##VIDEO ID:-PhXtRmm6rY## above it the transportation or not but still last time I can them you try the um one I did that doesn't work it's just that for good afternoon I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is a special meeting of the select board for February 5th 19 of 2025 um let's start off with any announcements or updates from the select board no um then let's have public comment is there any one in the audience would like to to make a public comment U Tiffany read the rules yes thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brook line that matter to you each person speaking to today is limited to three minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once 15 minutes has been met There's an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you're welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail any person speaking must begin their comment by identifying themselves with their full name and either their Brookline precinct number or straet address and we did have Jocelyn Murphy who signed up in advance this week Jocelyn I'm promoting you now hi thank you good afternoon my name is uh Joselyn Murphy and I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 16 and I just have a couple of questions more than comments but hopefully you'll consider them comments the first question is whether the value of the subsurface land in the in the uh pierc playground has either been determined or estimated for purposes of Translating that value into improvements to the park and the second question is whether the preservation commission or staff have been consulted with regard to the enlarged scope um regarding the windows on the old um Pierce building thank you thank you that concludes speakers who signed up in advance of the meeting but we do have Carolyn Thal raising her hand Carolyn I'm promoting you now hello hello um my name is Carolyn Thal I am a town meeting member in Precinct 16 I'm also a school Committee Member but speaking for myself um my address is 66 Beverly Road um I will admit I have not been following this super closely um I did not admittedly go through the materials that you're going to be looking at um but going off of conversation that um that I've heard in in the last couple of weeks my understanding is the contractor and subcontractor Etc bids have come in in a good place um relative to um to the the overall budget for this project um and that there is some consideration of additional um add-ons add alternates um possibly I don't know if it's still on there um a million dollars worth of new windows in the historic building um I would just ask and urge the select board um as you consider the different options to please um and I said this all along with respect to this project um obviously I love our schools um our school department is experiencing a financial crisis uh the town has its challenges the select board is convening a um expense and revenue uh working group which is an override study committee um so I just urge you to remember half the town um voted against this unprecedentedly expensive project so um while it's great news that initial bids look good um ground has not been broken on this project there's a long time to go um so I would urge us to to leave some wiggle room um um and and not be going for uh nice to haves this early in the project I think that would be respectful um to our taxpayers and voters thanks thank you is there anyone else that wishes to speak today if so please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature at this time and there are 20 participants online and um three folks in the room but no one is indicating their desire to speak thank you uh we have no miscellaneous items uh on the calendar so let's go to our main calendar and the one item is on that that calendar is a peer School guaranteed maximum price uh question of approving a guaranteed maximum price with conly construction in the amount of1 165 milon $193 282 192,25 to um uh this has been reviewed and voted on by the voting commission at their meeting on January 30th 2025 uh is it someone would like to speak speak uh on this U we have lap in the room Adam Kean with left field online and we also have a representative from kigle um lab should we start with you or Adam start with cl on good afternoon my name is lap Yan from the bilding Department uh I've been sort of spearheading this project for uh for the town uh we voted on the building commission voted on this the the 30th which is uh Thursday and um we I was only able to get it to the select board a little bit late uh to and we missed the the Tuesday deadline so we thank the select board for convening this uh special session we felt that it was uh imperative that we get the GMP approved uh with all the craziness that was going on uh with the the the present Administration going back and forth with the tariffs and such uh the bids are good up till next Tuesday I believe uh 30 days for the bid and uh we wanted to make the GMP uh written Stone so that conly could start issuing contracts and locking down the prices hoping that uh there would be no further escalation um and that's it Adam do you have a presentation you w to start with yeah yes I do if I could um have the ability to share my screen you should you should and uh let's see okay please bear with me and uh sorry I'm a little clumsy here can everybody see my screen okay yep all right um so um uh thank you um um select board for having us uh today as lab set on a a little bit of a short notice my name is Adam Keane I work with left field we're the owner's project managers um with me also today is Andy Des Shane from Left Field uh with us also today from kigle