 Welcome, everyone. This is Angela Mills who works in the town manager's office. We are now recording to the cloud. And I am making town manager Paul Bachman the host of this meeting. Thank you for everyone who is attending and thank you to all of our panelists. Have a great meeting everyone. Thank you Angela. Good afternoon everybody. This is our second meeting of the Jones library building committee. And so the first thing we're able to do this because of legislation that the general court has passed that allows us to meet virtually. But there are certain rules that come along that when you meet virtually, which means that we need to make sure that everybody who's present identifies themselves and says they can hear us and we can hear them. And we try to fix any technical difficulties in the course of the meeting and all votes if there are votes are taken through roll call processes. So, again, we'll just identify ourselves and our roles. So I'm Paul Bachman town manager and I'll call your names off. You can identify. So Sharon. Okay. George. Present. Christine I'm just going to cross my cat my schedule my screen. Present. Okay. Sean. Present. And Alex. And Austin. Present. And Anika. So I should note that Anika is the designated town council representative she has not gone through the formal appointment process so she hasn't been sworn into. The town council has asked the town manager to a point so that makes it pretty clear what's going to happen. We wanted her to be part of this meeting as well but she can't formally vote to but she will be a participant after the council's meeting on January 24. We also have present with us. Ken, do I introduce yourself and what your role is Ken maybe. Sure Ken guy Adam senior director with pliers project leaders were the owners project manager. Thank you. So in terms of see my computer is going slowly. The agenda. Can someone help me and find showing the agenda or talking about the agenda. Yeah, so first up Paul is officer elections. And I've, I've heard from committee members that they're concerned about electing a chair at this point, they'd like to wait until after the, the building committee itself has been formed fully. Yes, so go ahead. Nope, go ahead. I think that's a good option for us by role of my, my ex officio role, my role here I could continue to run the meetings it's up to the committee how it would like to proceed. Any other thoughts from any members. Any. Austin. I think that's a good I think we should. We should wait, Paul. Okay. Good. Christine. I don't think that's a good idea. I was just, and part of that reason is that we're still down a member, the other president and I was, I don't know if that's on the agenda, but it's some point if we could get an update on where that's at because I feel that that person is critical. I don't want them to feel like they're like, you know, not, not vital. Yeah. I don't want to get that. So I can update you. So we're hoping to get all the word as many appointments as we can to the town council by the January 24 meeting. So, typically, and I think that that should be possible. There's there we have some more interviewing to do we have interviewed some candidates but there are other candidates who have expressed interest. We had some glitches with one of the candidates who could not connect. So, we'll be moving that forward. And let's see the we're going to go to finance up or minutes for 1214 21. And we for this meeting I think we will just we'll ask for a motion to send seconded. Did we get that everybody get the copy of the minutes. We did. Okay. We'll ask for a motion second, but we can talk about how we want to address those going forward so with someone like to make a motion on that. I'll move to approve the minutes of January 14, 2021, December 14. That that too. It says January 14 on the agenda. We fix that after the fact. That's what I get. But we can do next week's Friday's agenda. Good. Okay, Christine, great. Thank you. So we'll go roll call vote. Sharon. Okay, this is to a vote to approve the minutes as presented George. Christine. Sean. Approved. Alex. Approve. In Austin. Yeah, proof. Great. Thank you. Next time the agenda is a finance update, I believe. And Sean, are you going to take that? Yeah, so there's, so there's not much to update. I can review if anybody wants to review. There really have not been many changes. Other than we've made progress with the contract for colliers. I don't know. Can do we have a fully executed contract yet. Yes, we have a fully executed proposal, which is just the extension of our existing contract. So. So that's probably the most important update is that we, we have the OPM on board for this next phase of the, of the project and now we will turn our attention to doing the same thing with the designer. And we hope to get that done within the next week or so. And I mean, they have to submit a proposal to us. We haven't received the proposal from them. That I know of Ken, right? Nothing yet. That's correct. Yeah, we've just solicited as of yesterday. We've reached out to find going to get that proposal. Yeah, so the next big step will be getting them under the same agreement to extend their agreement to go through the rest of the project and then we'll dive, you know, head first into design development and working with them on that so if there's any questions or if people want me to review the financing up until this point, I'm happy to do that. I know we have some new member or at least one new member so I'm happy to go over what I went over last time as well if it's if it's useful. Alex. Sorry too many things to click yeah I just wanted to follow up I know Sean you had said that you were talking to the financial advisor for the town, and you were waiting for hard numbers before you could commit to which option. Right. So I don't know if that's I don't know whether that's impacts our decision making but I just want to know