Letter: Inviting Bids on Jones Library Plans That Are Not Finalized Wastes the Town’s Money
Photo: National Park Service
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on September 23, 2024.
As you know, the town is planning to send out final bid documents to prospective bidders later this week, before it has conducted its Sec. 106 review of the Jones Library expansion/demolition plan. The Sec.106 review is mandated by state and federal regulations to require that building plans “avoid, minimize and mitigate” the adverse effects on historically significant buildings. The Massachusetts Historical Commission has identified significant adverse effects of the proposed plans.
Sec. 106 review is meant to be conducted so that it “ensures that project schedules provide sufficient time for Section 106 review and are properly coordinated to avoid last minute or rushed consultation.” (Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Sec. 106 Applicant Toolkit)
Although the town has been aware of its obligation to conduct the Sec. 106 review since this past spring, it has failed to do so. Clearly, the review must be completed before the project goes out to bid so that required measures to “avoid, minimize and mitigate” the adverse effects can be incorporated into the final bid documents. To invite bids on plans that are not yet finalized will result in wasted time and money, both for the town and the prospective bidders. This fact must be considered regardless of your individual position on the current expansion/demolition plan.
Library Trustee Austin Sarat claims that any changes to the plans will be made by specific change orders. Change orders are used to modify a contract that has already been signed. Change orders on a project of this magnitude are no simple matter. A single change, say, to retain original woodwork, is likely to trigger a series of additional changes. Who will design these, when, and at whose expense? Projects such as this are complicated enough without building in this unnecessary layer of confusion.
I urge you to require the town not to put the project out for bid until the Sec. 106 review has been completed.
Mickey Rathbun
Mickey Rathbun is a resident of Amherst
If the Library Trustees will agree to pay for all of the change orders from Library funds that exist right now, with no contibution from the Town, there is no problem. Work done under change orders with no competition is a very expensive way to do any construction but if the Trustees want to take that risk, more power to them.
If the plan is to rush out to bid with incomplete plans so the Town is forced to pay for change oders, I would not be in favor of that.
The Jones trustees have agreed to pay for all kinds of things but their promises lack credibility. The trustees have yet to pay the invoices for the revision of construction plans to incorporate recent “value engineering” -even though they promised to do so, and they remain $900,000 in arrears on the payment schedule to the town that they themselves drew up. The trustees have promised to raise the funds necessary to cover anything over the town’s original commitment of $15.8M. (though not debt service on all borrowing which falls exclusively on the town). There is little indication that they will be able to do this and former trustees treasurer Bob Pam indicated before he recently resigned that he saw no hope that the trustees would be able to raise the money that they had promised the town. So the Trustees could indeed promise to pick up the costs of change orders but it strikes me as highly likely that even if they made such a promise, the town would end up picking up the tab.
Ask the trustees and their enablers put up their own personal assets as collateral for these promises, and see if they begin to sing a different tune.
Here’s what my colleague A. I. offered to summarize the situation:
A deadbeat is someone who doesn’t pay their debts or meet their financial obligations. For example, someone who doesn’t pay their phone or cable bill, or a roommate who doesn’t pay their rent, is a deadbeat. Deadbeat can also refer to someone who avoids doing work or is lazy.
Deadbeat is an insult that’s often used to describe someone who doesn’t pay what they owe. For example, a restaurant manager might call someone a deadbeat if they don’t pay for their meal.
A more formal term for a deadbeat is defaulter.
Change orders cannot be used to implement project changes that are recognized as necessary before a construction contract is signed. This rule is coming up on its 100 year anniversary next year. Anything that comes out of the section 106 review that requires a project change will mean we are out to bid for a third time. I wonder if this rule is why the Town was told to get the Section 106 process done before bidding?