uh live is Alex rosek he's in your front row um and online with me we have Bill Trail and Brian bian both with kigle so this is our guaranteed maximum price this this price is inclusive of phase one um as most of you know we're ongoing and demo of the building that phase one of the project is is rolled into this single GMP and I can report to you that our phase one is is on time and on budget so um uh so far so good we this sry let me get to my next screen so um this is a summary of the GMP uh this was sent uh to you earlier and um just a couple of quick notes right um we are approximately uh 2 million do on this contract Less on our on this GMP that we're presenting to you today in comparison to our 90% budget so we feel like that is is very um good news we'll also add that inclusive in this number are some late ads that we put into this project um those including some Park improvements that we did uh with article that were article 97 driven uh there there were also some DPW ads including phosphorus removal which is um you know some kind of uh drainage Street drainage uh fancier Street drainage some Street lighting infrastructure um and also included in here in this this proposal is an allowance for the parking garage um sprinkler work so this was some work that was brought up very late a concern of the fire department a bit tangent to our project and it is the sprinklers the sprinkler system that is in the library and um the town hall this budget is inclusive of 1.25 or $1,250,000 um for that work that has not yet been fully studied or uh designed the the reason for that is because this project has msba participation um the town is um has 21.6% msba participation um so it um you know with discussion with some key members of the building commission we thought it made good sense to include that here um as it is um a cost that would likely find its way to the job and that again in if we did it by way of a change order later we wouldn't get that msba participation so it is all inclusive of that and I I would like to talk a little bit about the alternates too which um came up in the public comment so included in this number that that again is a little over 2 million under is what we call alternate one which is the replacement of of some failed Windows within the historic building so what we learned the the historic building had all of its windows replaced somewhat recently and I mean when I say that it's about 10 years ago but what was um realized you know a few months ago that was the gasketing on some of these windows was failing and we you know for your approval for everybody's approval we are presenting as alternate one the cost of that work that is um $656,000 we've thought you know it is our opinion believe it to others to decide that when we're doing such a deep renovation in the historic building that it would be unfortunate to have to come back to those windows at a later date again also including this into the project at this time allows you to take advantage of the msba um participation um let's see and um I think that hit kind of all the the buttons that I was looking to hit um as we present this to you uh for approval great thank you any other presentations Adam no that's it I mean it did I did um my slide did have the uh the vote language if you will it's nothing really too specific I think you had it correct Bernard right um let's see any questions from the select board Paul War has his hand raised yeah Paul all thank you Bernard uh thank you for the presentation um I have a couple of questions the first could you remind me what the msba participation value is on any specific line item is it a percentage or something how does that work sorry you're on you're mute Adam yep sorry about that um I don't know that that's outlined anywhere uh spec specifically on this document in fact I'm pretty sure it's not there's a funding agreement from the msba uh the that percentage is actually higher than that 21.6 but there's what's called msba ineligibles right and there's there's certain caps on Square on the cost of square footage of the building there's certain limits on site work and it all goes into this calculator that but um effectively it's a 21.6% um contribution reimbursement okay is that lap you you're shaking your head up and down okay I'm gonna let lap go to the microphone Bernard sorry yes uh that not to get overly complicated because I can go into the week all you want uh but yeah it effectively is a 21.6% return and again as Adam said there's certain things that have different percentage lower percentage different things have higher percentage okay that's good enough uh my second question is around the fireproof um uh sprinklers uh I think you said was it 1.6 million or something is that is that bundled in with fireproofing where is that line item in the uh it it's an allowance and it's for 1,250,000 and the way the reason we did that is we're in the study phase for that work right now that's I'm fine with that but where is that in this in in this schedule that I'm looking at um it is an allowance in Alex can you help me with where that is located can you approach the mic fire protection uh that is an allowance and Fire Protection line item okay which is like three million or something right uh yes okay thank you and then my um I have two more questions relating to what was brought up at public comment uh have we assessed or determined the value of um I forget the article 97 the article 97 I forget what the word is underlayment or yeah go ahead let me let me so there is about $95,000 worth of work uh of improvements to offset the uh the use of the underground and that is embedded in the base contract so