The lowest construction bid for the project to renovate the building the town purchased at 16 Lancaster County Road to replace the Hildreth House as a senior center is more than $200,000 higher than the available funds. Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Select Board at its June 7 meeting that the HVAC system was responsible for most of the overage. The town must come up with enough funds to cover the low bid before bids expire at the beginning of July; if it cannot, the project will have to be rebid.
Classic Construction and Development Corporation of Littleton, the same company that recently did renovation work on Hildreth House, was the lowest of four bidders. Bragan said all the subcontract bids were within 5% of estimates provided by DAI Architects, but the lowest subcontract bid for the heat pump system was well over DAI’s estimate. He said the increased demand for and limited supply of this type of system has driven its price up.
When the Permanent Building Committee met the following day, Chair Cindy Russo told the group she had spoken to DAI about a possible redesign of the HVAC system. The architects said they could eliminate some of the equipment, but it would likely result in more duct work, which could drive the price even higher, Russo said. Neither Select Board members nor PBC members thought the proposed heat pump system should be swapped for something less expensive but also less energy-efficient. “I also don’t think we have a choice,” Russo said. “This is what the town wants.”
Bragan told the Select Board he and Russo came up with four viable options to fund the overage before the bids expire. Two of them, using money from the Stabilization Fund or the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, would require town approval at a Special Town Meeting. Board members said they were not inclined to take that route.
A third option was to use Green Community funds, grants provided by the state’s Department of Energy Resources for energy-saving projects in towns that have been accepted as green communities. Harvard was accepted in 2010 and has received over $850,000 in grants since then. But Harvard Energy Advisory Committee Chair Brian Smith told the Press there are no funds immediately available; grants were approved for specific projects and must be used for those projects. He added that HEAC is working with the Department of Energy Resources, National Grid, and other state funding sources to find grants for the COA building. But that won’t happen in time to solve the problem at hand.
That leaves the fourth option, which is to use funds the town received from the American Rescue Plan Act. The town has about $1.64 million left of the $1.9 million it received, but that money is currently earmarked for the next phase of the water system project. Last year, both town water wells tested positive for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Although the concentrations are at levels lower than the state’s maximum contaminant level, the Select Board wants to take action.
The Water Commission is in the process of evaluating two solutions for the PFAS problem—building a treatment facility for the town’s Pond Road wells or connecting to the Devens water system. ARPA money would pay for the first option, but it would cover less than half the second option. Should the Select Board choose the Devens option, the town would likely borrow to pay for that project, freeing up the remaining ARPA funds. The Water Commission will present its recommendation to the Select Board at its next meeting, scheduled for June 21, when a decision will likely be made on whether ARPA funds will be available for the COA building.
