Much progress had been made in the two months since the Town voted to build new Town Offices and a Library on the Monkton Ridge lot adjacent to the Friends Methodist Church. The firm Naylor and Breen was hired in late February to oversee construction – at the moment they are signed to a preconstruction contract which includes scheduling, permitting, and assembling a team of subcontractors to complete the work. Using a Construction Manager allows the project to be subdivided into smaller pieces, allowing local contractors to be part of the project. To date they have managed the bidding process for the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) subcontractors with Black River Mechanical Services (BRMS) and RVG Electrical signed to design/build contracts. In addition, they are putting the civil bid package (site work) out to bid and a geotechnical engineering firm is scheduled to drill boring holes this week to determine soil characteristics. The project remains on, or ahead of, schedule with construction slated to begin in early August. While Covid19 continues to be a concern, especially when it comes to construction season, early portions of the construction will take place outside with small crews.
The top level design process, done by Bellwether Architects, is approximately 4 weeks ahead of schedule. Design Development Drawings are complete and work is ongoing integrating the requirements of Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing into the design. The current Upper and Lower floor plans, East/West and North/South elevation drawings and site plans are available at monktonvt.com/building. Currently the project is in the Construction Documents phase where the architects and engineers are finalizing the drawings and specifications so the Construction Manager can use these documents to obtain competitive subcontractor bids. This has allowed Naylor and Breen to provide a more accurate and detailed estimate. The project continues to be on or under budget with some budget items coming in above estimated costs and some below.
There is also a lot of permitting work that has been completed or is in process. The Town has applied for the following permits as part of the building process:
- Public Source Water Permit with the Monkton Ridge Church Association
- Conditional Use Permit with the Town of Monkton Development Review Board
- Reviewed plans with the Department of Fire Safety and gained preliminary approval for re-use of current vault door
- Have agreement by the State Regional Engineer that current changes to Waste Water system qualify as a minor permit amendment and we can continue with our current system design as previous engineered.
The Town has completed a financial audit for 2019 and applied for a bond from the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank. This is only the first part of the bond process and the Vermont Bond Bank has to aggregate all the applications, verify the financial integrity of all the applicants and then offer the bonds in the municipal bond market. If all goes well, the Town will be able to draw on the bond funds in the later part of July.
As part of the bond application process the Selectboard signed a document entitled Declaration of Official Intent of the Town of Monkton to Reimburse Certain Expenditures from Proceeds of Indebtedness. This declaration allows the Town to roll expenses related to the project that happen prior to the issuance of the bond (sometime in July) into the bond. This includes the $30,000 the Town spent on architectural fees in 2019 and $10,000 in architectural fees shown in the 2020 municipal budget as well as current expenses. As a result, the Town will see $40,000 flow into the General Fund that will more than offset the anticipated $12,000 of interest due on the bond in 2020.