely have have minority and and women owned business thresholds and goals that we're going to have to try to try to meet per the SDO. As far as the first question part of your question is concerned. We, one of the things that we may want to look at and want to think about is asking the estimators who worked on the original estimate back when we did the, did the grant application is to just recast our estimate based on today's market. They don't have to do any additional take offs it's just, it's just basically where it was in 2016 compared to where it is today. And that could give us a really good snapshot of where the construction dollars lie right now. And then obviously they've got a better pulse on anybody on where the market is going forward and what factor in for any escalation beyond your standard 4% year over year is it eight is it six what where is it right now, and be able to really start having those difficult discussions about what we're going to do with the project is this is it meaning is it changing materials is it changing methodologies is it changing and modifying program and what what does that all mean to the project at this point in time, going forward at least it gives us a snapshot to be able to then factor in going forward and how we're going to attack this. Go ahead Alex. Yeah, so just so we did do that in a sense when we got the sustainability piece added, but that one's already I guess what a year. That would have had a start construction I think in April so so updating the most current one is what you're suggesting not necessarily the 2016 one. Well that's right and having both again having both the estimators take a look at their numbers that's why I brought it back to 2016. Just again to get that reconciliation that we want to make sure that we're, we're getting a good idea of where the number is not just from one specific estimator but a couple of them. Thanks for the clarification. One quick follow up. Ken, I'll email this to you if you don't have it already do you already have the new responsible employer construction by law. I believe we do yes. Okay, just for Alex so that by law, in addition to what Ken mentioned that by law also lays out targets for who we contract with as part of the project. Great. Thanks. In terms of getting the estimate do you think you're saying do that timing do that estimate now, or do it further down the road I mean what when is the time when that information will be valuable to us because you know any what it's a big snapshot right and then it starts to age. That's right so. So I think Paul, I think it would be good to get a snapshot of where where we are now. We always want to do one as we get further on down the road and construction documents are later on design development to make sure that we're on the right track. But right now, we really need to get a snapshot of where things are today because there's been a fair amount of time between the last iteration and what what did that. What did the market do that number between then and now, just to confirm, and then and then move forward from there and as we're moving through the design process. We're keeping that number in mind we're working back towards that again that ultimate budget number. What does that mean to the project understanding where that estimate that we cast estimate put us. And then as we work into design development we do another estimate reconciled make sure that we're still on budget going forward, look at value management alternatives in case we need them at bid date and keep keep things moving forward in that manner. When you say it's short money what does that mean. So, typically a schematic design estimate is between $5 and $7,000 to recast an estimate that's already been done is probably going to be half that, if that might be just a matter of them looking at their formulas and, and updating the escalation to bring in into today's dollars. And that would be something that we want to talk about we bring back to the to the committee to discuss further, if that's the best the right thing for the project to go forward on. So is that something the committee wants to do anybody have thoughts on that. I think it's a good idea to because of the delay to know right now before we get moving has there been a change because of just the delay. It'll allow us to sort of separate what are things that might change down the road when we started getting to design versus what was the impact of just that that span of time so again if it's really relatively inexpensive I think it makes sense to get an updated figure. Christine. I agree with Sean I think it would be a good idea and just it's not just about finances, I'd be interested on any input they have on schedule I know we want this done, you know, by early 2025 but supply chains, they might have some insight on that. And I know Ken might be able to give us ideas about if, which is kind of a change of industry practices right now of buying stuff more ahead, you know, right and actually storing off site capturing what you can earlier. That's absolutely right. Good ideas. Other comments or questions or to have Ken here. Okay. Okay, so we're sort of like what are the next steps next meeting date, what time of day is good to me. What's, you know, what's the pleasure of the group. So let's let's talk to the, to the people who aren't like Christine and Austin and Alex. What do you like to do. Maybe soon and often. So the question is when, when, and that will affect the day and the time, when, when would we be looking to a next meeting with something substantive to do. I would think the, you know, probably the second week of January, we could January 10. I think by then we may have a broader, you know, additional counselor, just representing the council, possibly. Right. So, yeah, for me, either start of the day or end of the day is going to be better than the middle of the day. So that's as a general rule, either bright and early or, you know, as late as people are willing to meet in the afternoon. Christina and Alex. I'm very flexible. So whatever is best for others. Okay. I'm generally flexible the key is just getting it on my calendar so that I stay flexible. It's like a day. Go ahead, Christine. Just following up on Austin's frequently. What is that expectation is this like twice a month every week or once a month. I think typically it sort of goes in waves, right? It starts off and then it's drips drift away. And I, and I, you know, with it will have a real firm agenda for the next meeting about, you know, whether we want subcommittees. What's what's