 starting the webinar. And we are recording and we are live. I am Jonathan Salam. I am the chair of the OPM subcommittee to the school building committee. And I'll have our other members introduce themselves. And I'll start with Anthony. Anthony Delaney pro-carement officer and member of the committee. And Kathy. Kathy Shane. I'm chair of the larger school building committee. And I'm also on the town council. When I am out of school. My name is Dwayne Chambu. I am the out of school town coordinator for the Amherst Pellum Regional School District. And Steve. I'm Steve Schreiber. I'm a town counselor. I'm the vice chair of the elementary school building committee. And my day job is I'm chair of architecture at the U.S. So at this point I'll turn it over to you to introduce yourselves and present to us today. Great. So if I can share my screen, then we'll truly present here and get our introductions going. Can everybody see my screen? Great. Excellent. Well, good afternoon and thank you for inviting calliers to present our team, our experience and our approach for this very, very exciting project. We're very happy to be here. As you can see from this map of the Commonwealth noting our project locations, you know, in our partial list of MSBA projects shown here, we have a tremendous amount of experience throughout Massachusetts, most notably our recent projects in Amherst and surrounding communities. Our office locations are noted by these red, red little indicators and indicate our proximity to Amherst. We have an extremely diverse and strong team that we feel will serve Amherst well. The core team will be comprised of myself, Ken Gaillet. I'm a senior director. I was an architect in the former life, gave that up about 20 years ago and then an owner's project manager ever since. I'm also a U.S. Army veteran. I'll be responsible for the overall delivery of our services. Phil Palumbo is our senior project manager for the project. Phil, can you share a little bit about yourself for the committee? Hello, nice to meet you all. I've been with calliers for the past nine years, been working in design and construction for the past 20 years or so. And my project type has been predominantly public, publicly funded construction projects in the Commonwealth. Great. Thanks, Phil. Liz Gelderas will be your primary point of contact. She's your project manager and she'll be responsible for the day-to-day activities throughout all project phases. Liz? Yeah. Hi, I'm Liz. Thanks for having me here today. I'm a registered architect. We have a great experience. I also have an interest in certification in sustainable design and construction. Next, we have our team of subject matter experts that we've chosen to align to support your core team. I'll let them also introduce themselves. Ari? Hi, good morning, everyone. I'm Ari Charles. I've been with calliers for the last nine years and then another 15 years prior to that in the construction industry. I will be managing the on-site construction as we get into the construction phase. Thank you. Thanks, Ari. Teresa? Hi, I'm Teresa Wilson. I'm also a registered architect. I'm also a member of the American College of Healthcare Architects. I work across all sectors, but a focus on healthcare design. And just really quickly over the past year, I've been facilitating meetings with 70 organizations about pandemic designing for pandemic and beyond. That was with healthcare groups. And we translated that to a school superintendent format this past summer. So I just want to talk about my focus for you guys. It's going to be looking at providing the safest environment possible for everybody who enters your school. Great. Thanks, Teresa. Adam? Thanks, Ken. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Adam Troidel. I'm the sustainability resource always available to this project. Coming up for a project I currently have under construction, I've been the direct project manager and sustainability champion on the other side for over a million square feet of LEED certified space. And including 1700 square feet of that is the home I'm in right now at my home office, LEED certified in 2013. Great. Thanks, Adam. Robert Lee, who you see here on the chart, is actually one of our commissioning agents. He does commissioning and energy services throughout the Commonwealth. He'll be tasked with being our MEP support during the design phases, as well as assisting us during the construction phase to reinforce the MSBA's commissioning agent. How about Tao? Tao? Hi, I'm Tao Nguyen. I'll be your project accountant in your MSBA progress payment guide. Having a date and over half a billion dollars of pro-pay submissions, I hope to assist you with all of your reimbursement request needs. Thank you. Thanks, Tao. In addition to those that you've seen here and heard from, we have well over 140 professionals ranging from architects, engineers, contractors, building officials, et cetera, that were able to leverage for this project's benefits at a moment's time. So a very, very deep bench. In addition, we've been extremely successful in working with John Fitzpatrick and the Commonwealth's Supply Diversity Office and also our client districts over the years to ensure that we have maximum participation in exceeding established goals throughout all phases of the project for MBE, WBE participation. In the event that there was any confusion regarding our plan, we want to make it clear that we will commit to at least a minimum of 20 percent of our fee that will be attributed to MBE, WBE participation, such as these three sub-consultants that you see here before you. Climate advisory for sustainability and resiliency, a lot incorporated for cost estimating and niche engineering for some existing condition survey. We have a lot, obviously, that we could talk about, you know, but having sat in on your committee meetings over the past several months and with only 15 minutes to present, we felt it best to focus on three key topics that you'll see in the subsequent slides. Bill? Ken, so on this slide, we'd like