 Okay, welcome everybody to the Jones Library Buildings and Facilities meeting for, I don't even know what today is, Tuesday, March 21st, starting at 9am. I want to double-check, make sure meeting is being recorded. We have a quorum, so we're going to make sure everybody can hear and be heard. So, Farah, here. George. Here. And Alex, I'm here, and joining us also is Sharon. Let's see, have a quorum, meeting come to order at 9. Sorry, I'm running through my little list. So let's see, pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021. Tim Kev just recently been further amended. We're conducting the meeting via remote means. I'm going to turn it over to the public. I'm going to turn it over to the public. I'm going to turn it over to the members of the public who wish to access the meeting can do so by clicking on the live link to this zoom meeting that can be found on the public meetings calendar on the town of Amherst website, but also on the library website. The public is able to comment during the public comment segment of the post agenda by raising their hand. This meeting is being recorded and will be posted to the library website. This is the meeting minutes of January 17th. If someone would make a motion to approve those minutes. Most of do approve. I second it. Any comments, questions. Changes to the minutes. So this would be a vote to approve the meeting minutes of January 17th, 2023 far. Yes. George. Yes. This is a yes as well. So it looks like we have three people in the audience today. This is a portion of public comment. If anyone would like to make a public comment. Please raise your virtual hand and we can bring you into the room and would love to hear and appreciate your comment. Give people a minute to find their button in case. They don't know where it is. I'm not seeing any hands raised. So that we will go on to item number two, which is the delivery van update, which I assume it's the same as it's always been, which is it still being built? Or is there something new and exciting? There's nothing new and exciting. And I actually just had correspondence with the dealership yesterday and they just have nothing new to report. Okay. Next item on our agenda is the North Amherst library. Where we are on that. I don't have much to say. I don't know if George does. The only thing that I have is a Guilford recently asked me about circulation desk models. So that's exciting. But that's all I got. Yeah. And I'm supposed to meet with it and the branch head at some point it was supposed to be today, but I haven't heard anything just to discuss. Power points and technology and stuff like that. So it sounds like they're definitely moving on schedule. Okay. And remind me again, when is that scheduled to reopen? Or for us to put our services back in. The last I heard was August, but I don't know if that means that's when construction ends, but I don't know if that's when they're planning on opening. So I'm not sure. August ish. Okay. Great. Okay. Sorry. Did you have any. Questions or. Okay. I was just saying that's great. Yeah. So monthly building and grounds report. George, what's the latest? What's going on? Actually, a lot of stuff has been going on the, they came and dug some test pits to check the groundwater levels as part of the renovation and expansion projects. And they filled all of the holes that they dug. They were much larger than I was expecting, but they did a great job and they didn't seem to disturb anything, which was wonderful. And they did it all between all the snowstorms that decided to just, it finally decided to be winter, like right when all that was happening, but they did a great job and didn't disturb a lot. We've had a couple of HVAC issues. One of which was a two inch water pipe that had developed the leak. So we did an emergency repair on that. That was in one of the equipment rooms on the ground floor. So we opted to replace that pipe as if. A two inch water pipe had burst. It would have flooded the basement for sure. So we took care of that. But there's two rubber expansion joints in the boiler room, which are part of the water circulation system that runs both in the winter and in the summer, that the rubber expansion joints, I think I've held one up at a prior meeting, but they're about this big around. They're made out of vulcanized rubber and they, they, they wear out over time. They get dry and they start showing cracks. And we have a couple that are showing cracks. So we will be getting those replaced. And I just got a quote. It's something like $3,500. So we'll be taking care of that very shortly. Other than that, I just wanted to mention that we've been having. And it's not just us, but it seems that has been a bit of a marked increasing graffiti. In the building and on the grounds and in general around town. We're reasonably certain it's teens, but we've been just trying to stay on top of it. It's been becoming a pretty regular thing. And I just wanted to make a note of that. And I think that's all I have from my end. Okay. Did you have any questions, comments? No, just the graffiti. Was it like just. Usual crap or art? Is it. It's not art. No, it's not art. It's, it's mostly just tagging. It's, it's nothing racist or. Yeah, it's, it's, it's nothing like that. It's mostly just names and, and. Random designs. It's, it's nothing that. I would say is hateful. It's just graffiti. Okay. Thanks. Um, so, uh, just a reminder for folks of the, the test pits that were dug, that's for the storm water management system. That's to determine what, what we need for our. The rain garden for a storm water management system. Yeah. Um, and then the. There was a question that came up in the, um, the last D meeting about, um, the three remaining boilers. And if we were to lose one more boiler. Um, is that problematic only in the winter when we need that capacity to heat and colder temperatures or what. Like, I guess the question is, when do we switch over from a heat to AC? Um, which I know is usually like a good day for you. And, you know, well, there's never good, but, and then what are the impacts in the warmer months? Um, if we're to lose a boiler or. Have I guess a larger issue. Right. The, uh, When we change over to cooling, uh, we