Borough Facilities Committee

February 5, 2008

8:30 AM; Borough Hall

Minutes

 

 

Members present:  Borough Manager, Joe Tempesta; Former Fire Chief Doug McWilliams;  Councilwoman Ellen Emr;  Councilman Richard Urankar(chair), Councilman Stephen Shaw;  Board of Planning Board Member Joan Nix; Historic Preservation Committee member Pat Rusak and Board of Education member Mark Cohen.

 

Absent: None

 

 

I   Public Comment

      Mary Roseland, League of Women Voters observer, asked if “building green” was a priority of the Committee, and stated that she believed this was important to many residents she knows.

 

      After closing the Public portion of the meeting, Joan Nix explained on behalf of the committee, that energy conservation and efficiency is important but not always cost effective.  She thought, with concurrence by the committee, that the project’s focus should be an efficient end product more than the materials used. 

 

 

II  Review of Bids

            Borough Manager Joe Tempesta presented a list of bids received and opened on February 4^th at 3:30PM, in response to the Borough Hall RFP.  See attached exhibit 1.    Fourteen bids were received with a price range from $4,995 to $41,000, with one bid quoting an hourly rate only.

            Copies of each bid were given to every Committee member, and one bid set was put in the Borough Manager’s office for public review.

How to proceed was discussed by the Committee and it was decided that a subcommittee of three members with significant personal and professional experience working with architects; Joan Nix(architect), Pat Rusak(space planner) and Stephen Shaw(builder), would review all fourteen bids and choose three to five for further consideration by the Committee.  Every member of the Committee, as well as members of the public, were encouraged to review the bids and share their opinions with the subcommittee.  Several members of the Committee suggested an objective review with specific criteria should guide the process, and discussion of those criteria ensued.  It was also suggested that the bids be ranked as part of the evaluation process.  The subcommittee agreed to submit a detailed list of criteria used to evaluate the bids at the next meeting.

The Committee decided that reference calls and site visits to view the bidder’s prior work would not occur until after the number of bidders under consideration was reduced to a manageable level.  At that time, the subcommittee would continue to lead the process, evaluating, interviewing, visiting, etc, but other committee members would become more involved as necessary.  It was specifically suggested and accepted that Police Chief Bob Tovo, Borough Manager Joe Tempesta, and Former Fire Chief Doug McWilliams would contact their respective counterparts who are listed as references by the remaining bidders.

 

 

III  Timeline

The subcommittee requested two weeks to pare down the list.  At that time interviews and site visits would begin, with a goal of completing that evaluation in thirty days.  If that timeline is met, a Committee recommendation on which architectural firm to hire could be submitted to the Borough Council by the Council’s March 24^th meeting.

 

 

 IV Review Action Items

            All members are to look over the bids and submit their comments to the subcommittee ASAP.

 

 

The next Meeting was scheduled for February 19^th, 2008 at 8:30am, at Borough Hall.

 

The meeting ended at 10:15am.