to speak to your question number one regarding a challenging elementary school project that we've worked on on the slide here is the Lincoln Street Elementary School Project, another MSPA project. This was a four phase owner occupied addition renovation project. The existing building was right around 50,000 square feet, the gym addition in the back or the right side of aerial image was right around 10,000 square feet. As you can see, not a lot of usable site space. So a lot of stuff to get done in tight quarters. In phase one, the initial stages of construction we constructed modular classroom swing space out front, the green space there to the left of the existing building. Once students and staff got back from summer break, a portion of them moved into the modular swing space, that vacated space from the existing building is where we started our renovation process, firewalling off on both sides of the renovation zone and essentially starting the renovation process in four phases. So as we would complete spaces, we would move students and staff into the renovated area, take over their space and do that all on, I don't want to say it took 14 to 15 months. So all the while needed to maintain mechanical electrical plumbing systems, phone systems, PA systems. There were portions of the renovation process where some portions of the building were working off a new system, some were working off of the existing. So a lot of stuff going on. Got to make sure there were no noise issues relative to MCAS testing, no dust issues getting through the construction barrier. So a lot of stuff going on, a very challenging project, but a very successful one as well, came in on time, on budget, a very high quality level. And I'm sure he would have called John Coteer, the town administrator of Northboro Mass, he would say the same thing. So on this slide here, we want to provide our experience on school consolidation projects with the MSBA. We understand your project potentially could be a consolidation of Fort River and Wildwood. The Maple Elementary School Project in East Hampton Mass, that's a consolidation of their three elementary schools. The East Meadow Elementary School Project in Granby Mass recently completed. That was a consolidation of two of their elementary schools, as well as a project not listed on this slide. The Templeton Elementary School recently completed was a consolidation of two schools in Templeton and one elementary school in their neighboring town. So we have that that experience with facilitating the holistic approach and perspective during the early stages of the feasibility study so we can reach out to both staff bodies of both schools, the student bodies of both schools, the parent groups of both schools. Let's get them involved in the educational visioning so they all feel part of the process as well as during community outreach so to make a conscious effort to reach out to those two community groups. So everybody feels like their voice is being heard, questions are being answered, comments are being responded to so they all have a positive outlook on the project. We understand EMRS has a high desire for a lot of sustainable design features. We understand you have the bylaw in town to make sure that new projects are at least net zero ready. That's very common with all our clients these days. The upper two images on the slide here is information taken from the Dover Community Center Project. That we were the OPM on. They also have a desire for a lot of sustainable design features. They wanted to lower their carbon footprint. So on that project they were looking at all electric HVAC systems. So the information on the slide here is some of the operations and maintenance costs that we provided during some engineering meetings during design. With that information coupled with estimates on upfront bid costs for the two different systems. So one system being a air source VRF system. The other being a ground source heat pump system after weighing the pros and cons and the financial limitations or the applications that came with those systems. They ultimately chose to go with the air source VRF system. So we got plenty of experience taking care of design team members in their role and providing that information that information at the engineering meeting, you know, the information of the upfront bid costs, maintenance costs. We can provide them with utility bills, relative to operations costs. But we have a lot of experience in making sure design team members uphold their task in role in this so you all can make an educated decision during design and what system should be in this project. Regarding your question, number five in terms of how we view our role in our management style relative to a school project. First, in terms of our role, we view our role as an extension of your staff, whether it's a school project, a library project, a senior center, whatever it might be. We're an extension of your staff. We might as well be in the office or cubicle next to you at Town Hall. Our sole focus is to look out for your best interests. We're not an architectural firm that is moonlighting as an OPM, an engineering firm that's moonlighting as an OPM. We're strictly an OPM. That's what we eat, sleep and breathe. And that's our main focus is your best interests. In terms of management style, I would say we're firm but fear, right? So, you know, as an OPM, we have our contract terms. We got to uphold. We expect the design team to uphold their contract terms. We expect the GC or CM to uphold their contract terms. If it means there's a portion, there's a time during the project where we have to pull aside a design team and tell them where they're falling short and tell them to get it together. And that's what we have to do. If we have to do the same to a GC, then that's what we have to do ultimately. Our main focus is making sure your best interests are being met at the end of the project. It was it was viewed as a success. With that, I'll hand it over to Liz. Thank you. Thanks, Phil. So I'm going to