so the answer to the uh the public comment is it's worth $95,000 no that no just if I could please right and Joe Callahan I think is on this call yes Joe uh Joe's explained this very um multiple times we've at multiple meetings and I I know this was uh part of our you know meepa submissions of the value of the land the subsurface land um in a park and Joe is a Joe is the best person in the room to talk about this keep it simple for me Joe please sure so this is a process that we dealt with h State Regulators uh in July about demonstrated to them that the value of the park had changed between 20 10 and $20,000 and we pitched them on the idea that we would do improvements greater than the decreased value um so we were talking about five to 10 six times the change in value um so we've pitched them in the area of 95 to $120,000 of value the problem is that costs uh you know is increased so um the the answer to the question is yes this has all been uh uh done all been bought off I'm sorry bought in by the state and approved and uh now the only thing left is um there is a condition in the special legislation that in a um uh this has to be reduced to an affidavit filed with the affidavit drafted by the assessor and filed with the state so that's the last uh item on the punch list to complete all that work and Joe further further um I'll say that it's closer to 125,000 in value it's incl I'm doing this for memory sorry but no that's sorry but it's included in the work and the the work has been coordinated with through meetings with the park department and specifically we're improving the slide uh condition and we're doing a poured um a poured playground area where you have wood chips presently um uh there's trees that are introduced in some fencing I didn't I didn't really need all the details but you're basically the answer is you're you're far exceeding the value of the subsurface yes sir and the state agrees with that okay thank you um and then my last question is around the windows um public comment I think carollyn Thal asked about has this gone through preservation and um and if and if so uh $656,000 for Windows that were just replaced 10 years ago seems like a lot of money what can you you know how many windows they are what was wrong with them why it's so expensive they're very large Windows um there's multiple different shapes uh we too think it's unfortunate that 10-year-old Windows have failed um we priced it um competitively and you know the market has given us this price that we're presenting to you um there is how many windows how many windows I don't know that off the top of my head any Alex or uh anybody from our team um I don't know the answer I could I'm sorry don't know the answer it should be 57 Windows 57 windows out of how many how What's the total number of windows in the building that's all them that's all hold on so we're replacing every single window in the building yes all fa they all they all failed failing gasking yes yes so there was originally a plan Paul that we were going to work with the window manufacturer to retrofit the the windows which would be a cheaper way of doing it um the window manufacturer doesn't make the die anymore so that's not a possibility so we thought to ourselves well we could still replace the gasketing but now we're investing money into a 10-year-old window that wouldn't H in a window that wouldn't have a warranty so you know it's our recommendation that this makes sense to do um if uh if that is not the wish of this group we could you know that's uh I don't know I don't know what the wish is I wish I wish we're not replacing uh 10-year-old Windows every window in the building you're telling me is failed that please tell me that you're not using the same manufacturer he he said that yeah yeah um no we will not no we will not I don't know how I feel about the pretty disappointed I mean look mean the windows failed we can either you know allow them to continue in their condition or fix them um David you just referenced that there are two ways of fixing them one would be Replacements the other one would be uh gasket work and retrofitting could you uh elaborate on what the price would be for retrofitting I mean you said the disadvantages that wouldn't be under warranty but what would the price be we don't have pricing for that specifically we thought we as we looked into it and we when we realized that the original manufacturer could not gasket their own Windows right so now we'd have a custom gasketing we didn't think that that was really a good idea to invest in a 10-year-old window so we have not we have not fully explored that do you have a ballpark figure though I do not Bernard I'm unable to raise my hand but I want to get the queue uh yeah is that um Michael yeah yeah okay Michael go ahead sorry I didn't want to cut David off you done David yes yeah okay all right so thank you so you've mentioned uh three or four items that uh are add-ons and you've referenced the fact that they would be included in the 21.6% that um that the the msba will pay for but are they all um within the categories that msba will except for example if you're doing uh sprinklers in the town hall garage will msba actually be willing to include that as part of the of the overall package we believe so have you talked to msba about that is that or is that just based on prior knowledge not specifically but it fits within it fits within the original value of the project so we do have a little concern with that and speaking with Dan Bennett uh the The Building Commissioner it is would have to be pulled under a separate permit so we're it is uncertain whether it would be um reimbursed by the msba because