The completion of a Hawley School HVAC renovation is turning out to be one of the most protracted and intensely vetted capital improvement plan (CIP) projects in town over the last couple of decades.

While the first phase of construction and its financing now sits in the next year of the capital plan, officials on the Legislative Council continued their analysis of whether the project was right-sized and properly estimated, during a regular meeting January 6.

That virtual meeting brought in district officials including Schools Superintendent Dr Lorrie Rodrigue, Board of Ed Chair Michelle Embree Ku, and Director of Facilities Robert Gerbert. They were joined by Public Building and Site Commission members Allen Adriani and Gordon Johnson.

Questioning that evening was initiated by Councilman Dan Honan, who sought to finalize a cost estimate for the rest of the project considering it had wavered over many years between around $3 million and $8.2 million.

Ku pointed out that some of the earliest cost estimates exceeded $7 million before a more recent and general estimate reduced the project cost by roughly one-half, and before a more detailed vetting re-established the project expense at just under $8 million.

Gerbert said in 2018, town finance officials were looking for an updated estimate as the project was coming into phase in the CIP, and a firm that was hired prepared some very preliminary costs and plans that totaled $4.2 million.

“That’s the number we had been working from,” Gerbert said. However, he said the process that firm followed provided “broad strokes” without much detail.

“It was a cocktail napkin scenario, for lack of a better phrase,” he said. But being engineers instead of cost estimators, Gerbert said he eventually found himself in a situation where the finer details brought more refined expenses, which landed in the $7.3 million range.

He said since then, and with more expert eyes on the details, a number of major items came up that were not in the preliminary estimate. Ku said in hindsight, that lower estimate should have been suspect because it was so drastically lower than most of the previous numbers.

Missing Components

Adriani said the latest cost estimates did not account for the replacement of HVAC units on the roof of the school’s 1997 wing, which are now at the end of their practical lifespan. Prior estimates did not account for the installation of drop ceilings in classrooms and spaces where new system ductwork would run.

Those two elements, he said, added more than a half-million dollars to the latest version of the plan.

Dr Rodrigue said the reason the school district requested and ended up paying out $300,000 from the school district’s 2020 surplus was to ensure the latest estimate was as accurate as possible.

“We knew there were missing components to that previous design estimate, so doing what we did was to get the most accurate numbers moving forward,” the superintendent said.

Council member Kathy Reiss asked about alternatives to the project that is presently on the drawing board.

Gerbert said in early 2020 he appeared with consultants before the finance board detailing two possible options for Hawley — a ducted variable air volume (VAV) system, and a variable refrigerant (VRF) system.

He said the former was estimated to cost about $4.2 million while the latter came in around $3.2 million. At that point, Gerbert and others involved in the proposal felt the more expensive VAV option would be optimal.

Even more recently, the district’s project architect and engineer pitched a VRF system which was estimated to cost $6.2 million, versus the $7.2 million for the current and preferred ducted system.

“We still feel the VAV system is the way to go,” he said. The alternative would still require added construction and installation of ventilation to meet building and air quality codes.

Adriani stressed that the best system for Newtown would be the one that had the lowest overall cost of ownership, and he along with his PBSC colleague Johnson outlined a number of reasons why a variable refrigerant system would be measurably more costly in the long run.

They said as a VRF system ages, its maintenance costs increase; they become more problematic in terms of leaking; that the refrigerant being used today was being phased out; and that if such a system was installed today, a near-term changeout in the type of fluids being used would also require a complete replacement of related piping.

In addition, a VAV system has a 20- to 25-year life expectancy versus a 15-year life for most VRF systems.

“For a million dollars more [today], you’re going to be saving a lot more money down the line with a VAV system,” Adriani said, adding that a similar system installed at the Newtown Community Center was already having “a lot of problems with their VRF system.”

Responding to another Reiss query about a future middle school HVAC project, Ku replied that another $300,000 was being allocated to ensure a highly detailed and accurate final estimate would be forthcoming.

Hazmat Accountability

Councilman Ryan Knapp, who called in to the meeting, asked whether there was clarity around hazardous materials abatement and whether the $190,000 that was included in the budget would suffice.

Knapp pointed to the town’s hazmat mitigation experiences with demolition projects at Fairfield Hills, and as recently as the redevelopment of a former office building into the community’s new police headquarters last year.

Admitting he was not an environmental expert, Gerbert said he trusted the estimates he received, adding that the project estimator had experience with hazmat mitigation in similar buildings.

Knapp said he believed a VRF system might be more cost effective because it would require fewer penetrations for refrigerant lines. But Gerbert said the VRF system that was under consideration at one point could create more openings.

Adriani said there would also be a need for new ductwork, which might be smaller, but would still require penetration that could collaterally require abatement.

Johnson concurred, adding that additional “distribution boxes” and related VRF piping would likely cause more penetrations.

Councilman Phil Carroll asked whether Christopher Williams Architect, the current design firm, was hired directly or if they were chosen as the most qualified among several bidders.

Gerbert replied that the request for quotes returned about ten bidders, from which the firm emerged as the best for the project at hand.

“I think in terms of design, if we picked any other firm, we would have been looking at the same [two] options,” the facilities director said.

Carroll suggested the taxpayer expense for the original estimating firm, whose costs were so far off from actuals, should be tagged onto the budget for the current project.

Compatibility With Boilers

On a question from Knapp, Gerbert further clarified that a new boiler system that has already been installed and paid for, would end up being dormant if a VRF system was installed, versus the preferred VAV system, which would tap into and complement the existing heating system.

“That equipment is rock solid, which is part of the reason we’re going with the ducted VAV system — it lets us harness that equipment,” Gerbert said.

Putting a fine point on costs estimates, Knapp continued asking about refining appropriate costs, indicating the latest number would be “tough to present to the voters.” Ku replied that her most recent experience listening to PBSC members questioning the architects and engineers gave her confidence that the numbers were as accurate as officials could expect to get.

Pivoting to timing, Gerbert said his team was working to try and get the CIP and related bonding authorization ready for April budget voters, and failing that, it would likely revert to an item up for voter approval during local and state elections in November.

Adriani said considering logistics, not much could be done this summer — even if the project made it to and passed at referendum on April 27.

Bringing questions about the Hawley project to a close, it was confirmed that the hiring of a construction manager for the pre-construction phase would be paid for out of a surplus in the original design account. It was also confirmed that the town had received at least three bids for those services.

Before closing the matter for the evening, council member Jordana Bloom reminded her colleagues that Dr Rodrigue and the district have been responsive to the things local officials have asked of them most recently regarding the Hawley project.

“They’re trying to do the right thing,” Bloom said of the school officials. “And I think the voters will appreciate the due diligence and the effort they have put in to do a good job on this on behalf of the town and the children who go there.”