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Date: 8/3/2021
WILLIAMSBURG – During the Williamsburg Board of Selectmen’s July 29 meeting, the board discussed the Depot Road culvert project, HVAC repairs to the Anne T. Dunphy School and a potential Special Town meeting at the end of August.
To start the discussion about the Depot Road culvert, Town Administrator Nick Caccamo said the project did not have a strict deadline of Sept. 10 as the board previously thought.
“After several attempts to connect with the Army Corp of Engineers I was finally able to get in contact, much of this project has revolved around the Sept. 10 date, which was part of the previous general permit, has since changed. It has different language and there is not a hard deadline of Sept. 10 to finish the work, so they can work on it well into November before the snow falls,” he said.
With the longer deadline, Caccamo said he worked with the town’s legal counsel to reword the contract with J.H. Maxymillian to reflect the new deadline.
“I worked with our legal counsel to reword the contract that we are hoping to have signed next week so what it basically says is we want work started but we acknowledge that construction delays, lead time on manufacturing certain products, or weather could prohibit finishing the project in 2021. This allows us to move into the construction season of 2022,” he said.
If the project is not finished before the winter, board Chair Dave Mathers said it would be possible to close off a section of the road.
“It is easily accessible from Adams, Nash Hill and down O’Neil so for the people up there it is an inconvenience, but to work with the road still open you have to pay for police protection which takes a large chunk of the project that we do not need to take out,” he said.
After agreeing to send an emergency waiver to the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance at the previous meeting, Caccamo said the waiver had been approved with a caveat, Jamrog, the company that has been doing repairs on the system, was not eligible for the project and he is waiting for the school’s principal, Stacey Jenkins, to return from vacation.
“We did get the approval for the waiver, which is good news, what we have to do is use a vendor that is certified with the state and Jamrog is not on that list. There are about 100 HVAC providers that are on the state’s list. The woman I am corresponding with at the school narrowed it down to about five or six, we are just waiting for Stacey to get back,” he said.
Despite not being a contractor for the replacement project, Mathers suggested consulting Jamrog before picking one of the state-certified sponsors.
“I was thinking you could even use Jamrog because they are our go to contractors. They are going to end up owning it because they will be doing our repairs. They will probably charge us for it, but it will be worth it,” he said.
With appropriations from the town’s stabilization account looming for both the Depot Road culvert and the Anne T. Dunphy School HVAC system, the board tentatively agreed to a Special Town Meeting on Aug. 30 or 31 and will finalize the details and vote on the warrants at its next meeting.
During the meeting, the board also approved appointments to the election wardens, the election poll workers, and to the Energy Committee.
The Board of Selectmen next meets on Aug. 12.