it is a different building right that's that was my thought um structure all together all right so there's some risk that we won't get that 20 so that really shouldn't be a consideration in whether or not these things go forward we don't really know whether that's going to work I think what I can say to you though it's an allowance of 1.25 million right so that is it's it's um it's its own bucket of money if it doesn't get spent or if it gets spent outside of this project it can be credited 100% back to the town in a in a in a deduct change order straight cost right out of the out of the budget so let me let me put a little context to to this this was uh it was never originally figured to be in the project uh this was through the through the uh drawing reviews uh submitted throughout the town to get their input and it we submitted to the fire department they they felt that this was a requirement uh for them to uh to issue the permit to make the building safe so that's a context which how it began oh I understand the I understand the issue that you know we discussed the fact that there uh the drives is now full of electronic vehicles uh uh e electric vehicles in and there are loads of you know there's enough lithium in there to blow up the world but um just the same I'm interested in the question of you know well who's actually going to pay for it and does that same that same question extends to the other uh add-ons that you've uh that you've outlined do we know that those are also going to be included in uh msba reimbursement for for the the windows we feel fairly confident that uh the msba will reimburse us for that uh and that's the the actual uh the parks enhancement yes we feel that that's because that's part of the project and that'll be part of the same permit okay David hand up again just getting back to the to the windows again when we say that they failed what do you mean by they failed and all 57 of them failed in the same way and to the same degree I can't answer to that that's um I don't Andy you want to since you were involved that more than me I don't know if you want to come talk to that gasket hi Andy to Shane from Left Field uh 20 of the 57 have failed so far which is a pretty disturbing Trend in terms of the the remaining windows so we didn't want to just replace 20 and let the other 37 fail after them um so we thought it would be more prudent to just replace them all what does fail mean the gasketing uh in the in within the windows has has bowed and is is no longer doing what it's supposed to do it's no longer um water it's water and air infiltration and we'll also say that this is an enhanced energy code project and we'll pressure test this building someday it's called a blower door test and you know it's a it's a highly efficient building it's supposed to have a highly efficient envelope and um it uh again it would be our recommendation that we shouldn't have air or water infiltration how do we know that the windows won't bow again we're fixing the right correct under warranty we're gonna we're gonna have a warranted new system I mean I I I don't that's the only and these current windows don't have a warranty they don't well they had a warranty in the beginning right presumably it wasn't our project Bernard has his hand up John John had his hand up first I'm sorry oh well my question might hinge on your reason for having your hand up um my just question was and I it's even though a warranty has expired there's still um manufacturers obligations and so forth I assume that there's the possibility that we'll be talking with this manufacturer about recouping some of the costs given that the windows did not extend to the lifespan they were promised to us when they were originally installed is that correct is that are you ask me I think it's really a question for Joe um we can talk to them um I not familiar with the details but if it's a 10-year-old window and uh the lifespan was say 15 years um there's going to be the depreciated value of that window window we did get 10 years out of it we didn't get 15 years out of it so we're not going to get the full cost of replacement we'll get a discounted depreciated amount of the you know uh 11 through X years of the value of the windows that we should have got so in addition to us uh you know getting a firm warranty on this that's going to ideally withstand the uh the blower test and the needs of this being an energy efficient building we I think it's worth our while to talk to the prior manufacturer about their substandard materials and hopefully uh get some savings from that Bernard I I have my hand up if that's all okay John yeah yeah thanks um and my understanding is that um Helen charsky from the school committee and the Pierce building committee is um listening in and I'm not saying she by any means has to um respond to some of this but if she wishes to I hope she feels invited to um I haven't heard the oh good um I haven't yet heard the answer to the preservation commission question um the the building is historic it's on the National Historic listing and and it's protected by Massachusetts some historic building uh protections um and the windows that are that are there which as everybody has referenced are somewhere in the vicinity of 10 years um old um you know passed muster with um the requirements of preservation commissions and historic commissions for historic buildings um have these replacement windows similarly um been reviewed and accepted as um suitable for a protected historic building no the the existing windows are vinyl um and um we we are proposing this came very late into the project right it was a a late uh decision uh just a few month