image description
School Building Committee member Richard Cohen, center, reminded the group about the cost savings that resulted from a timely vote on the project in the district's member towns.

Mount Greylock Building Committee Hears Good News, Prepares for Worst

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Mike Ziobrowski of Turner Construction tells the Mount Greylock School Building Committee about the structural steel package for the district's building project.
WLLLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Building Committee on Tuesday approved a series of potential cost reductions that officials hope never to implement.
 
By a unanimous vote, the panel OK'd the recommendations of its value engineering working group, which was charged with evaluating design elements that could be modified or eliminated if bids on the project come in over budget.
 
That has not happened to date. On the contrary, the committee received some good news Tuesday night regarding the bids received for structural steel.
 
But the committee nevertheless has more than $600,000 in pre-approved potential cuts "in its back pocket" to address unanticipated higher costs on "bid day."
 
An example that generated some discussion on Tuesday is a $75,000 line item for "protection board" on the roof of the renovated school and three-story academic wing.
 
Architect Dan Colli explained to the committee that item in question is a half-inch layer between the insulation and the roof membrane.
 
"That's so when you're up there walking on it, it doesn't get crushed,” Colli said. "And when they reroof it in 30 years and take that membrane off, it doesn't destroy the insulation. You can reuse the insulation.
 
"We always suggest [using the protection board], but it is basically the lowest apple on the tree. It's an easy alternate, and it has pretty decent value to it. It's a good alternate to have in there in case on bid day you need $200,000.”
 
The roof will have designated pathways to allow maintenance workers to get to rooftop mechanical units either way, but using protection board throughout would provide a barrier in case of accidents.
 
"Sometimes contractors stay on the pathway and sometimes they don't," SBC member Robert Ericson said.
 
After some discussion, the committee decided to create three options with regard to the protection layer: keep it in, take it out or go halfway -- using it on lower one-story parts of the building where unauthorized access is possible and leaving it off the three-story academic wing.
 
Another item approved on the value-engineering log: $25,000 for electric car charging stations. The design element is still in the project right now, but the committee Tuesday approved listing it as one of the first things to go if money gets tight.
 
Interim Superintendent Kim Grady asked whether taking the charging stations out will affect the project’s chances for LEED certification, a designation that will make the district eligible for higher reimbursements from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
 
"We get an LEED point if we have it," Colli said, referring to the building code administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. "But we're right above the limit right now. We have to watch that number.
 
"At the end of the day, we decided to rough in the conduit and have the charging station as a bid alternate. … Obviously, the $25,000 is short money to save if we lose the 2 percent for LEED credit.”
 
The book has not been closed on value engineering quite yet. The School Building Committee Tuesday anticipated a report from its facilities working group about more potential items that can be excised if needed.
 
Committee members were happy to hear Tuesday that the bid package for structural steel came in $500,000 below the budgeted amount.
 
"We were able to capture the fact that two major outfits had a lull in their fabrication," Mike Ziobrowski of Turner Construction told the committee. "They want to fabricate now, roll the steel out and start on April 1. A lot of the projects they work on are going to start their foundations in the spring. Ours is ready now. That was an attractive feature for the steel contractors we're looking at on this job.”
 
The foundation for the new academic wing at Mount Greylock is ready to go because of an ambitious timetable pushed by school officials and its professional partners.
 
That timetable was made possible by the timely approval of the school bond issue last spring.
 
"During the campaign to get the project approved by voters, we repeatedly said there was a financial advantage to our passing this in March as opposed to waiting until the following year," SBC member Richard Cohen said. "Are there other savings [in addition to the $500,000]? Are their other quantifiable savings we can point to?"
 
Ziobrowski said there are other savings that are more difficult to quantify.
 
"We're not going to spend the money on concrete additives, blankets, the things related to working in winter weather," he said. "Working through winter in this market … you're throwing money out the window to make progress. We didn't spend that money. And we were able to save and capture a market that's in a fabrication shop.”
 
Committee members were careful to note that the numbers like the $500,000 do not come off the $64 million project budget already agreed to with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Rather, the cost savings help lessen the possibility that items on the value engineering list will have to be pulled down the road or contingency budgets will have to be used.
 
Real savings resulting from the March 15 approval of the bond came last year in the form of lower than expected interest rates — rates locked in just before the cost of borrowing started to rise.
 
"We top ticked the market," said Hugh Daley, a member of the SBC's finance working group. "When we floated [the building bond], the 10-year treasury was below 2 percent. Now, it's 2.5."
 
Thomas Bartels echoed the sentiment.
 
"My oldest son, Philip, who is a Mountie, is in the finance world," Bartels said. "I told him about the bond, and he said, 'Sweet deal.' "

Tags: MGRHS school project,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories