DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Public Building Commission Met July 6.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

A regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the DeKalb County Public Building Commission (hereinafter “Commission”) was held at 8:30 a.m. in the Legislative Center’s Gathertorium in Sycamore, Illinois pursuant to written notice to each Commissioner as required by the By Laws.

ROLL CALL

Chairman Matt Swanson called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. and requested the Secretary to call the roll. Those Commissioners present were Ms. Cheryl Nicholson, Mr. Chuck Shepard, and Chairman Matt Swanson. Mr. Mike Larson and Vice-Chair Larry Lundgren were absent. A quorum was established with three Commissioners present and two absent.

Others that were present included: County Administrator Brian Gregory, Deputy County Administrator Derek Hiland, Vice President of Management Performance Associates Scott Gima, County Facilities Management Director Jim Scheffers, Mr. John Heimbach with Larson & Darby, Ringland-Johnson Construction (RJC), County Board Member Steve Faivre, and Commission Secretary Tasha Sims.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Mr. Shepard moved to approve the agenda. Ms. Nicholson seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously by voice vote.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Shepard moved to approve the minutes for the Tuesday, May 4, 2021 meeting. Ms. Nicholson seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no comments from the public.

NURSING HOME EXPANSION PROJECT

Remaining Interior Work

Mr. Gima reviewed that the interior work of the Nursing Home Expansion Project was stopped before completion due to COVID-19 precautions. The uncompleted interiors are in three locations, the Building A Nurse Station, Building B Nurse Station, and “480 Wing Rooms” located in Building B. The Nurse Station remodeling was stopped midstream because of the proximity of construction workers to both residents and staff. The 480 Wing room renovations were stopped after completion of one side of the hallway to provide a quarantine unit for new resident admissions. He also reminded that a credit was provided to the project for the work that was remaining in PCO #118, which was approve November 10, 2020.

On June 30, 2021, a conference call was held to review options to complete the remaining interior work that was postponed due to the pandemic-related restrictions in 2020. The conference call included Steve Duchene (Administrator), Scott Gima (MPA), Steve O’Bryan (Facilities), Brent Johnson (RJC), Tucker Johnson (RJC), Greg Kladar (RJC), Greg Stone (RJC), Shawn Tsusaki (RJC), and John Heimbach (Larson & Darby). The group discussed, current COVID conditions, infection control procedures, remaining work, contract and pricing, and schedule.

Mr. Gima shared that there is an agreement with MPA and Nursing Administration that the current environment related to COVID in the Nursing Home and in the community provides the best opportunity to complete the remaining work with minimal risk of interruption. Mr. Gima additionally reviewed with the Commission recent local and state COVID positivity rate statistics.

Illinois Department of Public Health and Federal CMS Nursing Home COIVD guidance requires health screening, temperature checks, mask wearing and social distancing for all staff and visitors to the Nursing Home still. This would mean similar procedures would continue for any subcontractors that would be entering the facility.

It was reiterated that the areas of remaining work are in and around the Nurse Stations in Resident Building A, Resident Building B, and the “480 Wing” located in the south wing of Building B. The work remaining in these areas include the completion of the Nursing Station counters and other cabinetry, power and data systems to their final locations, alarm and nurse call systems, lighting, flooring and other finishes. In the “480 Wing” new finishes and the installation of the oxygen distribution system to the remaining half of the rooms is needed.

Mr. Gima reviewed that RJC had already reached out to the subcontractors that were part of the original project and received mixed reviews on moving forward to complete the work because of COVID. RJC also expressed their opinion would be to get as many of the original sibs involved in the remaining work as possible. Their understanding of the remaining work will be helpful to quickly arrive at more accurate pricing and with the installation of materials that are already on site and the potential for problems with product and warranties could be reduced. Mr. Gima noted that retaining RJC as the Construction Manager will also reduce and/or eliminate pricing and warranty problems.

RJC has stated that there are significant supply chain issues that have caused significant volatility in material pricing. This should not have a large impact on pricing as most of the materials were previously obtained and remain on-site. Materials that will need to be obtained include: copper piping for medical gas lines, electrical conduits, paint and fasteners.

Mr. Gima expressed that obtaining pricing and restarting the project is a big gray area. RJC is suggesting that there may be several advantages to obtaining pricing for the remaining work as a change order to the previous contract. Doing so would bypass the need to establish new contractual agreements with all parties as the existing contracts will still be the basis of the work. It would also eliminate the selection process for a Construction Manager as related to publicly funded projects. They will also not have to prepare more extensive bidding documentation as required for a public bid.