when I do a quick refresher or do an update a review of what I talked about last time and so what I said last time is that there's a couple different ways we can finance this project we can finance it so the two major funding sources are the towns share of this the amount we're going to borrow and pay back from our capital funds, and then there is the MVLC grant share which is the other major share and there's other funding sources as well private donations and CPA funds. But the grant and the town share the two largest contributions. And the way the grant funds work or we have five milestones we have to hit, they give us a roughly 20% of the grant every time we hit those milestones. And one of the milestones was as simple as signing the contract so we already have to point something million that's sitting in an interest bearing account, generating some some additional funds. So we have a decision about whether we want to use the grant funds for eligible project costs first exhaust those funds first, and then use town funds last essentially. Or we can use town funds first, let the grant funds accumulate as we hit those milestones and use them last. The benefit of using the grant funds, first is that we don't have to go out and borrow money we can wait as long as possible to borrow money. And it also pushes back when we have to, you know our first payment is due it pushes that farther into the future. The downside of that is right now interest rates are really low, and they're going to tick it up a little bit but they're still really low compared to where they've been in the past. So if we were to use town funds first by borrowing in the next six months or so. We would be able to lock in a low interest rate we could start paying on the town share earlier, meaning it will get done sooner. And then the other major benefit is those grant funds continue to sit in an interest bearing account generating interest and I did a rough estimate. So we could generate north of $30,000 or so an interest over the, over the amount of time that they're sitting there before we would have to use them, and then we could put that money back into the project to reduce the cost to the town. So, so we're sort of leaning towards that option right now we're going to work on the financial advisor to model out what that looks like we're leaning towards that option. Some of that depends on the timeline for the project and the cash flow which is what we've been working on with Ken and colliers because if we. We can't depend what share we use first we still have to make sure that we are in a position to spend that money within a certain period of time so if we were to borrow money let's say this June for the town share. We have to make sure that the costs that will come within the next 12 to 24 months to use that money. So we just the cash flow is an important piece of the financing as well. So all that's to say we're working very closely with our financial advisor working with Ken to choose the financing option that will ultimately I think have the lowest overall cost of the town. And giving our other given our other projects that we know around the radar the schools the fire station the DPW. It's not necessarily a bad thing to start this sooner rather than later because those are coming in the future to and we don't want them all the hit in the same year because that would be a big increase all at once. So trying to space these out and getting one of these projects started in terms of paying back the debt on the project is helpful for planning and for spreading it out. Any questions on all that sort of sort of rambly. All right, that's the finance update. Thank you, Sean. Now we go on to sort of next steps, and I'm going to turn it over to Ken and I appreciate you being here can I know you're traveling all over Western Massachusetts today so appreciate your efforts to be with us and that was really important for us to see you. So do I just, I mean, many, most people here have never been on a building committee don't really understand what your role is and how you're going to guide us through the process but it's it's a the opm is a really important role. A lot of you guys have worked with Ken for many for quite some time now and has guided us really expertly along the path but for those of us who don't, could you just sort of describe what your role is and what the next steps look like for us. Sure, thanks Paul I appreciate that. Absolutely so we as owners project managers we are essentially an extension of your staff, a technical expertise that we bring regarding, you know large capital projects through all the phases of those projects from inception all the way through close out. We work in handing gloves with this committee with additional staff in town the procurement agent Sean etc. To ensure that the project and the process moves swiftly and expeditiously and you get the project that was that was desired really early on in this process and you get a, a product that's high quality on on time and obviously on budget if not under budget. It's going to be, you know, a long process. It's already been a long process. We're kind of at the midpoint right now, basically, to begin the design process in earnest going forward so our initial next step is to do just that to bring the design team on board and get them under contract for the balance of the work which is the design phase, the bid phase, the bid phase and then the close out phase of the project. And that's what we've been doing so yesterday, I have been corresponding with with Ellen, that's alone from from find gold Alexander, and we're working through getting a proposal from them. I have a call with her schedule for tomorrow to try to truncate the time that they're looking forward to to get their proposal back out to us they're looking for two weeks we'd like to see that turn around much quicker, if possible but again understanding that