speak a bit about sustainability now. So Collier's project leaders are uniquely positioned to address any sustainability concerns and ambitions the town of Amherst might have for the Fort River School project. Aside from having a really impressive portfolio of MSBA projects, which you might know requires meeting either any chips or lead certified standards, Collier's have also worked on over 160 projects that were lead certified silver or higher, which would qualify you for bonus points if we were to do that for the school project. And we also have 15 net zero or living building challenge projects in our portfolio as well. We also have an internal group of specialists that we call the green team, which I'm personally part of, as well as Teresa and Adam, who are also on this call. Teresa leads our health and wellness, as well as resilience initiatives, while Adam leads the energy and carbon initiatives, which includes assisting with securing rebates and incentives for your projects, which is great for your bottom dollar. They'll be available to speak a bit more about this during the Q&A session. Next slide, please. So in terms of community outreach, Collier's has a project, has a proven track record of building community consensus to get our projects to that all important yes vote. We'll be looking to build upon and maintain any community support that you already have right from the feasibility phase all the way through project closed out, including move in. So firstly, we'll be listening to your project needs in order to understand what your priorities are, and we'll be looking to learn more about that positive support that you might already have, as well as any negative perceptions that might be out there within the community so that we can address those as soon as possible before they take on a whole life of their own. One of your questions was about getting some specific examples of what we've done for community outreach. So I'm just going to touch on some stuff that we did recently that has been a little bit creative due to the COVID-19 restrictions that we've faced. So one method that I think was very successful and that we would want to look at doing going forward is doing these narrated short films that take people on a tour of the existing buildings and really highlight in short snippets what the key issues are so that that's available to the community on an as needed basis and removes the need for doing open houses and really just captures the main reasons why the building needs to be upgraded or the facilities need to be upgraded. We also hosted drive in style town meetings at local sports fields, which gave residents an opportunity to to participate in in a community meeting, which was previously not allowed due to COVID restrictions. We broadcast over the local radio station for residents to listen in and they were also able to voice their concerns in a safe, organized and productive public forum. And this also gave us the added benefit of giving the project team the opportunity to respond to any concerns right there on the spot. Another method of getting community support that we've been looking into has which also has added benefit, financial benefit to the community is to actively encourage our project team members to hire local consultants, contractors, subcontractors and vendors whenever possible. So we'll be working with Anthony with on that as much as possible in order to compile a list of local businesses advertised locally and really get the project team involved with contacting those local businesses whenever possible. Moving on. Oh, and one last one last thing there on the community outreach was just that both Oriana and I, who is our community outreach specialist as Spanish speakers and we would welcome listening to any thoughts, questions and concerns that the community members might have in their preferred language, whether that be English or Spanish. So on this slide here, we have an example of a module three, which is the feasibility phase evaluation matrix for the MSBA projects, which were previously used to assist the district in determining their preferred scheme. On the left, you can see a list of prioritized criteria, which is very specific to each project. So we'll work with you on that. And then on the right, you can see a series of colored columns here, which identify different project types. So we've got the MSBA required base repair, renovation, add renewals and new construction options. In real time, we were able to record the votes and the preferences for each project or preferred scheme here. And you can see clearly with just as a color visual here that the C2 was the preferred option here with mostly green, and then this was really just a tally of all of the the votes and preferences in real time. So this was particularly useful to present to the community that a and also to the MSBA that an unbiased and informed decision was made. So that was helpful there. Next slide. And then another benefit of having Collier's project leaders on your project is that we have access to this really exciting web based project management platform called Collier's 360. Using Collier's 360, we can manage and share real time information on the project budget, invoicing, schedule. And we can also store key documents, including meeting minutes, reports, mission materials and any other key information that is necessary for the project team to access. The system can be accessed from your computer, tablet, like an iPad or a smartphone like your iPhone and making it really easy to have project information at your fingertips and for everyone to have access to the same information. So over to you again. Thank you, Liz. And with that, we'll complete our initial presentation slide deck and would love to open this up for Q&A. Take myself off mute. And I apologize, I had to put my screen video off for a moment. And so I'm going to just confirm that as part of your formal presentation here, you didn't touch on our question number four, at least I didn't hear that and so we would like