As far as a proposed schedule, it will take approximately four weeks to price the work and develop a draft schedule once drawings are available. Labor rates have changed and labor availability will impact pricing and the schedule as well.

Mr. Heimbach noted that there will be some additional time needed to prepare drawings for pricing and to verify the scope of work with the contractors and facility. Additionally, time will be required to review the plans with IDPH Design Standards. They have expressed a concern and want to see how resident safety will be addressed through the remainder of the construction. In total, a rough time estimate of about eight weeks was suggested to have pricing in hand and ready to begin the work.

Following the summary, Mr. Gima proposed the following three issues for the Commissioner’s consideration:

- Agreement that the interior work should be restated at this time

- Retaining RJC as the Construction Manager

- Pricing method for the remaining work

Note: These minutes are not official until approved by the Public Building Commission at a subsequent meeting. Please refer to the meeting minutes when these minutes are approved to obtain any changes to these minutes.

Mr. Shepard noted that in addition to the seven unfinished rooms in the “480 Wing”, the finished six rooms still needed to have emergency outlets installed. Mr. Heimbach confirmed that was correct. Mr. Gima added that in order to finish the “480 Wing” the entire hallway would be shut down.

Chairman Swanson stated he definitely wanted to check with the State’s Attorney’s Office on whether the remaining work could even be done through a change order or if it needs to be done through a new contract and a public bidding process.

Mr. Gregory commented that adding an inflationary number on top of the credit should essentially cover the remaining work and could maybe be done as a change order that way. The fear now though is that the credit is going to be much less than the numbers are now going to come in that. At that point, he didn’t think a change order would be acceptable. Either way, Mr. Gregory stated he would contact the State’s Attorney’s Office and ask for their opinion on what are the proper measures moving forward in order to complete the remaining interior work.

The Commission additionally wanted Mr. Gregory to inquire about how the warranties would work on the completed and non-completed work.

The Commission additionally requested a proposal from Larson & Darby Group via John Heimbach on what it would cost to provide and develop pricing documents to complete the remaining interior work at the Rehab & Nursing Center. Mr. Heimbach noted he could provide that proposal to the Commission by Friday that week.

Ms. Nicholson added that although it’s premature, if/when they get to the point of pricing, she would like subcontractors to check into their material availability and note any excessive lead times on materials. She expressed that she was very leery about restarting work with the possibility of the project being held up and they get into another situation where they have additional excessive costs for general requirements.

COURTHOUSE RECONFIGURATION PROJECT

Mr. Gregory confirmed that in June, the County Board approved the Courthouse renovation and build-out project and requested that the construction project be managed by the DeKalb County Public Building Commission. He hoped that at the Commission’s next regular meeting they could review the plans for that project.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH BUILDING GENERATOR PROJECT

Mr. Scheffers reminded that last October the Commission approved the purchase of a 250kw generator for the Community Outreach Building in the amount of $70,000.

The County received one bid from Swedberg Electric. Due to a delay in parts, the project was just completed a couple weeks ago. Mr. Scheffers explained that once the unit was started, the smart breakers needed to be adjusted but that has since been taken care of. Unfortunately, an additional problem has been found.

Mr. Scheffers shared that when they were pulling the main naturals out to move them to the new panel, one of the workers felt a current (95 to 136 volts) on one of the breakers even though they were off. Additional work is needed to find where the breaker is picking up the current throughout the building.

Swedberg Electric would like to take the two circuits and completely rerun them in different piping to hopefully take care of the situation. To do the work, Swedberg Electric provided a time and material basis estimate of $29,000. There are additional costs figured into that amount for cutting access hatches.

Ms. Nicholson moved to approve the additional Community Outreach Building Generator Project work provided by Swedberg Electric on a time and material basis for an amount not to exceed $29,000. Mr. Shepard seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

Note: These minutes are not official until approved by the Public Building Commission at a subsequent meeting. Please refer to the meeting minutes when these minutes are approved to obtain any changes to these minutes.

OLD BUSINESS / NEW BUSINESS

None.

NEXT MEETING DATE

The next regular Public Building Commission Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 3, 2021, at 8:30 a.m.

It was determined that there will be a Special Public Building Commission Meeting held on Wednesday, July 14, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. in the Legislative Center’s Gathertorium.

ADJOURNMENT

A motion to adjourn was made by Ms. Nicholson, seconded by Mr. Shepard and was approved unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:32 a.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/pb-min21-jul.pdf