they've been kind of waiting in the wings. I'm trying to give them a little bit of a little bit of grace here when it comes to putting that proposal together. So that's going to be the next really big milestone is to get them under contract and then from there. We're going to work to put together a macro project schedule which is a real big high level schedule showing large chunks of time. We're going to make a project design design development contract documents bid phase etc, in large chunks, and then from that, we're going to make a milestone schedule along with input from not only the town, but also from the design team to date those big chunks of time and break them into tasks with individual dates to ensure that every little milestone that we have to hit within those large chunks of time, ultimately hit so we don't miss the big milestones and so there's going to be a lot of dates. There's going to be a lot of tasks, there's going to be a lot of things that we're going to be going back and forth design team on to ensure that we're going to hit everything that we need to hit. So that's going to be the big milestones and again make make sure we maintain our schedule because, especially in this climate time is money. And so we want to make sure that we're being as efficient and effective as possible. So that's really kind of the next large couple of steps. We're going to work again with the building committee to give pass along all that information to you. We inform the committee, you all make the decisions. We're here to basically again be your eyes and ears and to give you all the information you need to make your decisions effectively. And so whatever you need from us. That's what we're here for, and we're going to continue to push the project along as quickly as possible. Thanks Paul. Austin. Paul and can just a clarification question. We just the building committee need to take any action as a building committee on find gold Alexander's proposal, or is that something that you and Sean and the town people will kind of take care of. So that's totally up to to you all I think Paul and Sean I think we had talked about, you know, we'll solicit the proposal will review the proposal make sure it meets the contract requirements make sure that the costs. And again, we're going to negotiate back and forth the client with Alexander a bunch of times I'm sure to get the number down to where it's managed rolling within the budget. And then from there we'll present to wherever we need to present you with it's it's Sean and Paul or the committee as a whole. It's it's totally up to you all. Typically the choice of the architect would be something that the building committee would be involved with the actual negotiation of the fee would be something that the contracting authority which is the town manager would typically deal. That's how I think we would divide it so it, I think we're moving forward with fine fine gold Alexander unless there's somebody on the committee who would like to deviate from that. I want to deviate from it I just want I just wondered Paul, maybe it's obvious whether or not it would be helpful to kind of put on the record that the committee as a whole is endorsing this choice. That's what that's what my question is in other words would it be helpful do you think for the committee to vote, you know, to support whatever it is for fun go Alexander. So, I think, I think that might make sense, maybe at our next meeting we bring back the proposal agreed upon proposal from find gold Alexander percentage to the committee and ask for a vote of the committee that's that's totally fine as well. So it does clarify things I think for everybody, because this is a new body that's just meeting for the second time. Yes, so what we'll have to do on behalf of the committee and behalf of the town's will have to give find gold Alexander notice to proceed, which is essentially a contractual notice to proceed to move forward in this next phase, based on their current contract so that would be great. I work out well. Okay, we can do that. Any other questions that people have for Ken Christine. Just have one about my nose a lot of setup in the beginning can with all these schedules but as we start to roll forward, how do we get the information from you all like is a report form that we can then utilize for outreach or just our own knowledge would that be like a monthly, I'm guessing because we have to report for you guys see that in our charge. Yeah, so that's a great question so there's going to be a variety different formats you're going to be able to choose from so there's going to be typically a month report that we're going to give. That's going to especially during the design phase it gets into into more reporting as we get into construction because there's daily reports there's weekly reports and then that all rolls up into a month of report for reporting on construction activity but during the design phase will be giving you all a month report that that opines on the cost quality in the schedule of the project for design phase services that the architects performing etc. Any other consultants that we need to bring on board outside of the design team. But also beyond that we will be putting this project into our, our call yours 360 web based program management system software which is for the town to use I mean if you have a web browser you can go on where we're at with budget or at with schedule meeting minutes, everything that you need to know will be there on that on that portal that you can grab any information that you want and as we start getting closer to any sort of community outreach that needs to happen will obviously make sure that we've got find gold Alexander queued up for that with any sort of renderings or models or anything that we need to make sure that we're getting that information out to everybody and keeping everybody well informed of what's going