to hear that. And also question number two, I think we have slides to to answer question number two more formally, as well as question four, if we could. OK, I don't know if we should just I feel like you've probably covered question number one fairly well. I don't know if you have more for that. No, just question two and four at this point. OK, so why don't you start with two and then get to four. OK, Adam. Thanks, Ken. Yeah, you know, on our next net zero experience, we've been involved in more than a dozen net zero projects. Several were featured in our proposal that you that you all receive. One is about to enter construction as Connecticut's first net zero school building at Mansfield Elementary and bits of that project have come in 10 percent under budget. So there's a great story there. We also have a mass DOT administration building in the close out phase right now. And that'll be zero energy certified with the International Living Future Institute. Now that's a performance based certification, so it won't be officially awarded until it's operational for a year. But that allows us to obviously prove its performance that it is net zero before they issue that certification. And then near you at Hamptree College, we've commissioned two net zero buildings on their canvas, which are both living building challenge certified. And right now we're the OPM for a net zero science center currently under construction at Wellesley College. So those projects and you know, several others really that combined experience uniquely positions us to ensure that your school becomes a valuable community asset is sustainable, healthy, resilient building to serve the citizens of Amherst, you know, long into the future. We also noted that Amherst had won an MVP grant through the state to develop a climate action adaptation and resiliency plan. So we certainly see ourselves interacting with that plan in any way possible to advance the talent goals through that project. And as Ken mentioned on one of the earlier slides, we have a great relationship with Lisa Churchill at Climate Advisory and her woman-owned business is founded on, you know, some long-eath experience Lisa has with an international engineering firm providing guidance, both on diverse, you know, building projects, as well as at the program level, the organization such as the UN and the World Bank. So we really see the potential for this project to complement other local efforts in the town with your zero energy bylaw and, you know, wanting the school to obviously be as sustainable as possible. Great, thanks, Adam. And to answer question four, I'll take that question and feel that question. And to my knowledge, we have never been terminated from a project. We did have one end without proceeding and that was early on in my career with Collier's and that was the Monument Mountain High School Project in Great Barrington. That high school actually serves three communities, Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. During the FSA process, the feasibility study process, including the get out the vote initiative, you know, the commentary and feedback we were getting from the constituency was largely positive. So based on this, the building committee decided that the best practice would be to stay quiet as they're, you know, they had a very high confidence level and a positive outcome. Unfortunately, due to the financial constraints of one of the communities, which was not, again, represented in any feedback, that outcome ended up becoming not favorable and we ended up losing that one at the vote. As a direct result of that outcome, though, we've been able to leverage that scar tissue and learn that we have to be very proactive on all commentary, not just the positive. And since then, on the numerous MSBA projects, core projects that I have led, which is over eight at this point, we've had the good fortune of leading those that have completed that module four to yes votes. Most recently, at the Cape Cod Technical High School Project, which was, you know, again, has 12 sending towns that required to vote for approval on the project. And that meant, you know, again, 12 different get out the vote initiatives, including listening sessions, program and design reviews. We even did a local radio debate. And as a result of our efforts on that project, that project passed overwhelmingly with well over 75 percent positive vote. The project is also recently finished in a high note as we're able to complete that project a year early and 10 percent under budget. Likewise, we've also been successful in other state municipal projects, such as the recent council vote for Jones Library, you know, our experience over the last five years with Amherst and the Jones Library, that's going to allow us to be able to hit the ground running. And, you know, one of the first statements that Austin shared with me when we came on board, you know, is that well known saying about, you know, the only thing silent and Amherst is the H. And his words prove true, but in large part, you know, this is something that we experience daily with many of our clients. And as you can see from this this slide before you, which is again, not meant to be an eye exam. This is this is your project schedule. This is, you know, the feasibility study schedule that shows how we're going to get and clearly to be able to delineate the process that we'll have to go through over the next 30 or so months to complete MSBA modules two to five. In addition to everything that you see here, all these MSBA related tasks on this schedule, we're going to have to expand this schedule out to address all the tasks that are going to be required to effectively reach the community. Once we're on board, we'll improve, you know, we'll employ a proven tactic and multiple tax tactics that we will help maximize our effectiveness on the community outreach and to get out of the vote initiative. One of the things that I like to talk about is something I call the rule of thirds, which I may you may have heard before on one