just this fall we started talking about it and whether you know in our uh building committee groups and building commission groups should we pursue it um so we have not submitted this to in front of the building commission but the intent is that we would be replacing these vinyl windows uh in kind and um we will talk to the building commission as required the preservation commission right yeah I think you meant to say preservation Commission sorry yes sorry yeah yeah um yeah because that that was the understanding I got from conversations I had with various people earlier today uh is that in fact um there there was a um you know sort of routine demolition delay imposed um for review of aspects of this so to make sure that the the Pierce historic building um uh was in fact um in compliance and the the application that was submitted to lift the the preservation delay um was understood by th those who reviewed it to basically assert um that work inside the building was was covered by lifting of the um demolition delay but that the exterior of the building including the windows was to be preserved so that that was the understanding as I was as it was explained to me earlier today you just confirmed Med that there hasn't been the preservation commission review of this I'm not sure whether there has been the mass historic commission review of this and approval of this um and I'm not sure we're doing things in the right order if we approve spending the money when the replacement of the historic Windows um uh hasn't yet been improve approved as to their historicity um well that's and that's where that's where I was thinking maybe Helen could weigh in yeah call on Helen now on this issue so yes as Adam explained this was more aot we assumed we were not doing the windows it was not part of our original scope but it to be you know Pennywise and pound foolish on Windows that by the time this project is finished will be at least 14 maybe more years old and that they're failing this made sense the windows that are are there now to the best of my knowledge were not approved by the preservation commission I don't think they would have approved vinyl windows for this 1900s building which vyl wasn't there at the time uh but we do plan on talking to them about this and we'll um you know do what we can to do the best to make it um you know to use their advice and and have Windows be appropriate I would caution um not to delay this vote because what the the issue is that these um bids are good until um um Monday the 10th and after that as you and I well know all of us know there's a lot of uncertainty out there when there's uncertainty prices go up and um this is a $600,000 item uh you know and I think that that it it makes sense to um to go forward if you so desire hey Paul yep I have a couple of questions um first Helen I I do want to just say I I I I respect you and I I understand what you're saying but when you bring something to us at the last minute and then tell us to hurry up um you don't have much Choice it's it's h it's not really appreciated by this particular select board member that's that's that's my feedback I'm not going to argue with you I'm just giving you my feedback back um so when I think that's an unfair statement thank you okay thank you Bernard so when when did we determine that we were going to be $2 million under the the um the price that when we're at the 90% point when when was that determined we were going to be two million below um let me just look at my calendar a little less than a couple of weeks ago okay and when when did we identify the issue with the windows the fall in the fall y was that was that before the the I'm just curious why why is it just coming up now or maybe it's in the process it was identified and put into the budget and you were going to be $2 million over or $600,000 over I'm just curious about timing um we actually did it as an alternate because we thought we would be over Frank if I'm Frank if we put it in the project we we assumed we'd be over right so in the fall we didn't know we were going to be two two million over we we received bids on January 10th right and then there's an assembly of those bids making sure you got Scopes covered talking to Subs right we got we received a draft of the GMP on the 17th then we started our process of review there was some back and forth with reviews and then we met with uh two other committees the SBC and the BC um School building committee and the uh building commission so this is um coming together is was always planned to be these dates for a very long time but um these dates are coming together quickly okay I just I guess I I want I just want to feel more comfortable that we're not shopping right now because we've got some extra money um that's that that that's what I'm getting at here oh no we again the reason we handled it as an alternate didn't just include it is we we assumed it would put us over but we wanted it to be a consideration so it really is just that a consideration for this group and if if people have an an you know it's our professional opinion that we thought it was timely to do when you deconstruct this building and the sashes and you're pulling everything apart it makes sense if people disagree want to try a different avenue of um um uh trying to um talk to the previous installer we're we're okay with that we we would hope that that wouldn't um derail our approval for the project we we think we got we we hit the market very well um we're seeing this across other projects that we work on the market is is very good because of some uncertainty um so we would like take advantage of these good bids um yeah ber I just wanted you