03252025 Board of Public Works Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING MARCH 20, 2025 53 Director of Project Management Patrick Sherman was present to discuss item 7. C.: Seitz Park Renovation. He provided an update on the Seitz Park renovation project, stating that it is now substantially complete. There are some warranty items, particularly concrete repairs, that need to be addressed. He discussed additional costs for escalation due to river wall repair and deductions for quantities at the end of the project. The net increase is $4,164. The project faced additional costs due to the river wall repair, which led to an escalation of $185,000. This cost was agreed upon to make the subcontractor whole, and they considered it fair. Working with the construction inspection team at Lochmeuller, we have not agreed on final quantities. There was a deduct of about $180,000 with a net increase of $4,164.68. 68. The original completion date was August 9t', 2024 but they agreed to set the substantial completion date at September 27th last year. In the memo it noted that there are some concrete repairs that have to happen that they agreed to do at their own expense and those will be taking place in April and May, as the weather allows. Mr. Gilot noted that it is an extraordinary increase in the contract. After just one (1) day it would have been determined that this was a differing site condition of major consequence, with the river undermining the water. You don't run into differing site conditions very often and so while this may set records in terms of river undersetting, it was warranted. You couldn't build the project without fixing the undermining. Hindsight is 20/20 and he wondered if, because it was such a big change if they should have paused for competitive bids, but you already had a general contractor in place. Mr. Sherman added that they were able to work with their consultant to reduce the scope from what they originally were going to do to save costs. This was a very small piece of land with a lot of very complicated infrastructure in and around it, including hydro, a lot of old stuff underground, including the dam and the walls there. While the change order percentage is extremely high, less than thirteen percent (13%) of it was what you would normally expect on a project, the rest of it was on all these unforeseen items. VP Molnar asked when it would be open to the public. Mr. Sherman added that the warranty work is what remains and that will certainly close off large portions of the project. There's a lot to do and they are estimating that that work will take about two (2) months. They are estimating full completion with all repairs and everything done by mid -June. Ms. Micou stated for the record that it was never set to be done by the St. Patrick's Day parade. Mr. Sherman said he didn't anticipate it being done that early because they knew the warranty work couldn't have happened with the current weather. It is getting turned over to Venues Parks & Arts (VPA) and there will be significant work happening so in general, he believes it will remain closed. Director Horvath stated that he believes that a decision will be made by the end of this week on whether or not they're going to open it up or not. It would be easy enough to leave it like it is and people can use it and close off the pieces that we need to pour the concrete and still make it safe. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS PETITION FOR VARIANCE Mr. Gilot was present to make a suggestion about item 14. A.: WWTP Solar Guaranteed Energy Savings Contract (GESC). He suggested that the City should write a chapter about ground - mounted solar structures in their zoning ordinance as the current interpretation of accessory structures seems convoluted. They discussed the need for a more straightforward approach to dealing with solar arrays. Project Engineer Gemma Stanton discussed previous approvals of solar arrays with variances, such as a carport structure over a parking lot. She acknowledged that the current solar arrays are different and may require a new approach in the zoning ordinance because they have nothing to deal with it. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Board, President Maradik adjourned the meeting at 10:45 a.m.