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Town makes progress on capital projects

LONGMEADOW - The town of Longmeadow made considerable progress on a number of capital projects in recent months.

"Last fall, we discovered that many of these projects had been stalled as a result of personnel transitions, but we are on track and moving forward," Town Manager Robin Crosbie said.

She has been meeting every three weeks with Director of Public Works Mike Wrabel, Interim Facilities Director Adrian Phaneuf and School Superintendent Jahn Hart to monitor progress and record completion.

Completed projects include repairs to school heating and energy systems, replacement of several sets of doors in Williams Middle School and the High School, carpet replacement in Center School, removal of remaining non-compliant underground storage tanks, scheduled repairs to tennis courts, and purchases of vehicles and equipment to upgrade to Department of Public Works fleet. Other projects are in various stages of progress: some have yet to move forward, some are nearly complete.

The town recently issued six RFPs (Request for Proposal): architectural and design services for replacement of doors in Glenbrook Middle School (as part of security improvements); design of security system and communications for the schools and Greenwood children's center; water and sewer systems evaluations; town-wide building assessment and on-call architect/engineer services. Consultants for each of these projects will be selected over the next month. The facility assessment will assist town departments and boards in preparing budgets and planning capital repairs to buildings in the coming years. In total, the town has approximately $8.69 million in projects and equipment in various stages progress.

"A lot of credit goes to Mike and Adrian for accelerating these projects, and to Purchasing Coordinator Chad Thompson for preparing the RFPs and expediting them through the complex state-regulated procurement process", Crosbie said. Once a complete itemization of projects was assembled, it has been easier to track projects. Progress reports are issued to the Select Board, Capital Planning Committee and Facilities Committee as they are updated.