to know I have my hand up sorry yeah David has his hand up so 10 over $10,000 per window you feel is a good price that's what the market says it is right so um there's a baitman involved there's um there's a lot of there's work involved if if um if you disagree we can uh try rebidding it or uh doing it another way but um in terms of time pressure uh you're saying that this issue with the windows is a consideration but is it not something that's essential to proceeding with the overall project we could we could like previously assumed leave the window in there just and um um you know we'll tie the drywall in and the trim around the the the Windows like we always would right so there is an option to do nothing or or not to elect this alternate okay what's the time pressure about electing this alternate so what difference would it make if we approve the alternate today as opposed to doing a little more research and maybe potentially approving it in three months so you can't approve see this these bids are these bids will go stale right this B this is part of the overall bid package so so if we don't if you don't approve it by the 10th you'd have to go back out to bid on this part on this part right yeah and additionally Chaz it would come into the project as a change order and um a change order has a different a much a fractional reimbursement rate um lower reimbursement rate it's a few percent John you had your hand up yes thanks um okay well I I have several more questions so I hope um uh we I won't lose my time after after the first question uh this there's a lot of things to say about this and I think the the board is doing a good job of asking very good questions um unfortunately um I'm not sure we've gotten all the answers we need uh uh I don't think it's true that the existing W Windows never met with approval um as required by the preservation commission I heard the opposite um I'm glad that we got confirmation that there hasn't yet been um the review process that uh there will be required and should be required for replacement of windows in a historic building um will these windows be operable they are now and they would be replaced in kind which means yes yes okay I I asked that question um be you know uh going back many many months and I'll continue to ask it because I really want to be reassured that these are operable Windows if people um uh think back to covid and um the early days of covid when ventilation of buildings and fresh air in buildings was essential um and we all said well we've learned a lesson about Windows they need to be operable in the future and the God bless that historic Pierce building it had operable Windows other schools did not walking by that building during Co on a day when they had those windows open was you know a a positive experience made you feel good um so you know I I'm glad to hear that answer um I I haven't yet heard um the differential between the cost of repairing and the number has kind of changed during this conversation now it's 20 windows that actually you know might need the Full Repair um others might need partial repair uh what's the differential between the repair cost um if we kept the windows we have and the 10,000 plus dollars per window for replacement cost we don't we don't have that we have not priced that oh okay um and and another one of these you know things that comes up in these conversations all the time is the pressure that is put on groups like this select board um to approve this or you know because of the delay in getting approval for this delay costs money and we hear that over and over again and then we just heard from some of the same people who are always telling us delay cost money that the current market conditions that um we experienced because of delays um actually were favorable so the the market conditions change over time and sometimes that means you you win um if a project is delayed and sometimes it means you lose um but I think rushed decisionmaking um too often is is a loser uh and so I I don't think it's it's um I don't think we're under good conditions to to make this decision today because because it is kind of rushed um now I'm going to surprise people and I'm going to tell you tell people why I think we might actually want to approve this um I I was leaning towards not approving it and and then I heard the explanation offered and thank you um about pressure testing and about the unique requirements of energy efficient buildings and um that that's a very very valid point to be making and even though um it kills me to you know um hear that a 10-year-old product um uh is failing um and we might if we're lucky be able to recover some money for you know what is some it didn't deliver on the life expectancy that it should have delivered on um that situation is not going to improve if these um you know somewhat unstable windows are subjected to pressure testing and our goals for efficiency of these new buildings and these replacement buildings are not going to be achieved if we have a leaky building and there is the matter of the msba reimbursement um and so as I say no one has been a bigger critic to some of the aspects of this Pierce project than me um and I voted against it but uh in this case I I think that the case has been made for us to approve this Mike yeah Mike um thanks so I I I'm a little bit confused by by the message about well this we have to sign this contract within a certain period of time which I certainly understand um and uh the option is is there an option to remove some of these some of these add-ons uh and sign and approve the contract today or are we given an All or Nothing uh is this an All or Nothing vote today