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Home My WebLink AboutMBC Minutes 3/22/2005�C G Town of Mansfield Municipal Building Committee Meeting Minutes of March 22, 2005 Members Present: James Liddick, Chairman, Richard Feeley, Clerk, Kenneth Gay, William Moore, David Young and Eleanor McCarter, Secretary Meeting commenced at 7:30 PM. Capital Improvements Plan Committee (CIP Representative Ken Gay) • MBC Member Ken Gay attended the first scheduled CIP meeting on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 at which time Committee officers were established. Kenneth Tolman is now serving as Committee Chairman and Selectman Bernie Dolan as Clerk. • Future CIP meetings will be held on Thursday evenings starting this Thursday, March 24, 2005. • A total of $5.6 million dollars in CIP requests is submitted to the CIP Committee for consideration at this point. CIP Committee is working with a budget of $1.3 million dollars this year to satisfy these needs. • A proposal to borrow $1 million dollars per year over the next 10 -year period is currently under consideration. DPW/Fire Dept. Facility — Chairman Liddick intends to submit a follow up letter to Town Manager to support the revised project cost estimate previously submitted by the MBC for construction of a new DPW Facility and Fire Station. Pending Litigation • Qualters Middle School/Keyes: Copy of letter dated 3/16/05 to Attorney Adam Nee from Attorney Susan Jacobs regarding a Motion to Extend Tracking Order. • Qualters Middle School/Keyes: Copy of letter dated 3/14/05 to Attorney Adam Nee from Attorney Susan Jacobs regarding a Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment not timely served. • WTF Project/Hart Engineering: Letter to MBC Secretary dated 3/16/05 received from Town Counsel Bob Mangiaratti requesting a copy of file documentation regarding a Mediation Demand recently filed with the American Arbitrators Association (AAA). • WTF Project/Hart Engineering: Legal Counsel for Hart Engineering previously issued a letter of intent to file a Demand for Mediation to the MBC. With respect to Hart's dispute regarding a proposed contract adjustment for additional sprinklers, no further information is received as of this date. • Mansfield Police Station/BBC: MBC is waiting for Attorney Jacobs to coordinate a time with Attorney Zamansky in response to his previous request to review MBC project files. The MBC Secretary offered several dateltime options to Town Counsel in March 2005, however no meeting date is yet scheduled. Mansfield Schools Feasibility Study (Dave Young/MBC Study Committee Member) Although members from other Town Boards /Committees were initially invited to participate (i.e. Finance, MBC, Planning etc.) as members of the Committee to oversee the study, the Mansfield School Department continues to maintain the lead role in the Study's course of direction. At a recent Study Committee Meeting attended by David Young, the Mansfield School Department distributed a 13 -week schedule (dated March 16, 2005) that describes the focus of work to be completed in the upcoming months. Based on the schedule presented, Member Young raised a number of concerns that could impact the School Department's ability to achieve their objective by the estimated completion date: • To date DRA (Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc.) has not provided the Study Committee with any demographic information to support a need to increase school space. • DRA has not submitted their assessment of the existing school buildings. This work must be done in order for DRA to responsibly identify any potential school deficiencies in the Study. • DRA's final recommendation(s) with respect to space needs will be included in the Feasibility Study Report after consideration of several alternatives being evaluated including building a new Grade 8/9 school. These evaluations have not yet begun. • Only preliminary findings from DRA's evaluations will be complete in time for the School Department to present to parents at a public meeting scheduled on Thursday, April 14, 2005. • At least one property abutter has apparently approached the Town with a proposal to sell their land for future school or field use. Member Young's understanding is that the option to purchase and acquire this additional land remains under consideration by the Town at this time. • School Principals from Mansfield High School and Qualters Middle provided space needs input to the Superintendent for DRA's consideration in the Feasibility Study. (Copies of this information were distributed to members of the Feasibility Study Committee.) • The School Building Authority (SBA) is currently redefining their reimbursement criteria for all new school construction projects, which could impact future project funding. • Two warrant articles were generated by the School Department for the upcoming Annual Town Meeting and are associated with the Feasibility Study efforts; Architect Design Services ($350K) and installation of module classrooms. Member Young indicated to MBC Members that he does not support the School Department's decision to move forward with an article at the Annual Town Meeting Spring 2005. School space need options have not been fully explored and evaluated at this point and there is a significant amount of work to finalize in the short timeframe allotted in the schedule. Mr. Young feels a request for funding either of these items at Town Meeting would be presented prematurely. Qualters Middle School Synchronization of Horns /Strobe Devices — Dave Young spoke with a representative from Vincent DiIorio Inc. earlier this week to follow up on the status of a proposed Contract Agreement. Once approved, the contract would allow the MBC to move forward with modifications required to synchronize fire alarm devices at the middle school. As requested by the MBC, the contractor is amending the original proposal presented and is expected to return the revised Contract Agreement to the MBC for signature approval some time next week. Public Records Law — MBC Secretary attended a presentation offered by the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office regarding Public Records Law held earlier that day at Town Hall. A representative from Bill Galvin's office explained and answered general questions about what information is considered to be "Public Record" and information that can and should be withheld based on a Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law (updated 7/22/04). GIS Newsletter — Xia Jin of the MIS (Management Information Systems) Department issued a newsletter to Town staff to build awareness of how the GIS System can be used as a resource to various departments. Future newsletters will be issued on a monthly basis. LaserFiche — MBC Secretary met with the MIS Department (3/21/05) for an introductory demonstration of the Town's document imaging system. MBC may consider scanning critical project documents such as requisitions and contracts to simplify future document retrieval from archive storage. MBC Dept FY06 Proposed Budget/MBC Administrative support Based on review of active MBC Projects, members evaluated a possible option to reduce administrative services hours in the FY06 budget. Chairman Liddick opened discussion as to whether or not the remaining MBC projects on the current schedule would still require a 28 -hour workweek for administrative support when the Water Treatment Facility Project Muds down to a close this summer. The Committee determined unanimously that if/when an active construction project is approved by Town Meeting; the MBC would require as a minimum the same level of administrative services as they have at the present time. The MBC Secretary expressed an interest to the Committee to supplement her existing MBC position with another part-time position (within the same union), in an effort to obtain full -time employment status within the Town. Precedence to hold two part-time positions already exists within other departments and also offers a cost savings to the Town with respect to payment of employee benefits. MBC members indicated they would support a reduction in services to the department after the Water Treatment Facility Project is complete, and provided the needs of the MBC continue to be met. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM. Respectfully submitted, Eleanor McCarter, Secretary ,1- (/ 3 Richard J. Feel y, ClevK Date