North Adams Board Prioritizes Cuts for School Project
 The School Building Committee voted to eliminate a proposed guard wall along the slope in front of Conte School for cost savings. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Building Committee on Monday night voted to cut two items estimated at $250,000 out of the Conte School project.
In addition to eliminating the freight elevator and a guard wall, the panel also identified another half-million in line items that could go to the chopping block to ensure the project stays on budget.
Owner's project manager Mel Overmoyer of Strategic Building Solutions said the last round of figures from the estimators found the renovation project $761,000 over budget.
"That's actually pretty good. It's OK at this stage," said Overmoyer, but prior to submitting the latest package to the Massachusetts School Building Authority on Thursday, "we have to identify three-quarters of a million to meet budget.
"MSBA is extremely scrutinizing anything that comes out of contingency."
The $30 million renovation of Conte Middle School into a K-7 school will go through several rounds of independent estimates during the design phase before being put to bid. The estimators will next look at costs at the 60 percent and 90 percent design phases.
Because the figures may change through the bidding process — one of his other projects came in 20 percent under budget — Overmoyer recommended a strategy that would target certain items for removal or reduction but leave them in the design phase in case they could be included at the end.
He and the design team including architect Margo Jones put forward a dozen items:
- Changing the proposed roof membrane for a savings of $30,000
- Getting rid of the freight elevator ($100,000)
- Putting in a synthetic rather than wood gym floor
- Eliminating the sun shades and light shelves (which would reflect sunlight into rooms) ($150,00)
- Putting in manual rather than sensor valves in the bathrooms ($33,000)
- Removing the lightning protection system (which would protect the building, not the electronics) ($35,000)
- Putting in flourescent lights instead of light-emitting diodes ($35,000)
- Eliminating exterior "wash" lighting ($40,000)
- Reducing or elminating air conditioning in the classrooms, corridors or gym ($27,000 to $150,000)
The recommendations also included setting aside the guard wall planned along the front, or western, side of the building and the problematic retaining wall on the southwest corner.
The committee agreed unanimously not to replace the old freight elevator since another elevator was being installed to meet accessibility requirements. There was some concern over safety regarding the 18-inch-high concrete guard wall because the pathway along the west side is being enlarged to allow ambulance access but it was pointed out that no students should be using that side of the school anyway.
There is currently no wall along the slope and the stairs are being removed and that area is being regraded. Of the other items, the roof and wooden gym floor appeared to be high on the list to keep, and exterior lighting low.
Committee members were reluctant to cut into the air conditioning, though the consensus seemed to be that eliminating it in the corridors ($90,000) would be the preferred choice. Matthew Neville, director of facilities for the school district, included it in his motion to cut the guard wall and elevator, but the air conditioning item was withdrawn for consideration at a future meeting.
The panel failed to come to an agreement on the largest item on the list — the retaining wall — that is now pegged at nearly $400,000.
Committee member Keith Bona reiterated his previous argument that it shouldn't be part of the school project but a separate item. Fellow member Nancy Ziter agreed: "I'd rather drop the retaining wall than drop things that do with the school."
Mayor Richard Alcombright, however, was concerned that the planned vehicle access to the west side would put more pressure on the aging wall. Plus, the bonding would be a way "to build in $300,000 over 30 years" and make the project affordable. Neville thought the wall could be a safety issue.
Jones said they could do borings to determine if there was ledge, which could reduce the cost.
The committee also briefly reviewed some of the exterior plans. Jones noted that signage was included in the estimates so the designers needed to know if the name of the school was changing.
Any name change would be up to the School Committee. The former Drury High School was renamed for the late U.S. Rep. Silvio O. Conte when it became a middle school.
Tags: Conte School, school building committee, school project,