do you have you have the you have the GMP which is the the big over overarching umbrella that's the All or nothing and then the windows are the are the one add-on that's the one thing that you have the option to say uh yes or no to in addition to the big the big scope but there are other add-ons in there that the sprinklers and so forth and I you know I don't certainly don't question the sprinklers but um there are other it sounded like there were like three or four items here that have been added in I think they I I'll let the project team speak to it but my understanding is those were those were built into the the scope of work for the overall GMP even though they were came somewhat late in the process they are part of the the the base scope because they have to be done is that right very well the sprinkler work is is is an allowance meaning we just put a number in here because it's not quantifiable at this time uh if we choose not to do that sprinkler work you know and and or or allocate it to different portions of the budget uh that will be given a credit back to uh to the town from kigle to us whether how we use it to to implement the sprinkle work on our own or or do something else that would be up to us so okay so so so even the sprinkler work is optional in the sense and again I'm not suggesting that we take that out at all but I'm it's there's a lack of clarity honestly that I find it very frustrating and I am generally speaking very much in favor of going ahead with this whole project but the lack of clarity parallels lacks of clarity that we've had in other situations with the school department and there's no question that that heightens the concern of all of us uh in the on the select board and that's why we're nitpicking here uh and so the question is is the only thing that we can remove from this contract the windows or are there other things that could be taken out well the base GMP is is includes the um the the the parks work uh in and it has an allowance which if if we don't if we choose not to do that work then we then we get a credit back but at a at a later date you get a credit back is that right that is correct yes okay so it's not a matter of us saying to you now choose not to do that work please it's a matter of saying to you here's the we'll approve the amount up to the allowance and if you you if decide in your wisdom not to do the worker later on then uh there's an allowance to pay back all right that clarifies what I what I was having trouble with yeah it allows us to to proceed with that work we choose in the future without going back to the select board and asking for it okay I I don't see any selectboard members hands up so I want to call I thank you call just speak out can you hear me yes can you hear me anything that we do not spend money on will not be borrowed so it becomes you know the project becomes less but the town doesn't have any of the borrowing expenses that's we borrow as we go along I think Melissa or or Chaz can can help me with this and my understanding is anything that's not part of the project that we don't spend money on goes doesn't get borrowed is that helpful yeah to me anyway then okay that's a fairly obvious statement but uh the question was really what are we obligating ourselves to spend money on when we sign a contract no and I think I've got Clarity on that thank you yeah no we get a a a refund and we've done that on many projects we've had money come back into the project and not be borrowed um many okay thank you okay any other questions yeah I'd like to move approval of uh the GMP um uh without any deletions of the um additional work anyone object to that I I do not object I just want to might you repeat the number because when you number at the beginning I I was I thought maybe it was a discrepancy from what I'm looking at but go ahead yeah um so I'm Mo approval of the question of approving a guaranteed maximum price contract with consig construction in the amount of $165,100 20 80 I'm sorry 165 million um65 m1932 182 for the construction of the peer school as reviewed and voted on by the building commission on January 30th 2025 and the building commission's vote includes the um the windows and that's correct and and the sprinkler system so you we we are agreeing with the building commission if we don't agree with them then I think we have to do something else but on favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael sanman I Paul Warren I um David Perman I and chair votes I okay thank you thank you very much everyone there any further discussion on anything that we need to do can I just say thank you sure thank thanks to everybody for attending yeah yeah thanks again okay David you want you hit your hand up yes just briefly to the extent that we can recoup recoup any funds from the manufacturer of the original windows for their lack of functionality I hope that will be pursued but uh but John's statement about Energy Efficiency that makes a lot of sense we don't want to defeat the purpose of the overall project uh so that's the main reason that I'm voting in favor but I am very concerned about the windows failing within a 10e period and so I I do hope we will try to recoup some funds okay that's an issue that's separate from this from from this project but we should always seek to recoup um money from uh firms that failed to live up to their uh warranties or or whatever so I assume Town Council is going to pursue that but you know that really is not part of this project yes we're going to look we're absolutely going to look into that though that's correct yeah okay thank you that is the end of this meeting bye everyone thank you thank you right