Adams to Move Forward With Bellevue Garage Project
The architect and engineer for the project tell the commission that the budget can be reduced by the DPW taking over some aspects.
EDM Architecture engineer Jeromy Richardson and architect Tim Widman and interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan met with the commission on Tuesday to go over revamped plans that have brought the project under the $105,000 budget.
"The ball is rolling, and I am happy," Commissioner Jim Taylor said.
With the imminent collapse of a shed at Bellevue Cemetery, the commission was asked to consider expending some funds last year to either add on to the standing cement-block garage, restore it or completely build new.
Town meeting allocated $120,000 from cemetery funds to undergo this project. After pulling out funds to pay the engineers, the commission was left with nearly $105,000 to actually work on the garage.
The town solicited the help of EDM engineers to draw up these three scenarios, however, upon their completion earlier this year, the commission found all three of the options blew through the budget.
The commission was left with only one option, to renovate the current garage, but this still was slated to cost over $130,000.
Since then, the commission asked the engineers to scale down this renovation and try to right size the project.
"We went through and picked out the things we thought made the most sense and that we thought were the most in need of being done," Widman said.
Initially, EDM had the project priced around $113,000 but Richardson said there may be some work the town can do.
Richardson recommended that the town redo the retaining wall and either replace it or regrade it to sure up the building's foundation.
"Ideally, I would like you to take out approximately 60 feet of that wall out and just regrade it," he said. "If you can work something out with the neighbor I would think the town could do this."
He said if the DPW can do this, they can pull between $13,000 and $14,000 out of the project.
Cesan said she was confident the town could handle this project.
Richardson also recommended that the town replaces the roof, windows, garage doors, make some structural repairs and insulate the walls.
"If you guys do all of that you guys have a pretty sound building right there," he said. "Structurally it’s OK and now it will be weather tight."
Widman said they were able to pull out some of the mechanical work because the plumbing and electrical is in good working order.
Richardson also suggested bidding out the project with alternates so if there is money left over the lights can be replaced with better efficient lighting.
Commissioner Bruce Shepley noted there could still be needed engineering work and asked Cesan if the town would be able to meet some small costs if engineering went over budget.
Cesan said it would not be a big deal to shift around some engineering funds in the budget if need be.
She said the project could go out to bid in the early summer and construction could begin in July.
The project still does not meet the cemetery’s total storage needs and the commission did mention possibly buying a prefabricated shed for cold storage in the future.
Tags: bellevue cemetery, cemetery commission, town garage,
