The April 22 meeting of the Mattapoisett Fire Station Building Committee welcomed a full teleconference meeting room with the following voices: Brain Fors of Vertex, construction project management; Chris Logan and Jeff Shaw of Contex architects; Mattapoisett Fire Chief Andrew Murray; Mattapoisett Police Captain Jason King; Town Administrator Mike Lorenco and town consultant Mike Gagne; committee members Fire Captain and Selectman Jordan Collyer; Director of Inspectional Services Andy Bobola; Chairman Mike Hickey; and committee member Bill Cantor.
The big line item on the agenda was the awarding of the general contract bid to Rubicon Builders of Mansfield. Fors described the review process employed in moving Rubicon to the head of the line after evaluating eight bids. He said, “…we reference-checked past jobs, called multiple private jobs (and) checked with owners and architects.” Logan said, “The majority were very high on their work and the owners’ engagement on jobs.”
Hickey noted in a follow-up that there had been concerns that on-site management had changed, which didn’t allow for the level of continuity the committee wanted. “We were assured personnel changes would not be a problem… there were no performance concerns from the references,” he said.
During the conference call, Hickey stated, “Recommendations and reference checks tell the bigger story.” Gagne concurred, saying the report from Vertex had been “thorough.” Logan added that a pre-construction meeting would address any lingering concerns.
Attached to the bid documents were “alternate” bids for apparatus flooring. Alternate One with an approximate price tag of $129,000 for in-floor heating and Alternate Two for an epoxy topcoat at $69,000 were both approved as part of the bid contract based on the overall projected building cost of $7,487,505. Hickey said that would leave about a 10 percent contingency for all the other must-have items for the new station to be fully operational.
Regarding the fire station flooring, Hickey explained that a heated floor would allow water to evaporate more quickly, adding longevity to the flooring material as well as drying the undercarriage of the vehicles which also helped to prevent rusting, not radiate heating for the room. The epoxy coating was another added level of protection to the flooring, he said, especially against oil and other petroleum products.
Hickey noted that at the April 16 meeting of the Board of Selectmen they voted to give bid-contract, signing authorization to Lorenco after receipt of a letter of intent to award the contract that the town administrator will author.
Moving on to the issue of new traffic-signal placement on County Road, the final design has been received to date but concepts, Hickey said, were being drafted and reviewed. Also pending was the placement of a new crosswalk. Hickey said that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation had not permitted new curb cuts along County Road but had confirmed that site work could begin in advance of official permitting.
Bobola asked that a set of as-built construction drawings be forwarded to his office once available.
Hickey told the assembled that an independent commissioning agent charged with the responsibility of reviewing all mechanical and electrical aspects of the project would also be hired. Those bid estimates were not yet available, however.
There was some discussion regarding the installation of video cameras for security and archival purposes. King would look into what was currently available from the Police Station and work with Murray to seek out other options. Murray thought it would be advantageous to document the construction project in this manner.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Fire Station Construction Committee is scheduled for May 5 at 4:00 pm with posting of call-in numbers on the town’s website, www.mattapoisett.net.
Mattapoisett Fire Station Building Committee
By Marilou Newell