Bond premium secured; Auditorium to get built; fundraising necessary for playground equipment

Mon, 06/25/2018 - 3:15pm

Lynda Clancy

School Administrative District 28 Superintendent with board members Marcia Dietrich, Carole Gartley, Matt Dailey and Patrick McCafferty.

The numbers changed on the screen as the board combed through the value engineering cuts.

SAD 28 board members Elizabeth Noble, of Camden; Sarah Bradley Prindiville, of Rockport; and Pete Orne and Becky Flanagan, of Camden.

Five Town CSD board chairman David Perkins, of Lincolnville, and Michelle Fong, of Hope.

School Administrative District 28 Superintendent with board members Marcia Dietrich, Carole Gartley, Matt Dailey and Patrick McCafferty.

The numbers changed on the screen as the board combed through the value engineering cuts.

SAD 28 board members Elizabeth Noble, of Camden; Sarah Bradley Prindiville, of Rockport; and Pete Orne and Becky Flanagan, of Camden.

Five Town CSD board chairman David Perkins, of Lincolnville, and Michelle Fong, of Hope.

CAMDEN — Moving slowly and methodically, sometimes even painfully, through a five-page spreadsheet of construction details and associated numbers, the School Administrative District 28 School Board unanimously agreed June 20 to make $1.83 million in project cuts to the new middle school building. Those cuts ranged from reducing the purchase of new playground equipment and bike racks to changing construction materials, such as changing water piping from copper to PVC.

And after much discussion, board members agree to keep $506,659 budgeted for installing a sewer thermal system to heat the building with wastewater from the district’s municipal neighbor, the Camden wastewater treatment plant.

They also voted to fund the auditorium build-out, instead of leaving it as a shell to be equipped with future fundraising efforts.

Click here to watch the entire meeting

The final motion to cut $1,833,214 in costs from the project culminated a long process that began in mid-May when the SAD 28 School Board learned that construction bids arrived $5.8 million over what had been budgeted for the new 84,000-square-foot school. The board had been advised to cut only up to $2.8 million in construction costs before compromising the design and engineering.

Since then, the board and public voted to move money from different district accounts, and the public, at a special meeting, approved securing additional bond funding. In the end, the taxpayer funded project will be $32 million, plus interest payments spread over 21 years. (Read: Camden, Rockport voters approve middle school financing package)

The interest rate was secured June 14 at 3.23 percent.

“We were very fortunate that the bid with the lowest total interest cost also gave the highest bid premium,” said Cathy Murphy, SAD 28 business manager. “This bid, which was accepted, has a total interest cost of 3.23 percent and provides a premium of $2,889,846.65 after issuance costs.”

The lender is Morgan Stanley & Co, LLC, of New York, New York.

At the June 20 meeting, held in the Camden-Rockport Middle School cafeteria, the board also authorized Superintendent Maria Libby to begin formal work with Ledgewood Construction, whose president, Pete Pelletier, was at the meeting. He explained that the individual costs listed on the spreadsheet tied to each construction expenditure would be locked in, but not if the board delayed decision-making any longer beyond that night.

“These prices are only good for tonight,” said Pelletier.

At the June 20 board meeting, members had been handed the spreadsheets outlining possible cost cuts, or value engineering suggestions. The proposed cuts had been organized into three tiers, with Tier 1 being the most expedient.

The day before, the SAD 28 Building Committee had likewise combed through the possible cuts.

At the same meeting, the SAD 28 School Board reelected Matt Dailey as chairman and Pete Orne as vice chairman.

The value engineering portion of the meeting was also preceded by a short Five Town CSD board meeting, at which that district, comprising Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, and overseeing Camden Hills Regional High School, reelected David Perkins, of Lincolnville, as board chairman.

While heeding Ledgewood’s cautionary advice, the SAD 28 school board nonetheless went through each proposed line item to almost 9:45 p.m., when board member Carole Gartley, of Rockport, spotlighted one last $10,413 expenditure that had been tucked into a Tier 3 sheet, “items not recommended for durability/quality long term maintenance/other.”

Why, she asked, was it necessary to center sprinkler heads on each ceiling tile? She referenced itemization No. 21.02, which said, “Deduct for no center of tile on sprinkler head locations, $10,413.”

