Dig This With Deb
A column to tell people about the building process written by Deb Blanchard
DIG THIS WITH DEB
By Deb Blanchard
My best intentions eight months ago was to have a monthly column to keep people up to date with the building progress. Little did I know how consuming a project of this size could be. Now that the project bid documents have finally ‘hit the streets’ on Friday July 15 calling for contractors to submit bids and we are gearing up for the move to the Senior Center, I thought I would take a breath and share where we’re at.
Many, many hours have been spent by the library construction committee reviewing the plans over and over and making decisions. Some have not been pleasant as we were determined to keep everything within budget and the price of steel has skyrocketed over last year when the original estimates were done. Cuts and adjustments were made on the recommendation of the two cost-estimating firms engaged to determine the probable bid price and bring us back within budget. Probably the most painful decision was not being able to select geothermal as our heat source. While it is the most cost efficient and long-term energy saver, the initial first cost was just too steep for our budget. Kudos to Hal Gilliam for initiating an RFP to solicit alternative ways to purchase geothermal for the library and town hall over the long term. Unfortunately, we did not receive any viable bidders but it was a great effort.
Filed sub bids (those offered by the various trades to the general contractor such as plumbing, electrical, masonry and so on) are due on July 16thand the general contractor bids are due on July 30th. A set of plans are available at the library should you be curious to take a peek. The contractor will take over the site on August 20th. At that time we will no longer have access without permission of the general contractor (or GC). We plan to have scheduled tours of the construction periodically so interested persons will have to wait until such times to see what is happening.
A unique bird’s eye view of the construction will be available thanks to volunteer Matt Boughton of AOTV who is setting up a timed webcam at town hall to take photos of the construction as it progresses which we can hopefully broadcast on our website.
Some of the other tasks completed by the committee including advertising, interviewing and selecting commissioning firms for the building. Commissioning is a level of protection to ensure that the building is built as designed and that the proposed design is the most efficient. These firms work for the library and provide a review level to protect us. The MEP (or Mechanical Electrical Plumbing also known as Building Energy) Commissioning Agent selected was WSP Flack + Kurtz and the Envelope Commissioning Agent is Simpson Gumpertz and Heger. The Envelope Commissioning purview is the outside or shell of the building, i.e. windows, roof, anything to make sure that the building is watertight.
Next time I will talk about upcoming events and details of the move!
