Special Board of Aldermen 03-21-2022 Page 9
back and that HVAC project we wouldn’t have to do now but the funds are available to do it. That defers any long
term additional maintenance costs for the building. You'll have a state of the art HVAC system and compliments of
the US government and most of it has to do with better air quality because of the pandemic.
Alderman Sullivan
So my question was from the sounds of it so I’m hearing it correctly, it sounds like the total cost all in on this project is
about $11 million.
Shawn Smith, Director of Plant Operations, Nashua School District
Yes.
Alderman Sullivan
$5 million from the bond and $5-6 million from ESSR.
Shawn Smith, Director of Plant Operations, Nashua School District
Yes. We spent about $360,000 last summer doing what we had to do. It was the fire alarm system, intercom system,
things like that.
Chairman Dowd
Any other questions? Okay, I'll now open it up to the public hearing. I'll now take any testimony in favor of
R-22-016. Please identify yourself and address.
TESTIMONY IN FAVOR
Laurie Ortolano
Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. | just have a question and | understand the project here. Was this bid out
separately or was this project piggybacked with the middle school renovation? Did you go for competitive bids on this
$5 million or was it folded in to what was going on with the middle school? I’m just curious. | don’t even know.
Chairman Dowd
It’s separate funding but — do you want to address the - we selected the firms that we are currently using and had
familiarity with the building because of the preliminary studies. Therefore it made more sense to use people we know
and to do the job at a reasonable price because cost is an effort so they were selected by the Joint Special School
Building Committee.
Laurie Ortolano
Okay. Thank you. And one other question. | notice that the contingency costs 10%, 5% they seem high but this is a
really volatile market for construction and does that in part drive it because it’s such a hard market to cost out your
materials. | don’t know when the $5 million was costed when we came up with that quote but certainly we're back into
high material costs, and inflation, and all that stuff. So do they bill that on the contingency amount? | remembered
when | did school projects, it seemed to me that contingencies were like 2% and 3% now they're 15. | think they need
it because of the volatility. Is that correct?
Chairman Dowd
Yes. Typically they are higher and in this particular project, they bid it conservatively. Again if we don’t spend any of
the $5 million, it doesn’t get bonded or it can be used for something else. The Board of Alderman would determine.
So we feel comfortable with the costs that have been programmed for steel and all that other thing. They took into
account what’s going on with the current market.
Laurie Ortolano
Okay. One last comment, not a question. | understand the selection and working with people we know but | also
