New Fairfield’s Permanent Building Committee (PBC) held a brief meeting on Tuesday, July 27, to allow all involved parties to touch base on the two new school buildings. They were fresh off a ceremonial groundbreaking that had occurred earlier in the day to celebrate the beginning of construction.

Mark Sedensky from O&G Industries gave an update on the Consolidated Early Learning Academy (CELA) project, explaining that the Phase 1 bidding is complete. He walked the committee through the CELA draft Price Proposal which contains all of the costs for Phase 1. The current Price Proposal amounts to $20.8M, but it will be updated after the Phase 2 project goes through the bidding process. Phase 2 will involve the demolition of Consolidated School, the creation of the bus parking lot, and the building of a bus parking lot support building, options for which are still being considered by the New Fairfield Zoning Commission. The PBC will review the Price Proposal and vote on it at their next meeting.

Sedensky noted that there’s a CELA schedule of price allowances that also require PBC approval. Those allowances include utility company charges to temporarily connect and disconnect power. Other allowances are for any incidental projects that are not currently in the contracts, such as any unforeseen additional patching and repair, hazmat,  lead abatement, demolition, or  any other unknowns relating to meeting codes that were not previously included.

O&am p;G’s Ms. Laurel Purcell gave an update on the new high school, saying that architectural plans needed to be redesigned in the egress from the school’s gymnasium, based on feedback from the state’s Office of School Grants and Review. In light of that, five critical bids needed to be delayed in the bidding process, including sitework, concrete, masonry, general trades, and windows. The bids were due two days after this meeting was held. While anxiously awaiting those bids, O&G  reported that they had been overseeing many scope reviews and vetting the low bidders. Some low bidders’ numbers are holding, but others, such as the low steel bidder, may not work out based on qualifications. Purcell explained that, based on the higher-than-anticipated costs that have been submitted, the project is over budget at this point and they are actively considering any area of possible cost savings. Purcell not ed that there had been fears about astronomical kitchen equipment bids, but there is a low bidder that came in under budget. She is eager to conduct that scope review to determine whether the bid will work. No bidders for the project had withdrawn at the time of the meeting.

JCJ Architecture’s Ms. Christine O’Hare gave an update on their team’s activities, saying that there has been some fire tank progress. The architects were scheduled to meet with town officials to finalize CELA’s fire tank plans later in the week of this meeting. After approval, they plan to promptly submit a formal change order. The high school’s fire tanks were previously approved and submitted with the bids for that project.

Colliers International’s Mr. Scott Pellman ran through the o verall construction schedule, pointing out that, due to the delayed bids, the high school project has been pushed out another couple of weeks. He also noted that the Zoning Commission meeting on the bus lot was postponed from July 29 and all parties are hoping that a rescheduled special meeting date is set in the near future. Pellman is hoping to go out to bid on the Consolidated demolition and bus lot  in October. He said that the team would ideally know what the total budget is by Thanksgiving. He also noted that the first request for payment from the state is going out soon. 

The next regular Permanent Building Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, August 10, 7:30 p.m.