In an unexpected move, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee (CPIC) voted this week to take back its recommendation that the town borrow one-half million dollars to repair the roof of the old library, proposing instead that up to $25,000 be spent for a thorough engineering study of both the roof and the building’s upper courses of brickwork.
If Annual Town Meeting approves the change, the immediate effect would be to delay work on the 132-year-old slate roof for a year. Work on the front entrance and improved wheelchair access will continue, and once construction is complete the Harvard Cultural Collaborative, recently renamed Fivesparks, can return to the building.
Without the need to borrow $480,000 for the roof as excluded debt, taxpayers would have a lighter burden in fiscal 2020, but a heavier one in fiscal 2021. The $25,000 needed to pay for an engineering study would be taken from the town’s Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund. The Community Preservation Committee, which had planned to contribute $100,000 to the project from its Community Preservation Fund, was scheduled to meet Wednesday evening, April 10, to decide the fate of its grant.
The booklet for this year’s Annual Town Meeting has already gone to the printer, so changes to the capital fund expenditures listed in Article 22, the debt recommendations of Article 23, which includes the request for roof money, and the list of CPC grants in Article 25 will have to be distributed to attendees as they register for Town Meeting the morning of May 4.
The change in strategy grew from an appearance before the Select Board last week by Pablo Carbonell and Steve Moeser of the Permanent Building Committee (PBC). The pair was asked whether a more thorough and “intrusive” study of the masonry in the upper part of the building would be desireable. Asked to estimate the cost, they said $25,000 should be sufficient. While a study could reveal previously undetected damage, Carbonell and Moeser said, it’s possible the study would show that not all of the roof required replacement. Neither suggested the project be delayed. In a March 25 letter to the board, PBC Chair Cindy Russo had recommended the town proceed with repair and replacement of the old library roof, “including replacement of the gutters and repair of those sections of the masonry which are a part of the roof and gutter system.” Additional masonry repair “may be necessary” Russo wrote, depending upon the extent of infiltration damage that is found. At their April 2 meeting, where the letter was distributed, Select Board members urged that money be spent on a thorough study of the roof and adjacent masonry before repair began, but there was no charge to delay the project.
Cart before the horse?
Thus, in deciding not to spend money on the roof in fiscal 2020, CPIC may have taken the study request further than either the PBC or Select Board intended. Town Administrator Tim Bragan and CPC Chair Didi Chadran were prepared to recommend that the $25,000 needed for the more thorough study come from the Community Preservation fund. But when CPIC met Monday morning this week, support for spending $480,000 for roof repairs in fiscal 2020 quickly evaporated. After 40 minutes of discussion, CPIC member Teresa Jardon suggested that the project be pushed out a year. Beginning work on the roof without knowing the state of the masonry was “putting the cart before the horse,” she said. If repairs to the masonry were required and the total exceeded $480,000, the town would have to return to Town Meeting to ask for more money. CPIC Co-chair John Seely agreed. “There are just too many moving parts for a project this size,” he said.
CPIC member Nate Finch listed the downsides of a delay: The roof will continue to leak for another year, construction costs could rise, and while the cultural collaborative would not have to leave the building again once repairs began, the organization would have to live with the noise of construction. Bragan volunteered that the roof could be covered with a tarp to mitigate leaks. Members quickly urged it be a gray tarp, not a blue one.
Benefits of delay
The benefits, Jardon and others pointed out, include a better estimate of the work to be done and a more complete bid document. A delay would allow time to seek grants to defray the final cost of the project, which could be lower than expected.
CPIC Co-chair SusanMary Redinger moved that CPIC fund an “infiltration and envelope study” with up to $25,000 coming from the Capital Investment and Stabilization Fund, “as requested by the Permanent Building Committee.” Finch seconded the motion, and the vote was unanimous.
Contrary to the motion as stated, however, the PBC never requested such a study. In her March 25 letter to the Select Board, Russo recommended on behalf of PBC the town not proceed with a proposed non-intrusive evaluation of the building envelope. Instead, the committee recommended hiring an architect or engineer to specify the scope of work for the project. And at its April 10 meeting later this week, which followed the the CPIC vote, the committee said that if an envelope study is done, it should include only evaluation of the roof and water infiltration.
Now it’s the Finance Committee’s turn to consider CPIC’s recommendation. In March the committee voted not to recommend the borrowing of $480,000 for the old library roof. Whether the committee will favor a study is a question for its next meeting, currently set for May 1. The Select Board has yet to opine on the matter. It will next meet on April 23.