of our other public meeting addresses, which essentially is, you know, your constituency is historically going to break down into thirds. You get a third that's positive and will vote yes for the product no matter what, you've got a third that's negative and will vote no for the product no matter what. And you get that third in the middle, that's really could go either way. There's your focus. That's what you've really got to be adamant about focusing on. In addition to making sure that the entirety of the constituency has all the updated information, we're totally transparent with everybody, we have to make sure that we can take that one third that's in the middle and bring that over to the yes side and get that two thirds majority that we want for our project going forward. In addition to expanding on slightly on what Liz said earlier, you know, there's a saying that that a lie can travel around the world before the truth even has a chance to get its sneakers on. We understand that, you know, this is this is really, you know, we really work to ensure and that your story is effectively getting out to everyone that your vision is getting out to the constituencies, and that we're proactively monitoring and addressing not just our specific meeting and listening sessions, but all of the social media platforms and print media everything that's out there. It's extremely important that we get to address any liar confusion with the truth and clarity as quickly as possible. So with that, I'll answer and we'll answer any more questions you may have. Steve, did you have something? Yeah, that's OK. I just want to make a comment about Ken's comment. The third third third. So we used to have representative town meeting in the MRS 240 members. But someone actually mapped it out, you know, red equals no vote on everything with green equals yes. And you are exactly right. So there's one third that I've always voted yes. Another third always voted no. So it's really interesting that you that that observation is interesting. But my question is this. So when you get beyond a mom and pop operation for anything for OPMs for any, it's hard to contact race. So what I mean by that is my question is really about the net zero school in Connecticut, which I think that's a T K S P. So you say that Colliers has experience, for example, with that. Do you all directly have experience with that? Because I only found a mention once in your RFP, for example. But is that one of your people on this team or is that the sort of the institutional experience? So, Steve, and that's a great question. And I honestly, I didn't want to do my own horn about that one. That is actually one of my project teams. One of my projects. It's actually in my hometown. And it's going to be built a mile from my house. So that's when I am heavily involved in. But I didn't want to skew it by talking too much about a Connecticut project. But yes, that one is is one of my projects. Do others have questions? Yes, I'm I'm I'm muting. You talked about I'm looking for the words you used. Firm, but clear. Have Ken in in terms of your style in the way you are working with the components of the larger team, including the building committee. Can you describe any had there been situations where people had a different view of something and you had to get to yes. And it mattered before you could go to the next. So I'm not just talking about the vote in the town, but strongly held the view and what you did on it. And, you know, yeah, I'll stop there. Sure. So since Phil mentioned that firm, but fair, I'll let him toss that question to him, Phil. Or so, Kathy, you know, every project we work on, there's a instance or two or three or four or five. Well, you know, big part of our role is educating, let's call it the layperson. I guess it doesn't have to be a layperson. They could be an experienced person, whether it's on the owner's side or not, that has a differing of opinions as to what we think the best resolution is to an issue. And, you know, ultimately, our tactic is to provide you all with the facts. Our job really isn't to steer people in one way or the other, because ultimately there's going to be an end to the contract. And this is going to be Amherst's building and Amherst's site. So I mean, we want you to be happy with it. So it's our job as the professional, give you the facts. You know, so there's plenty of projects where, say, for example, I'm currently working on the South Hadley Senior Center Project. South Hadley recently fell into a grant where they can get funded from the state to do a fitness trail along the same property that we're building the senior center. So you have one constituency group that is all for this fitness trail. And then you got one group, you know, kind of more towards accounts on aging that wants the money that might be pulled out of the budget of the senior center and potentially go to some of that to stay with the senior center stuff. Maybe own a request at the end of the project when we have that budget surplus. So my job on that particular example is to give the facts, you know, so here's the breakdown. Here's what the grant's going to cover. Here's the surplus or the deficit that, you know, if the talent chooses to do that, it can come out of the senior center project budget. If that does happen, here's what's remaining out of contingency. You guys make the choice, you know, and that's kind of how we try to keep it. We don't want to act like we're steering, you know, one way or the other on any of these scenarios. So I hope that answered your question. Okay, thank you. Yep. Other questions? Good. Okay. Anthony, did you have something? No, I just, my standard end of meeting notes, if you could send me the slides over email after this, I would appreciate it. The recording will be up on the town's YouTube channel in time eventually. That's all. Great. Well, thank you very much for your presentation. And with that, I will formally close this session. Thank you. We very much appreciate it. Thank you all. Thank you. Stay safe.