typically do it the end of May, first week of June, we really tend to rely on what the weather pattern is like, uh, when that happens, the boilers actually get shut down and they are, they are off for the duration until the fall when we switch back to heating such heating, which is typically end of September, first week of October. So they're shut down. There's no effect or anything throughout the summer for cooling months. Um, I have made inquiries as to what it would cost. If we needed to put a temporary heating system in, uh, some places this is all they do. They have trailers and with temporary heating system, I have not gotten a response yet. And I know it's partially because, uh, our HVAC company is dealing with staffing, trying to figure out who's going to go where, but, uh, I'm looking to get an answer on that just to get our very rough ideas to what kind of economic impact that would be. So I'm, I'm still working on that. Okay. Thank you for that. That was going to be my next question. So, um, okay. Uh, far did you have any, did that bring up any, no, okay. Um, So, okay. So in theory, once we make it to the end of May. Potentially we're good until we get to the fall again. As long as we don't have any air conditioning breakdown. Right. So I guess that's, so that's a good question. So what is the status of our air conditioning systems? Really. I mean, we're in the same situation. Everything is, everything is pretty much of the same age. Uh, the only thing I would say is that the main unit that does cool the building is that's the chiller. Uh, that's the largest piece of equipment. One side of that was rebuilt about five years ago. Uh, so it is still operating in decent shape. But of course it still relies on pumps and fans and all kinds of other things to just spread the cool air throughout the building and the cold water that cools the building. So it's really, you know, everything is, everything else is of the same age and we're, we're on a constant watch. And of course. Once cooling season starts, we, we have to become a lot more mindful of the equipment above such a collections because generally we do not have. Any, if there's a breakdown in special collections in the winter time, it's not as, um, catastrophic as in the summertime because in the summertime, you deal with condensation and a lot of water. So it'll just be come us doing a daily check of that system upstairs and just keeping an eye on everything and make sure that we don't have any leaks or breakdowns. So I mean, I guess I'm, I'm the timing on all of this is always really challenging. I mean, if the project proceeds, this all becomes obviously so much simpler in the sense of like, we have equipment that's on order and we don't need to worry. And I guess, um, and, and you know, maybe this is the next, the next, we're sort of like moving into the next section, I guess at this point about the backup building project planning. So maybe I'll pause my thoughts, questions for any, for you guys to provide an update and then we'll, we'll go from there. Unless again, Farah, just anything you're okay. So, so I think we're sort of transitioning into the backup building project planning. Okay. That'll, that'll, that'll be me. Um, so, so there is an internal working group. It's, you know, me and George and Jeremiah, uh, Sean and Gano, um, Rob Mora, uh, and we've met several times over the winter. Um, and so what's been decided as the HVAC system, that is the number one priority that, um, uh, so if, if the building project should fail to move forward, uh, the next day the town would hire an engineer, um, to develop a solution. Uh, so that would be the most inexpensive path to moving forward. Um, and getting a cost estimate for that. Uh, Sean and Jeremiah will do that over the summer. Um, and so when I, when I see that, I will share that with, with you all in the trustees. Yeah. Sharon, when you, um, say they'll, the next day they'll hire an engineer. Is there someone you have on speed dial, because it seems like all these things take forever. So is it someone that's already in place? No, they'd have to go out to bed because of how much it'll cost. So, yeah. Okay. So once we get to next year. Then if the project. Doesn't go through, then there's a whole waiting period. So we're still in the middle of this huge mass. Pretty much a little bit, but I don't think, um, you know, all the, all the processes, the forms are in place. So that's not, you know, they'll seek bids. They'll collect the bids. They'll be able to hire somebody pretty quickly. So, um, I don't think, you know, another month or however long it would take, we've waited this long. I don't think that's necessary. I don't think that's a concern you'd have to worry about. Okay. So I have a question about what we're even talking about. So when we went to Western builders. Um, when George put together sort of the list of, you know, minimum things for public safety and being able to stay open. And I think back then HVAC was number four on the list. So there are three things in theory that have higher priority, but for the fact that you don't have a choice anymore on the HVAC. Um, so they had the price that they had given us was for essentially. Like more like a refurbishment of our system, rather than we're like with the renovation expansion, it's a whole new system so that we can, it's a whole new system. Um, because one of our key issues, as I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong, George, is that our duct work runs around the atrium. So in addition to having problems with the system itself being, um, aged out, the actual way that our duct work is throughout the building is part of what causes the problems. So even refurbishing our systems are problems with the leaking, uh, atrium. We still have, am I understanding that correctly? Correct. They're, they're, they're kind of, they're connected, but they're not connected. So that we've determined through these discussions that we would just focus on the HVAC first. And when the time comes where we tackle the atrium issue, whatever HVAC equipment is affected by redesigning the atrium would just be tackled at that point. You know, they're trying to, and this is just based on tours