Alna Facilities Planning CommitteeBack to Meeting & Minutes Page Date: December 10,2007 Time: 07:00 - 09:00 Location: Firehouse Meeting Minutes:
Alna Facilities Planning Committee Meeting, December 10th, 2007, held at the Firehouse at 7 p.m. Present: Nick Caristo (NC), Gordon Davis (GD), John Green (JG), Fred Gumkowski (FG), Brian Lawrence (BL), Kathy Pendleton (KP) and Cliff Russell(CR) Absent: Tom Albee Also present: Roger Whitney (RW) from the AVFD The first order of business was to have been a discussion of the VFD’s formal (that is, written) questions about Les Fossel’s proposal for enlarging the existing firehouse. The committee had agreed at its last meeting to pass these on to Les with a request for responses. KP and RW reported, however, that the VFD has so far been unable to arrange a meeting with the consultant they want to have review their proposed questions for completeness. They did note that a building inspector, who may be able to perform the same function, will be coming to the firehouse on Wednesday, the 12th. (They also said that the state Fire Marshall’s office, which can certainly do such a review, is seriously overbooked, or understaffed, so cannot help in time for it to be useful for the Alna decision.) The committee then moved on to consider the costs of the other two alternatives on the table: (1) the new, stand-alone firehouse, with town meeting space; and (2) the “multi purpose” building that would add town office and committee meeting space to # 1. As a preliminary to this discussion, JG reported that he had talked with the state Fire Marshall’s office about the possibility that town meeting space could, at least in part, be provided by opening up the equipment bays to an adjoining space that was itself designed as a meeting room, thus saving money by dual use of some space. The Fire Marshall’s representative told JG that this would not be allowed, so the committee dropped it for costing purposes. The bases for costing the first (stand alone firehouse) option were the space estimates developed from previous plans and discussions at an earlier meeting. These are as follows: Fire equipment bays 3000sq. ft. VFD and emergency offices, bathrooms, kitchen, storage 960 sq. ft. Town meeting hall 1600 sq. ft. From a 2006 edition of a contractor/architect handbook (R.S.Means, “Light Commercial Cost Data”, 25th Annual Edition, 2006) of cost factors by type of space, the range of costs per sq. ft. for fire halls (including contractor and architect fees but not a vehicle exhaust handling system, a backup diesel generator or in-floor radiant heating) was estimated to be $112 to $125. This range implies a range of possible building costs, without the omitted systems, of from $622,700 to $695,000. Adding to these numbers a rough estimate of $100,000 for the omitted systems produces a total cost range of from $722,700 to $795,000. To cost the “multi purpose” building, the committee added to the space requirement for the stand-alone firehouse an estimate of the space required to house town administration from the first floor of the current town office plus the emergency services offices now housed on the second floor. The first of these numbers is 1400 sq. ft. The second was taken to be 500 sq. ft. based on work done by Mr. Hansen for the Bowers Committee. The total, 1900 sq. ft., implies that the multi purpose building would have to contain 7460 sq. ft. of space. There was, however, some uncertainty about whether some or all of the extra 500 sq. ft. was in effect already built into the stand-alone firehouse office requirements. To reflect this uncertainty, the committee costed two alternatives, one reflecting addition of 1900 sq. ft. and one reflecting the addition of 1400 sq.ft. (giving as total area of 6960 sq. ft.). To highlight the extent of the resulting uncertainty about total costs, we cost the smaller building at the lower per square foot cost and the larger building at the higher unit cost. To summarize the results: Firehouse and town meeting space: Low end $722,700 High end $795,000 Firehouse, town office and town meeting space Low end $879,520 High end $1,032,500 Attachment 1, below, was circulated after the meeting by NC. It is included here for completeness of the record. Though there are differences from the numbers reported above in the minutes, the overall message is very much the same. The next decision facing the committee will be whether the Fossel proposal is feasible and if it is, whether both of the other two options should be carried forward or one eliminated. The meeting adjourned shortly after 8:30p.m. Cliff Russell Attachment 1 Initial Estimate of Building Options Prepared by NC and distributed after the meeting 1. Option to Build Addition on existing firehouse: $325,750 Cost based on Les Fossel proposal dated August 3, 2007. Note that this proposal includes all of Alna Fire Department Building proposal objects based on the fire department needs assessment dated June 11, 2007 and to include a 1600 square foot new meeting area, and 1000 square foot fire house training area. The one exception is the propane generator which is a want and was incorrectly put on the fire department needs list as stated by Kathy Pendelton. Les Fossel proposal is to build an addition of ~3000 sq. ft. onto the existing firehouse. The intersection modifications on Rt 218 and Golden Ridge road is also included in the proposal. The total cost is less the normal architect fees, builder profit and contractor fees which will be a gratis to the Fire Department and town of Alna . Les Fossel proposal would equate to a 25% savings on a competitive bid that is equal to ~ $108,000 savings. The building cost is ~$102 compared to a recommended $135 per square foot which is much less than the 2006 RSMeans reference.
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