Council OKs Jr. High roof appropriation

Date: 7/12/2011

July 13, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — It took an emergency request from the mayor, a suspension of the two- reading authorization rule and detailed explanations by the School Department director of finance, but in the end repairs to the Agawam Junior High School roof were able to stay on track to receive a potential 57.7 percent reimbursement by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

The City Council passed the two authorizations, one requested by Mayor Richard Cohen that declared the junior high school roof repair project an emergency, the other approving the appropriation of $60,000 for project design fees from the town’s stabilization fund, by a vote of 10-0, respectively. City Councilor Jill Simpson was absent for this meeting.

The meeting began by both town Treasurer and Collector Laurel Placzek and Agawam Public Schools Director of Finance and Human Resources Patricia Cavanaugh urging the council to approve the authorizations regarding the Junior High School roof project during citizen speak out time.

Cavanaugh confirmed to Reminder Publications that the urgency of the July 5 vote was precipitated by a number of factors, including several extra steps that have recently been required of the town by the MSBA.

She said the $15,000 to hire an Owners Project Manager (OPM) for the roof repair had been allocated in the School Department’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget — which the City Council had approved on April 30 — “but the MSBA required that we have a separate vote [on the appropriation] even though the money had been approved.”

As dictated under the Town Charter, the approval process for the separate allocation took eight weeks — requiring two readings by the School Committee for passage and a subsequent two readings by the City Council, which finally approved the appropriation on June 6 — Agawam missed the MSBA’s June 24 deadline to submit its design schematics.

“[The MSBA] recommended that you get your OPM on board first and then hire your designer, because the OPM should assist with the contract for the designer,“ Cavanaugh said in explanation as to why the designs were not ready by the June deadline.

In the interim, she said the MSBA expressed concern regarding the age of the junior high school’s roof, which already had a five-year extension on its 20-year warranty.

“Now we don’t just need a drawing, we need a structural assessment because of the age of the roof and because this winter may have stressed it,” Cavanaugh told the council.

She added that the MSBA has been willing to extend Agawam’s deadline for submitting its proposal for the junior high roof repairs under the Green Repair Program to its September board meeting, but that “means the schematics and design are due by Aug. 15.”

City Council Vice President Robert Rossi initially balked at what he saw as a push to get the funding request through the council in one night.

“If we don’t pass this thing we lose it? We can’t reapply?” Rossi asked.

Cavanaugh reiterated that the initial cutoff for Green Repair Program project submissions – under which the roof project would fall – had been June 24. The town’s extension was a one-time courtesy on the part of the MSBA.

She said that with so many cities and towns anxious to submit reimbursable projects under the Green Repair Program, the MSBA had become “overtaxed” and had relied on consultants to help disseminate information to applicants. This multi-step communication process, she felt, had contributed to the initial appropriations snafu.

City Councilors Robert Magovern and George Bitzas both urged their fellow councilors to approve the two appropriations.

“I think we have to move on … so we don’t lose funding,” Magovern said.

Bitzas emphasized that failure to pass would return a “$4 million burden” to the town’s taxpayers.

Cavanaugh also assured the council that the town would receive the 57.7 percent reimbursement from the MSBA for the cost of hiring the OPM and the design work, even if it chose not to follow through with the entire roof repair project.

Following the meeting Cavanaugh said the School Department has hired Patrick Saitta of Municipal Building Consultants as its OPM, and was poised to immediately engaged CSS Architects Inc., of Wakefield, to prepare the roof assessment and repair designs. She said that with these steps in place “we will be able to make that [Aug. 15] deadline.”

She added that the work on the junior high school roof project had begun more than five years ago, and at that time it was an item on the town’s capital budget.

“Then the Green Repair Program came up, and let us take the project out of the town’s budget,” she said.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com