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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJPBMinutes_2011_08_11BROOKINGS CITY/COUNTY JOINT POWERS BOARD MEETING Thursday, August 11, 2011 The Joint Powers Board met on Thursday, August 11, 2011 with the following members present: John Kubal, Tim Reed, Dennis Falken and Alan Gregg. Project Manager Tom Ginter with Bossardt Corporation and Architect Brent Koch with Cannon, Moss, Brygger were in attendance via telephone. REGULAR BUSINESS Chairperson Gregg called the meeting to order and a quorum was established. Construction Site Superintendent Dan Volbert updated the board on the construction progress and the construction schedule. He said that they are within a week of their schedule. Falken asked about contractors working overtime and who is paying for those hours. Volbert said that individual contractors are required to pay their own overtime. He said that they agreed to the schedule and he’s keeping them to that schedule. Project Manager Tom Ginter reviewed three pending change orders. He said the first is an optional change that would extend the electrical service for a future generator. He said $6000 is the cost to do the rough in for the power and it would cost about $16,000 to install a box for the future transfer switch. Ginter said that they don’t have to do the transfer switch at this time though. Weldon said that the board had talked about a full-building generator. Reed said that if they have a full generator, they could use it during BMU’s peak load times and save on electrical costs. Commission Assistant Stephanie Ellwein asked if they are paying more for the rough-in being a change order rather than part of the original bid. But she also noted that it is much harder to do this step once the project is complete. Reed said that they could help keep costs down throughout town if more of these peak generators are used. City Manager Jeff Weldon said that they could benefit with rates too. Gregg said that he believes it would be wise to hold off on the switch at this time. Ginter said that it probably is better to wait on the transfer switch and see what type of generator is purchased. Falken said that they originally talked about this issue months ago and the board made the decision that the building probably didn’t warrant having a full-building generator. He said that at one of the meetings he missed, Commissioner Don Larson sat in for him and said that it would be ridiculous to not have a back-up. Falken said that he can’t see if the whole city loses power, why this building would be crucial to have up and running. He said that he doesn’t know if they will ever need to spend as much as $200,000 on a generator. Kubal asked about waiting to do anything. Gregg said that if they don’t rough it in now, it will be a pain and expensive to do it later. Motion by Gregg, seconded by Reed to approve change order COR #009 for $6,017 to American Electric Construction’s contract for extending electrical service for a future generator. All members voted “aye.” Motion carried. Reed said that this is a reasonable cost and they don’t know what will happen in the future. He said that the cost of the generators may come down or electrical costs could skyrocket. Ginter said the second change order was generated by West Plains and is a modification for the waste piping for the cooling tower. He said that this is a “must do” change order because they can’t pipe into the storm sewer, they have to pipe directly into the sewer system to comply with code. Weldon questioned that if this is a ‘must do’ then why is it a change order, why wasn’t this anticipated. Koch said that he’ll need to visit with West Plains, but thought that they may have been under the impression they could pipe to the storm sewer. Ginter said that this exact issue came up in another project West Plains is doing, so they realized they had to adjust this project as well. Reed said that it sounds like there was a code missed during the design work phase. Koch said that he believes it was a code, but that it could have been a design standard as well and he’ll look into it further. Reed questioned who was responsible for the costs. Falken said that it’s obvious it has to be done, but wondered if the city and county should have to pay for it. Weldon said that it sounds like West Plains missed something, but had they not missed it the added costs would have been in the original bid. Ginter said that this has to happen and had it been in the original plans they would have paid for it. He said it’s a little more now due to an approximate 10% mark-up with the change order. Motion by Reed, seconded by Kubal to approve change order RFP #005 for $5,892 to Krier and Blain, Inc’s contract for a waste piping modification for the cooling tower. All members voted “aye.” Motion carried. Ginter said the final pending change order is for the bullet-resistant paneling in the chamber desk for approximately $5,600. Weldon asked if the staff desk is included in that price. Koch said that it is. Motion by Reed, seconded by Kubal to approve change order RFP #006 for $5,605 to Clark Drew Construction, Inc’s bid for the addition of bullet-resistant fiberglass panels to the board room dais and staff desk. All members voted “aye.” Motion carried. Ginter said that including the change orders approved today, they still have $448,327 remaining of the original $504,000 contingency budget. Falken asked if it’s typical to see more change orders in the early stages of the project or do they filter in throughout. Ginter said that in his years of doing this, he has never seen a project with so few change orders. He said that usually they have twice as many at this stage. Ginter said that a lot of that comes from the design team who put together a solid set of documents. Architect Brent Koch said that they continue to review shop drawings as they come in and they’re starting to get more detailed construction drawings. He said that they are also answering any questions on documents during the construction process. Koch said he plans to come here next week and do another site observation. Ginter also noted that the architects will start getting finish samples on a lot of the interior items as well. The board discussed interior office signage. By consensus the board agreed to have Ellwein and Weldon visit with local vendors to get ideas and price estimates. The board discussed the extra demolition bill for a waterline. Weldon said that he spoke with Mark Whaley of VJ Ahlers Excavating who said that the waterline in question wasn’t on any of BMU’s locate plans. Weldon said that regardless of whether it was identified or not, the contract said they were to remove it. However, Weldon said that they did good work on the demolition. He said that it’s up to the board on how to proceed. Weldon said that they knew he was disappointed, but they also have bigger things to deal with than the approximately $1800 bill. By consensus, the board agreed to leave the issue alone and not proceed any further. The board reviewed the financial report. Weldon said that he is going to start keeping a running list of how much each contractor has been paid so they don’t go over the budgeted maximum amounts on each of the contracts. The board discussed the proposed operating budget for 2012 for the new facility. Weldon said that this shows projected amounts for 6 months of 2012. The board discussed putting the costs for the internet switch and the data racks into the construction budget instead of having them in the operations budget. Weldon said that they will need maximum flexibility on this operating budget because they are going totally off estimates. Motion by Reed, seconded by Falken to approve the proposed 2012 operating budget for the city/county administration building minus the internet switch and data racks. All members vote “aye.” Motion carried. Falken asked about how disagreements will be handled when it comes to the shared spaces in the new facility. Weldon said that to the greatest extent he would like the board to let him and Ellwein work through the issues. He said that if something gets beyond their administrative scope they could bring it to the Joint Powers Board. Reed said that policies will need to be in place so that these types of issues can be dealt with. Weldon asked the board what they thought of doing a rental property exchange with Sarantis Theodosopoulos for his properties located in the same block as the new administration building with the city’s rental property at the intersection of Derdall Drive and 22nd Avenue. Weldon said they could make the exchange and the county could pay the city half of the value. He said he’s not sure if Theodosopoulos would be receptive to the idea or not. Falken said that Theodosopouls may have lease agreements with tenants in place. But Weldon noted that it’s not a time-sensitive issue. Gregg said that it’s worth pursuing. Falken said that he thinks the majority of the commissioners believe purchasing the other properties in that block is the right thing to do. Reed said that he approved of looking into it. Commissioner Deanna Santema was in attendance and said the sooner the other properties could be purchased, the better. She said that she believes the price for them will go up the longer they are there. Ellwein said that the commission knew the intent was to purchase the properties in that block. By consensus, the board agreed to have Weldon said a letter to Theodosopoulos to see if he’s interested in the proposal. The next meeting is Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Kubal, seconded by Reed to adjourn. All members voted “aye.” Motion carried. It is the policy of Brookings County, South Dakota, not to discriminate against the handicapped in employment or the Provision of Service. The County of Brookings is responsive to requests for communication aids and the need to provide appropriate access, and will provide alternative formats and accessible locations consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act. ____________________________________ Stacy Steffensen Deputy Finance Officer Brookings County Finance Office Published once at the total approximate cost of _______________.