on. Sean. Ken what what is the like the flow of the meetings how often should we be meeting. When is there a lot of work for the committee. And like with the MSBA process with the school side like it's very prescribed and there's key steps and it's sort of very regimented so you know exactly how often you need to meet her or what's coming up what what is for this committee what are some of the big things coming up and how often should we be meeting. That's a good question Sean Sean so I think early on here I think what we should probably we do is is figure on a meeting. It'd be nice to have a meeting every two weeks and then if we can back off from that and just meet monthly if we need to. That's really the best kind of cadence that we could have for the meetings is monthly but early on we're going to have a lot to talk about until we get into that rhythm and it would be good to kind of set that up in two week intervals for now. And then start spreading that out a little bit but we'll get into that cadence we'll get into that rhythm it'll be again it'll be an overview of what the design teams been doing obviously they'll give a presentation on where they're at with any new design that's happened will obviously have conversations about the schedule and we're out with schedule costs will give a budget overview if it's if it's if it's requested again. Whatever level of detail that the committee wants will be able to provide that and it can change it'll change it'll likely change as we start going through the process where you guys will be like well we don't need that much information or can you give us a little bit more information on certain aspects of the project. And so we're going to give you everything we have at first and then let you guys tell us to back off we need to back off. Other questions or comments on the opm process. Okay, I just can just I just an Amherst I don't think we will ever say you've given us too much information. So, yeah, Paul I honestly I was just going to say my on an Amherst call because it cannot be this easy that these questions are coming at me right now. Not been on a call yet. It's been this season. We're just warming up. So one of the things that came based on shots questions is we as a committee need to decide how frequently we want to meet I think every two weeks seems to be that's what the school building project is doing that makes sense for us, we will need to locate a time and time that works for everyone including the opm. Because that's really important that that that can be available and I know he's got other things in his on his professional diet as well so should maybe let's see how do we want to do that. Are you off the books at any parts parts of times I don't want to go through this we will probably do this through a doodle poll or something like that but if you can just give us some general comments some general framework. Yeah so so generally, you know in the position I mean I can I can make whatever time is convenient for the committee work. Obviously I would prefer during the day if possible but if it has to be at night that's all right to you know and we'll make whatever we need to make work. Okay. So I think what we'll do after this meeting is Oh, Alex good. Yeah, and you may be about to say this Paul I just wanted to suggest that maybe we set the next meeting, and then once we have the full complement of the committee. At that next meeting then we set a schedule so that everybody's schedule is I think an ecosystem. Yeah. So what would what's the pleasure of the committee for next meeting. Do you want to do two days, two weeks from today at the same time. Nica that works for you. Austin does not work for you. No, I have a commitment that day at the 430. Okay. Sorry to make another bid. Sure. How about the 27th and 430 Thursday 27th. At four or 430 or does it matter, Austin. 430 is a little better for me. If it works. Okay. What about the 27th at 430. I'm looking for heads shaking. No. Okay. Okay, that our next meeting will be Thursday, January 27 at 430. And on that meeting agenda, we will have the architects. We'll have the update from, from Ken. What else would you like to have on that agenda? Definitely have a schedule update for everybody by then as well. Alex. Yeah, I know on here we talked about subcommittees and I guess, I don't know if I'm jumping the gun, but I would love to hear from Ken sort of if there are typical. I mean, I don't know if there's typical ones and then they're special Amherst ones, but. I don't know if we want to talk about that today, but then again, I would love to have the full complement of the committee before we really commit anything, but I hate to keep dragging all of this out. Yeah, so there typically are, whether they're called subcommittees or working groups, there are some typical groups that that meet outside of the building committee typically there will be a representative at least from the building committee. As part of those working group sessions whether it's on the, you know, the interior design of the facility whether it's on just design in general which goes from the exterior to the interior landscaping etc etc. Just working through the architects on that design that still needs to cook for the project. There are other, you know, there's obviously sustainability working groups that that could be part of this. It's really at the pleasure of the committee on on again how much information they want to have to go through at each of the committee meetings or would they prefer that. A lot of that legwork is done on a subcommittee or working group, and then they would report back to the overall committee. So the building sub elementary school building committee is looking at two subcommittees one for net zero and one for outreach. So we might want to think about an outreach committee as well. So, Sharon. Yeah, so, you know, I'm, I'm mostly concerned right now with the design