and, you know, Jeremiah and Rob, their experts in this, um, they've been given tours. Uh, they are hoping that just our HVAC system can be taken care of. Um, but certainly, you know, when, until they hire an engineer to actually get in there and redesign, um, Alex, it seems like you're getting to the trickle down effect, which is what we keep talking about. Um, I, I don't know if it's going to trigger the atrium, which will eventually trigger electrical, which will eventually trigger, you know, all of ADA. They're going to try and do it as cheaply as possible. So that, uh, money can go towards. You know, the other projects, you know, be if our project fails, then we will go to the back of the line. And so that's how the town is going to is thinking about this. So will we, so is the plan that we'll get a refurbished HVAC? So in, so you all, I mean, far and I are a JCPC, right? The joint capital planning committee. And so there has clearly been a trend, like, you know, they've replaced systems at the police department. They're replacing, you know, they've replaced systems at the police department. They're replacing. So as they're, what appears to be doing, so let's pretend we didn't have the project, right? Which is essentially what this would be is us pretending the project doesn't exist, right? So I assume we would be like the other town buildings where they're just going to replace a chiller, or they're just going to replace. And in those cases, you know, they've been working with Stephanie to try and make them greener. So I guess the question is, are they looking at. Just replacing a boiler. Are we looking at somehow making it greener? Like what, what do I, like, I guess I don't really understand what the town is proposing to do. Because I'm not a feedback person. So I don't know well, I don't. I don't know if it's like a plug and play. I like, I don't know enough about how it works. I mean, I will say this, you know, I think that Stella has been involved in the conversations since because she was part of the tour. So she's aware of our situation, and I'm sure that she will be involved in the process that goes forward. We're kind of, we're kind of going to be at the mercy of the engineer. You know, should, should it go forward this way where the town highest and engineer, they're going to be able to look at all the systems in better So we are at a bit of a standstill right now because we really can't see the entire picture until an engineer would come in here and look over everything in detail and come up with a plan moving forward. Okay. Okay. So. All right, so yeah, it's a lot to wrap your head around but you know my my hopes are that all of the important systems would get replaced with the most cost effective and efficient systems available to us. Given that the building itself is not being going to be redesigned if we go forward with the repair option, it will most likely be a replace in kind only with more efficient modern equipment. Okay. So how does this work in terms of. So the updated memorandum they don't have in front of me that we signed said that we're going to start this process, but the town is really running the process, not us so am I correct in assuming I mean, I just want I don't want to get to a point where it's time for a decision and somebody on town council says, you know, you guys haven't done what you said when so I just want to make sure that everybody's on the same page that like, you know, there's an internal of people from town, right the, and from the library, and the recommendation of that group, really town is that we hire engineer and that towns the one setting the timeline not us. Right. Yeah, the town, Paul, the town manager is, he's deciding everything, you know, with input from his staff really. Now money I just I just don't want somehow I mean I feel like yeah, I have I have pains around the whole Western builder thing where you know we did exactly what we were asked to do and then there were questions about why we didn't do other things so I just, I don't want to be in this exact same position of doing exactly what we're asked to do by town and then someone else who's not following all of this as, Hey, why didn't you do this why didn't do that so I'm not sure how we get that clarity but I just don't want to be in that position again and my other then is the temporary system I assume we need to price no matter what because if the timeline that I'm hearing is if we wait until are we waiting for the vote to go out. When are we getting the bid. It's unclear. Okay, so let's say it's, I don't know, even if it's in six months right we go out and we get, you know, we decide that we go out and we hire this engineer. It's my understanding it's a minimum a year before we'd even see the replacement parts, right so I don't know what yeah so I mean I don't I assume town is up to speed on the fact that like, if we wait six months, we develop a plan I mean we can obviously order anything until we know how how right I mean it's this whole project is the chicken and the egg right like we can't put on order new equipment. And if if the project doesn't fail, but we know we've got a year gap so we've got to have a temporary solution, right, until if the project doesn't move forward we need to pay for a temporary solution, right, as well as paying for the new solution, if the boiler, you know, if the HVAC system breaks down. Yes, I'm glad that you two are on buildings and facilities because you'll get, you know information that that George and I won't hear and and vice versa. And it's just something to consider. If, if it gets to the point where we say if we go back into heating system heating season, and if one or more of the remaining boilers fail and can't be repaired cost effectively. The temporary system isn't something we purchased that's something we rent, right, so it's kind of an open ended cost, depending on how long we need it. So it will probably get a per month cost, and then estimate how far out we need that and budget for that. It could be six months it could be two years we you know it's it really comes down to how quickly the town moves on their end. So I think I think it would be really helpful I know you're already working at