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Date: 7/27/2021
WILLIAMSBURG – The Williamsburg Board of Selectmen met for a special meeting on July 20 to discuss moving forward with HVAC repairs for the Anne T. Dunphy school.
To start the discussion, Anne T. Dunphy Principal Stacey Jenkins said the price for the project had increased by about 10 percent and could increase another 5 percent on Aug. 1.
“The short story is it went up 10 percent so about $14,000 and parts will go up an additional 5 percent after Aug. 1. Five percent of the total would be another $8,286 after Aug. 1,” she said.
Jenkins said that another wrinkle in beginning the project is that all but one of the nine air conditioning units that need to be replaced would take eight weeks to be delivered.
“Jason [of Jamrog HVAC] told us that there are AC units, and he could get one while the others are eight weeks out because you have to order them from the distributor. What that means for us at the school is we need to move forward with fixing what is wrong, we cannot wait eight weeks,” she said.
In order to avoid the Aug. 1 price hike, Jenkins said the board could apply for an emergency waiver with the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM).
“The only way we can eek in Aug. 1 is if the board decides if they want to move forward with attempting the DCAMM waiver and getting it accepted. Then Jamrog could put in the order before Aug. 1 which would hold the price,” she said.
By pursuing the bid process, board Chair Dave Mathers said the price could increase over the potential price for the emergency waiver.
“We do not know where we are with the competitive bid process. We might make out better if we went out to bid but we might actually have to spend more because the prices all depend on the availability,” he said.
One factor Jenkins said could help secure the emergency waiver is the school cannot afford to wait until October or November after the bid process and wait for the air conditioning units.
“One piece that could be a factor in it is the further out we push it, the further into cold weather the work potentially could get. We cannot do this bid process, which could take a month, the order then takes another eight weeks so we really could be looking at mid-November and we cannot take the system offline,” she said.
Mathers said he was in favor of applying for the emergency waiver and added that he thought there was a good case to be made for the town to receive the waiver.
“I think we have a pretty good argument for applying for the waiver because of the timeline. We need to try to get the units changed as soon as possible, there is a lead time on trying to get the unit and cost increases every month we have to wait. It should not take that long to get it filled out, it is conceivable we could get it answered in the 10-day period to hold the price, so I think it is worth doing that,” he said.
The board unanimously approved a motion to send the emergency waiver to DCAMM.
After discussing the waiver Jenkins said to secure additional funding she would look at if there were any additional Elementary and Secondary School Emergency (ESSER) funds available for the project.
“One of my thoughts is to look a little more closely at our ESSER funds to see if there are some additional funds on top of the $15,000 that our school could add to it.,” she said.
Jenkins added that she would also investigate if the school had any leftover money from the previous fiscal year to potentially use for the project.
In order to make up the funds, Mathers said he was in favor of the town convening for a Special Town Meeting to appropriate the funds from the town’s stabilization fund.
“We are looking at $65,000 that we need to find. In that case we either have to go to a Special Town Meeting or possibly wait until free cash is certified and then use that. Whatever we take out of stabilization we would put back using that free cash,” he said.
The board ultimately put off the decision on where to find the additional funding until the emergency waiver process is complete.