subcommittee. When we get find gold Alexander on board and really like to hit the ground running with that. Certainly the outreach piece, I think that's necessary. But regarding the net zero subcommittee, I don't think we need that only because we've already got four experts in that field that have done the work and then. And so they're still in place willing to help us so I just want to throw that out there. And George. Another suggestion would probably be the search for the offsite. You know the temporary location. That's going to be something that's going to hit us early on, and it's probably going to take a lot of a lot of legwork and I don't know if the entire committee would be needed for that so that probably another suggestion. And the reason for that is that the library has to maintain its services throughout the construction project. So it's that's a mandate and so that's why it's so important we can't just shut down and say we're not offering services for during the entire construction period. So it's an important feature and it needs to be able to available to the public but also serviceable by the by the library staff. Okay, Alex. I don't know whether we need to do anything around the historic aspects or whether that's all going to be sort of driven or whether there's any so I don't know whether that's a subcommittee that makes any sense since it's such a big piece of the building project is there. And then whether or not we can pull that through with the design subcommittee, it depends if that needs to be something that's specific to that aspect, then we can absolutely, you know, adapt to that. When the time comes when we really start getting into, but that's something that again I can start up ramp up and then ramp back down to once we've gotten our blessings from the historical commission. Good. Christine. I think that's a good point that the some of the historic stuff either is taken care of by the mb, the massive the grant or if it was, if it, I guess what I'm saying is, there also could be the sustainability issues that get rolled into the design stuff. I guess where I was thinking there's a concern is, you know, we don't want to get too heavy on number of subcommittees and Paul, what does it mean when we get a subcommittee like they have to go through the process what we're doing now like people get brought on they have to get sworn in. It's a whole nother meeting that like how much of a load does that become. So anybody created by this committee is also a public body subject to the open meeting law. And under the terms of the charter the town manager points these. So one way of doing it is to make the subcommittee of members here, and then inviting people to participate. Who are, who might be outside experts, but they're not they aren't a committee members but they're part of the, the thinking process, but it would, but even if it's a committee of two out of this group it's still a public meeting posted and all that stuff we just don't have to go through any kind of appointment process other than what this body just decides to do dividing up its staff. And in that respect it may be beneficial to look at that as a working group then instead of a subcommittee again it's up to the committee and how they want to work it. Yeah, so working group and subcommittee is it's an indistinguishable terms, it's still a committee. Yeah, the people like to say oh that's not the subject to the open meeting law but they are. So, Sean, I was just going to say I don't disagree with Sharon on the sustainability. I think there's a lot of people I think there's experts that have been working with the project I do think it might make sense to connect them to this building committee in a formal way whether it's, you know, subcommittee and then they're the residents that support that committee I just think we will want to have some sort of want to fold it into our process somehow instead of floating out there as a separate process, sort of a separate group. The group the trustees established right like Alex you have your hand up to talk about this. I'm going to say so they're they're an existing committee that are appointed they have a charge. Yeah, I'm actually a member of it. I'm least educated member I take the notes mostly try not to mess it up, but yeah so it is already. So I don't know how we weave it in but they're already sworn in and doing that. That's good. So let's put this on the topic of subcommittees okay Austin. Paul this raises a question that I think it's easily resolved but I just want to ask it so the sustainability committee was appointed by the Board of Trustees of the library. The question is what is the way in which you would see that. And maybe this is what Sean you were talking about becoming part of the work of this committee since it's a committee that's appointed by responsive to the Board of Trustees. How do we kind of straighten out the line of communication if you will between that committee with its appointment and its charge and in this committee. I don't have an easy answer to that. Can you tell by the way that I studied constitutional. Yeah, I love it. Sean do you have any thoughts on that. If there's a way to amend the charge or shift, make some adjustment to who the group reports to I think I get why that body was set up before this committee was constructed but now that this committee is on this path forward I think it makes sense for them to be making those updates to this committee and working with this committee on those things because we're going to be seeing designs and looking at the budget and and so all this all their work is going to impact the things we're going to do. I know the trustees obviously have a heavy stake in this as well so I don't know if there's a way where they can report to both or if they can just again liaise with a subcommittee that we create and then you know Alex is on that committee already so maybe