George but I think it would be really helpful to be able to go back to this working group and say okay we've gotten, you know, a cost for temporarily service, you know we're entering a boiler if we need it and so, you know, I just want to make sure they're factoring into their cost model, this number and I think the sooner they have that number the better so that, again everybody's working with as much information as possible, when they're deciding the timelines that they want to use. So, if we could make that a priority and get that over to them that would be a night again I know you're working on it George but far. I just wanted to go back to George when you were saying, if it doesn't go through and then we would have to get efficient modern equipment. Now how would that work with an old building I'm just thinking of things like, you know, I'm a Mac person so every like few years I have to get a new MacBook, which is horrible. Right, because nothing, nothing works so when you get a new phone and none of the chargers and the work house work. Is it like that like is it. Well yeah kind of because any new any new boilers that we get are not going to be able to be operated by the pneumatic thermostat control system that we have so the control system would absolutely have to be replaced. Along with the boilers themselves. For instance, if they determined that some of the pumps throughout the building would remain and be rebuilt. The controls could possibly be modified to work with them. You know you have dampers and other things. For instance, when we upgraded special collections to computer controls, rather than having the pneumatic system. We were able to modify and adapt to much of the existing system. It was certainly not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but in some cases they're able to do that but the entire control system would have to be replaced, definitely, along with the boilers. So we just go back, we just be spending money and wouldn't have an ADA compliant building wouldn't have a net zero building we just a whole bunch of new equipment and money, just like with the schools, basically that's, that's the situation. Okay. Thank you. I guess I want to clarify my understanding about what we were and maybe this is better done at the board meeting but I guess just checking with you guys in terms of, you know what this group was tasked with in terms of backup building project planning so I'm because we're in the facilities I'm not viewing us as looking at you know the space needs and things like that because obviously we're like, we're not getting into really anything beyond trying to keep the building open if the project doesn't move forward is that everybody's understanding of what our task is. Okay, so. Okay. Okay. So I think that's everything I know that we now have four attendees and so I'm just going to open up again. If anyone in the audience who's joined us thank you by the way, one more opportunity for public comment. Happy to open the floor up just raise your virtual hand. Okay, still seeing none. I think unless anybody else has anything else at this point. There's a hand. Yeah. Great. Thank you. When I don't know how to say your last name so I'm not going to try. You should be unmuted if you want to go ahead and hear me. Yeah, can you say your say your name and where you live and then get your comment. I'm my name's Owen. I'm a I'm an Amherst college student and I'm writing a little essay about like public meetings and stuff. Okay, so yeah so I'm just here kind of just like taking notes and stuff and I kind of just curious like with this with this meeting in general like I've been taking notes the entire time what do you think like when you guys set this meeting like right now what was the purpose of this meeting to get done. So we have a, we are the buildings and facilities subcommittee of the Jones library and so our charge is basically we meet monthly and things related to the functioning of the physical building. And so at this point in time, it's really more of updates on where things so George is our head of buildings and facilities Sharon's our library director and so George meets with this group or as part of this group, and just gives up updates on the building the grounds things we need to be thinking of. And whatever we need to be relying to the board to think about generally to make sure that the building stays operational functional and safe for the public. Perfect. Thank you so much. No problem. Thanks for joining. Thank you guys. Okay. So chair I saw that you have a change for the next meeting I assume that's because of the spring break. Yeah, and so I was just throwing out there Tuesday, April 25 at 9am, if you could but it doesn't certainly doesn't have to be that. It works for me but far and George, let me know that's good for you, George good. You said, the 25th. Yeah. Yeah, that works for me. And then Sharon you got my message about the main meeting right. May. I think it was May 16. May 16. So do you want to switch that to May 23. That works. That's fine for me. Is that okay for you, George. Yes. Thank you. Beautiful. My calendar will let me move it for some reason. Oh, there it goes. May 25. Great. All right. This event. So May 23. Okay, perfect. Okay. I don't think we have any topics not anticipated by me. No, can I just say how happy I am. I love it when students of any age get involved in local politics, local. Yeah, because I want to call it politics local government affairs, because, you know, nothing is more immediate than than attending, you know, town government meeting so. I don't know what you're saying here. And oh, and the meetings are recorded so you can go back and listen to our content if you didn't catch something. So. All right, thank you to all the attendees who joined us today. Thank you to the committee. Thank you, Sharon. And thank you, George for. Yeah, I don't envy your job. I don't have any of your jobs, but thank you really appreciate everything that you do to keep this building running in what are really difficult and complex. It's a great situation. So thank you for everything you do. Thank you. Thanks, George. Thank you Sharon. Thanks. You're in the meeting at 931. Thanks everyone.