a more detailed timeline look like what about community engagement. So that type of thing. So I think we will have a fair amount of work upfront, and then it might drift off for a little bit and then when it comes back into actual design, it tends to be much more frequent. So, I mean, can you've done these before so what's your experience. Yeah, that's exactly right Paul so typically what we do is we'll say let's let's schedule out meetings every once every two weeks for the committee and then we're able to peel back. So that means if it canceled them, we don't need them but at least having that in everybody's calendars and keeping that cadence going. I think that that seems to work out the best and then if there happens to be a subcommittee or working group that meet on the opposite weeks that keeps the flow of information going and everybody kind of kind of moving as expeditiously as possible. So let's not choose all those means but just let's choose our next meeting. Today, let's look at the week of January 10, which is so far out that I'm sure Alex's calendar is totally open. So, I'll go to Austin, why you suggest some days. How about like four o'clock on the 12th. Would that work for people or 430. That works for me. Good. I like Christine already. Sean. George. George Hicks. I've been closer to four if possible just because I have a meeting at six. Okay. And Sharon. Yeah, for would be better I think we're going to have to be with a historic commission that night. So for would be great. Ken. I serve with the pleasure of the committee so whatever you decide. Okay, so let's our next week will be January 12 at 4pm. And we'll take responsibility for posting that and putting a gel work with Sharon and Sean to get Ken to get an agenda together. Good. Anything else anybody wants to bring up to for today's meeting. George. Ryan. Yeah, just managing expectations vis-a-vis the council. It meets on January 3 and then it doesn't meet again until January 24. So you may likely not have a counselor present for the first and maybe even the second meeting in January. I'll reach out to Lynn, but at the moment we have no idea who the president will be of the new council. So I think just FYI, there may be a couple weeks where you won't have a counselor present. I don't think that's going to impact anything really that seriously, but just just so you know. Yeah, I think. Thank you for raising that because that's a concern. But I think what we would probably do is if any counselor who is interested in serving and wasn't appointed yet could attend the meetings and be present. Just like, and I don't know if we'll be actually taking votes on anything anyway, but it's about staying up to speed. If they, if they are appointed, and these are council appointments, right, George. They're not president appointments. Yes, they council votes. Yeah, so yeah. Thank you for that. Any other things. Christine. I just Austin did a nice job of thanking people and I just wanted to give it a shout out to Austin and Alex as to the board. And just as a resident, anyone who is following this, your efforts were appreciated and amazing and so long, long going. So thank you it's exciting to be at this point and it was so much of you all. So hopefully you're not too burned out and tired. Ready to go I want to meet twice a week. Go ahead. Thank you, Christine. Any other comments from members before I open it up to public comment. Oh, Alex. I just wanted to quickly comment point out so I know we're not making any committee chair decisions because we don't have the totality of the group here but the likelihood of us having it at the next meeting seems low since if we have another member of the public joining, we already have a meeting date set and we're probably not going to have a town counselor. So as much as I want to push forward I'm not sure how different this group will look at our next meeting so I don't know what that means for scheduling and agenda but just get out as a reminder. Yeah, no it's a good point I think what one of the first item on the agenda for next time will be do elected chair and the committee also always has the wherewithal to change chairs if it so chooses as a membership changes or whatever reason. I do want people to think about the role of chair and who would like to serve in that function. I can tell you I don't. And I think there's a lot of people who might already say they don't but just to have it be there so people can start to think about if they're willing to take on that responsibility. It's important role is a very important role and in a real responsibility so we encourage the person to do it who does it to be prepared for that work. Sharon. Yeah, I'm interested to hear when we'll be able to hire the architects. So what's that process can you help us with that process. So, you know, immediately after we're brought on board will solicit a proposal from the design team, along with their schedule work plan to ensure that aligns with our expectations will probably have a couple of back and forth. We'll get that number negotiated down as far as we possibly can. And then we'll present it to the committee for for approval and going forward. So what does that process normally take let's pretend nothing slows us down. Usually within a week or two I will have Jim and and whoever else Alan or whoever. Tony, to make sure that we get that turned around. I'm sure they're chomping at the bit. In January, so that's something we can do in January, for sure. That would be my my hope. So Sean and Paul do do we think that we can get colliers on board ASAP. That's the hope just yeah just looking at everything now no no problems just making sure everything's lined up and in an order so. Okay, thank you. Yeah, no there's no no hurdles that I'm aware of right now. Good, good questions. Clarifications, thank you. Anything else anybody has. We'll come back I open it up for public comment. If any member of the public would like to comment. Please raise your hand we'll bring you into the room for three minutes of comment. We do have four members of the public in the audience. So people know oftentimes people ask how many people are at the meeting. So we do have four members of the public. And if you would like to say something welcome to do that now and not seen any takers and not seen any other business before the committee I think that concludes our business for today. Right. Good. So we'll see everybody January 12 at 4pm if not sooner. And just wish everybody a good holidays and thank you for stepping forward and taking on this role. Bye. Take care.