Jones Building Project Enters Hurry Up Mode As Deadlines Loom
Photo: https://www.joneslibrary.org/
Jones Library News Highlights For The Week Of November 28, 2022
Library Project Faces November ‘Drop Dead Date’ To Complete Design Phase
In its first meeting since early October, the Jones Library Building Committee (JLBC) convened on December 1 to close out the building project’s Schematic Design work and prepare to begin Design Development (DD).
DD is a 4-month segment of work during which the designers, Finegold Alexander Architects (FAA), work with the JLBC to finalize all aspects of sustainability improvements, internal finishes, mechanical-electrical-plumbing (MEP) systems and landscaping, and complete design drawings to submit to estimators for cost estimation. DD is set to kick off on January 16.
Design Development will be followed by the preparation of Construction Documents (CD) to be put out to bid. CD is projected to take 5.5 months.
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) which has awarded the Library Renovation-Expansion a $13.87 million state construction grant imposes strict rules regarding phase completion deadlines and approval by the MBLC of plans presented during each segment of work. According to Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) Craig DiCarlo of Colliers, the MBLC has agreed to a final extension of project deadlines due to design changes necessitated by unanticipated cost increases. A firm “drop dead date” of November 17, 2023 has been set for the completion of the project’s Development Phase which encompasses DD and CD. DiCarlo stated that if the November 17 deadline cannot be met, the project will be in jeopardy.
He explained that the schedule now contains very little “float” or leeway for further delays. To ensure that the project stays on schedule, the JLBC will be meeting twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the Development Subcommittee joining on Tuesdays, for at least the first six weeks of DD starting in mid-January. The challenge will be for FAA and the MBLC to agree on several rounds of design decisions which will then be presented to the building committee for final approval.
If the project team is able to complete the Development Phase on time, the MBLC will provide Amherst with the second of five tranches of grant money next November. The overall project is projected to finish and be closed out around the end of 2025.
Orange Voters Reject Debt Exclusion Override For Wheeler Library Renovation
A November 8 town-wide referendum to raise taxes through a debt exclusion override to cover borrowing costs for a renovation of the Wheeler Memorial Library has been turned down by the voters of Orange, Massachusetts.
The Orange project has received a $5.2 million state construction grant from the MBLC toward a $15.6 million overall cost estimate. It would expand the library’s size from 8,000 to 20,000 square feet.
The debt exclusion had been projected to increase the annual property tax bill for the average-valued ($202,680) single family home by $340. 47% of Orange’s registered voters turned out to reject the exclusion measure 1291-1233 – a margin of 58 votes.
The library building committee has not given up hope for continuing with the renovation plan. Orange has joined Amherst and ten other public libraries in appealing to the state legislature for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that would fill funding gaps.
The Jones Library Renovation-Expansion project, with a price tag now estimated at about $50 million, differs from the Orange project in that the Town Council has approved paying for the Amherst project costs out of the town’s current capital budget resources. Dependency on a debt exclusion tax override is being reserved for the Fort River Elementary School replacement project with a funding need of approximately $65 million. An Amherst debt exclusion referendum vote is expected in the spring of next year.
Breathtaking. More than 6 years after they were first obligated, under Massachusetts law and one or another grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, to submit their plans for the historic Jones Library to the historic preservation review process of the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC), finally the Library Trustees and Town are simply blowing off their statutory and contractual obligations for historic preservation.
It could cost us the Town’s $13.7 million MBLC construction grant. Remember, that would mean not only receiving no more installments of money from the grant. It would mean repaying ALL the millions in grant money the Town has already received, even if spent — with interest.
When the Town and Trustees got both their MBLC design grant and their MBLC construction contract, they contractually bound themselves to
“comply with Mass. General Laws] c. 9, §§26 and 27C and 950 [Code of Mass. Regulations] 71.00: “Protection of Properties Included in the State Register of Historic Places” and any additional [MHC] legal and regulatory requirements, including that which affords the [MHC] the opportunity to review and comment as early as possible in the planning stages of the project….” 605 [Code of Mass Regulations] 6:05 (2)(c) 13; (2)(d) 21.
The Town and Trustees have complied with none of it. The regulations specify consequences. “Failure … constitutes a breach of the contract. No further disbursements will be made … and all funds previously advanced … plus interest, must be returned.” 605 CMR 6.05(e).
Do the Town’s Councilors not care that the Town’s taxpayers could have to return the millions of dollars that the Town has already received? As this INDY article relates, the Trustees and Town are spending those funds daily on architects, etc. Is Town Council indifferent to this scofflaw attitude on the part of the Library Trustees and the Town’s “executive branch”?
If so, what arrogance all around! And what shabby abdication of fiduciary duty.
Words matter!
The proposed “Jones Library Renovation-Expansion project” continues to entail demolition of the 1990s addition along with much of the original interior, so isn’t the continued use of this phrase at best a euphemism?
Isn’t the phrase “Jones Library Demolition-Expansion project” closer to the truth?
Or in keeping with the Zeitgeist, the “Jones Library special operation“?