Everyone at the meeting looked up at the middle school cafeteria ceiling to see sprinkler heads there had not been centered on ceiling tiles. With no explanation forthcoming, the board kicked that cost off the spreadsheet, allowing non-centered placement of sprinkler heads on ceiling tiles, and saving $10,413.

The value engineering was the product of work completed by architects at Oak Point Associates, with Ledgewood Construction and SAD 28 administrators. They had identified and proposed for the school board and building committee a comprehensive list of potential cuts, ranging from the removal of exterior siding stone to landscaping around the playground to deleting bookcases.

(See video for the entire meeting)

In the end, the board voted unanimously to approve the motion: ‘to accept the value engineering discussed by the board of $1.833,214 and accept the alternate additional expense of $506,659 for sewer thermal.’

It was not without debate, however, as some board members advocated for spending money on playground equipment while others held out for the sewer thermal.

Auditorium, sewer thermal intact

Heating the new building with wastewater from the neighboring treatment plant that processes all of Camden and some of Rockport’s sewage had been proposed to the town of Camden in early May, receiving a favorable response from the Camden Select Board. (Read Camden-Rockport school engineers take harder look at heating with municipal wastewater)

At that time, the system cost had been reduced from the original price tag of approximately $500,000 to $250,000; in the interim, however, the cost fluctuated higher, again. The price fluctuation has yet to be explained.

Heating the new 83,400-square-foot school with wastewater requires a sewer thermal pump installed near the Camden Wastewater Treatment Center, which is next to the middle school campus on Knowlton Street.

Propane has been planned as the new school’s main heating source, and radiant heat flooring is to be installed. With the installation of pipes from the sewer plant and the circulation of thermal wastewater through the building, however, heating costs could be almost entirely shifted from propane to sewer water, engineers have said.

The system entaila capturing wastewater at the treatment plant, running it through a heat pump, and then piping it 800 feet along a sewer-thermal trench dug beneath the soccer field to a web of pipes that are to run around the outside of the school.

At the June 20 board meeting, the merits of the sewer thermal were debated, with Superintendent Libby first advocating for completing the auditorium/theater as opposed to installing sewer thermal.

As the discussion got underway, Maintenance Director Keith Rose advocated for the sewer thermal system, saying the annual cost of propane was budgeted at $25,000. He said with sewer thermal, the district could begin saving $10,000 per year.

“It is irresponsible not to be sustainable,” said board member Marcia Dietrich, of Rockport.

The district could anticipate paying off the sewer thermal system in 20 to 50 years, Rose said, noting that the estimates on annual savings were conservative.

“Have you read Drawdown,” he asked the board.

According to the website, Project Drawdown presents best available information on climate solutions, describing, in a list their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact over the next 30 years.

“Number 42 is using heat pumps,” said Rose, who has overseen energy cost reductions at the Camden Hills Regional High School and Camden Rockport Elementary School since 2000. “I agree with Marcia.”

As the numbers became clearer with the acceptance of the Tier 1 cuts of $1.8 million, Libby concluded, “there’s $633,017 to play with.”

“So here we are, at sewer thermal,” said Dailey. “How does everyone feel?”

“We have to look at the auditorium,” said Gartley.

That’s when Libby suggested expending $207,754 on the auditorium, as well as $506,659 on sewer thermal, but cutting into the $341,000 for moveable equipment; e.g., desks and tables.

She said some of moveable equipment, ranging in age from 20 to 50 years, could be used in the new school.

“We could put old desks in classrooms,” she said.

In the end, the board agreed that fundraising for new playground equipment would be necessary, while the district would pay for preparing the site. The district will pay $25,000 for a new slide, but the climbing wall has been eliminated, as well as a $6,300 granite bench outside the front door, and two $2,400 litter receptacles, a $12,000 dumpster enclosure, $210,545 in new food service equipment (will lease to buy that equipment) and $107,100 in science casework for the fifth and sixth grade classrooms (the plumbing for which, however, will be roughed in for future installation).

“Everything in Tier 1 will not dramatically change the building,” said Oak Point architect Tyler Barter.

Additionally, the deconstruction of the existing school will take place in two phases, as opposed to three, and will entail renting three portable classrooms, for music, special education, and the office.

The new school is targeted to open in August 2020.

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