she could bring back. But I do think it's somehow we should try to align those those streams that they're working with us. So the only thing. Yeah, I'm all for that but just to let you know Sean said the sustainability committees charge is the building project is a piece, but there's an educational piece there's a much bigger committee than this is just, it's been their primary focus obviously for now but it's not the totality of their charge. So, just put that out there like we don't want to like stop their other work. The one way to do it would be, we just form a subcommittee and those members become those sort of advisors like Paul talked about these committees will have advisors, they could just be the same group of, you know, be the advisors for our subcommittee and so that way there's consistency between the two and we don't have to mess around with, you know, changing what they're already doing. So, I'll put, we can put this on as an agenda item like subcommittees as a space that we can talk think of through what we think is the best what are the topics we think we need subcommittees on, and we don't have to be capture them all at the next meeting but we can say what are the most urgent ones that we want, and how we will how we want to set them up and have some ideas on that. So, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we talked about regular meeting schedule, I don't. There are, is there anything else on the agenda that the committee wanted to touch based on we have a public comment as well to do on today. Any other topics that I'm missing. Okay, so now I'll open it up to public comment public comment is a time for members of the public to raise their hand and make a comment. Committee members don't respond to comments we are here to listen to you. I ask you to when you're brought into the room that you try to keep your comments to under three minutes, and I'll identify you and ask you to come in. So I see. So who's hosted, who's hosting my. Yeah, so Hilda Greenbaum and bring you in to the room. Hilda, if you want to unmute yourself you're in the room and you can speak. Okay. You want to see my picture. People might want to see since we have that option. We wish that other people would love. I know it was in the audience but anyway, um, my husband and I have been following architectural meetings for at least the past five or six weeks. And today I read the report of the historical structure. And I have to tell you, it was like reading an obituary. The question in that context is, how much of the design is just pro forma for the grant purpose or how much of that is already cast in stone. How much input will counselors and have in in the final design project. I am not against a project I will begin with that right there but I am unhappy with the design. Both the interior and the exterior. And I know one of the things that I noted most about that is that that interior would work was 18% of the budget at the time the building was built. They found that it was very important. I thought that we learned in the 1960s when we tore down a lot of our heritage in the inner cities that we need to save our heritage and I would like that to be taken seriously in the final designs. And so my question is how much of what you've already put in the design phase locked in and how much of the details can be amended by public input or in reference to public input. Okay. Thank you Hilda. So I'm sure that will bring those questions to the designer and there'll be ample opportunity to pose questions to the designers when we have our public outreach. And you did mention something I wanted to, I meant to say it's being is that people like to know how many people are in the audience so we have nine people in the audience in addition to the people who are who you see, well, other than Hilda who are on the screen right now so there are nine people in the audience. So I'm going to pause for your time. Anytime. I was rolling the clock. Yeah. Let's see. I'll turn myself off if you want. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to move your back into the without. You got to click her name and panelist panelists right there. I always I always forget that too. Yeah. Okay, are there other. Other comments that people from the public would like to make. Okay, I don't see any other hands up. So we'll conclude that item on the agenda. The last time on the agenda is topics not anticipated 40 hours in advance and there is one topic that I would like to bring up. During the meeting, we were informed that there was a decision in the court case that was outstanding. And not trying. I haven't read it on it's obviously because it just came in. But I've been informed that the superior court has issued a decision ruling in favor of the town on all remaining claims in this action. And it denied the plaintiff's request to amend the complaint to add new claims. So I will share that out that'll be public document obviously. So that came out from at least from our town attorney during the course of this meeting. So I just want to share that that decision has been issued by the by the court. So panelists name up. Anika. There you are. Repeat what you just said I had just some static going on. Sure. I'm trying to like manage the screens here. So our town attorney has written an email saying I am pleased to inform you that the superior court has issued a decision ruling in favor of the town. On all remaining claims in this action, meaning the case of Alan versus Board of Registrar's, and it denied the plaintiff's request to amend the complaint to add new claims. So we'll, there'll be more detail in the actual decision. So, but it's good from the town's point of view is good news. Thank you. Any other items that people want to raise under new business or items not anticipated. Otherwise, we'll see each other on January 27th at 430pm. It will be by zoom. Thanks everybody. Take care. Bye bye.