NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Design documents for the $65 million Greylock School project, including cost estimates, are expected to be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by the end of this month. 

 

One cost estimate by as independent estimator came in this week and the second is expected.  

 

Jesse Saylor, of TSKP Studio, the school's designer, found the first estimate "encouraging."

 

"The estimate that we've received is actually a little bit under where we were at schematic design," he said. "It is lacking an update from the hazardous materials consultant, which we're wrapping up this week. So it's not fully complete, and I expect that to be an increase as they've done a more in-depth investigation of the existing building."

 

Even so, Tim Alix of Collier's International, the owner's project manager, told the committee on Tuesday that the budget should be able to handle it.

 

"At this point in a project, they're carrying a pretty hefty design contingency to kind of anticipate that there are things they don't know about, that they'll have some costs that they don't understand yet," he said, adding that unknowns can pop up shifting from one phase to another. The project has recently entered Module 6.

 

"So depending upon how large of a increase that is ... that may be able to be absorbed  by the lowering of the design contingency, but we'll see once we get together."

 

Once both estimates are in hand, the designers will review them line by line, he continued. 

 

"We have the same budget that we came out of feasibility and schematic design with, and if it things have changed, if costs have shifted, to understand a little bit why they've shifted, and to look to see if we can't do some value engineering to to get them within budget, if they're over budget, or just to see if there's anything that we need to change at this point before submitting to the MSBA," Alix said. "That's kind of critical making sure that we're tracking to our project funding agreement, and that we're not starting to stray from our agreed upon budget."

 

The project is pegged at about $65.3 million; so far, $6.6 million has been encumbered in charges and $1.3 million in approved charges is being submitted to MSBA. Alix anticipated about $933,000 is eligible for close to $750,000 in reimbursement.

 

"We will really want to track how we're doing against the overall budget and how much we're getting versus our anticipated reimbursement and make sure that's on track, all the way through," he said. "So we'll be keeping a close eye on that throughout."

 

Nancy Rauscher, director of school finance and operations, said the holidays and the paperwork and processing by the MSBA, and working with an outside attorney, has resulted in a lag.

 

"Right now we're two solid two months out on the reimbursement," she said. 

 

She explained that the reimbursements will flow into two accounts — the design account and the OPM account. 

 

"It's functioning like a revolver. We're going to keep putting the reimbursements into those two accounts and spending against them," Rauscher said. "Later in the spring, we'll be bumping up against the scenario where the costs are exceeding what's in the account, and that's the point at which we're going to be borrowing."

 

Saylor updated the committee on his meetings with the working groups and gave a "whirlwind" tour of the 196 pages of specification sheets that will be submitted to MSBA. 

 

"Building system coordination is sort of a catch-all term for putting all of the elements you need for a functioning building on paper and making them all fit. And so we've been doing that, as well as developing drawings of the interior and the exterior, looking for code clearances, material selections, developing all these details, a few of which are bullet pointed here," he said. "And then also, while the cost estimate is being developed, we've been developing our narrative submission to the MSBA, which is a document that they require, and it's a pretty serious document that summarizes all of the stuff that we've done during this phase."

 

One of the developments that came out of meeting with the security working group in December was realizing a dedicated bus lane was needed rather than restricting traffic to one way and a table speed bump at drop off to slow traffic. He also went through the design standards, some bathroom and plumbing modifications, sprinkler systems, windows and elevations of the planned school. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey again asked about the peaks and valleys of  the roof and potential ice buildup. 

 

"It looked more predominant in these drawings than it has in the past about the different peaks and valleys of the roofing system," she said. "What are we going to do to make sure that at those seams where we're not going to have the leaks that we've experienced in other buildings due to our snow load."

 

Saylor said the roof will have a continuous membrane and ice shouldn't be a problem. "We find flat roofs, do quite well. So we're not so concerned about the fact that there are valleys in our roofing system," he said. 

 

She also questioned the lighting system, noting the lights constantly being at Colegrove Park Elementary School.  

 

"Bob [Flaherty] has been trying to rectify that situation, and has been chasing things for a long time," she said. 

 

Flaherty, the public schools facilities manager, said some of the lighting issues were fixed the exteriors can't be as they are not on timers but activated as soon as it gets dark as a safety feature. 

 

Saylor said said they could look at exterior lights that could have lower light levels after a certain time and that security cameras specified will work at low light levels.  

 

Committee member Benjamin Lamb asked about ceiling tile materials in the drop-down ceilings, noting a pinhole leak or condensation can cause "rust water stains in perpetuity."

 

"We can't have water coming through our roofs or kind of condensing off our pipes, or whatever leaking from our pipes, etc.," said Saylor. "This is an industry standard material, and I think we will need to use it in our building. To be honest, I not sure what alternative I could propose, but if it was one that would conceal the water damage, I'm not sure that that would be a good approach anyways."