Buildings and Facilities Task Force

Monday, April 6, 2026 - 9:00 am

Chris Clark - Chairman

Supervisor Tyler called this task force to order at 9:00 am with the following in attendance: Clayton Menser, Tim Pierce, Richard Preston, Cathy Reusser, Matt Stanley, Meg Wood, Mike Mascarenas and Jim Dougan. Chris Clark had been previously excused. Clayton Barber was absent

Also present: Dina Garvey, Andrew Stanley

TYLER: Alright, let’s start this meeting of the Buildings and Grounds and I will officially turn it over to Jim.

DOUGAN: Okay, we’ve got a short update today, we were, remember we’ve been telling you that we were going to do a presentation on pavement management, our whole process, but that will easily eat up 35-40 minutes. So, we scrapped that and we’re just going to give you a quick update, we’ll bring that next month, because you have the Public Hearing that starts at 9:30 today, we didn’t feel like we have enough time. So, Andrew, go ahead.

STANLEY, ANDREW: Alright, just a quick update on the Ag and Youth Building. Cornell’s scheduled to move in next week. The interior punch list is complete. There are several items on the exterior that we need to address. Weather is looking like to going to start coming our way, but not this week, hopefully next week they can get out there.

DOUGAN: We are actually going to issue the keys to Cornell, this week and Buildings and Grounds is going to assist them, actually starting towards the end of this week. They’re going to start moving things over slowly and then their whole phone system moves on Thursday of next week. So, by the end of the week, Cornell is supposed to be in. Soil and Water is moving in about the same time but haven’t told us for sure.

TYLER: I have had a couple of the people here in town asking to take a look inside. One of them is a neighbor across the way, he used to be the Highway Superintendent, Wayne Napper. He said we would like to go and take a look at it.

STANLEY: So, that is pretty much where we are with that.

DOUGAN: Just a FYI, we are building a schedule, too and we’re going to get that listed for the use of that, we’re building a schedule for the use of the room in the basement, that conference room.

TYLER: Yeah

DOUGAN: We’ve had a number of quests already and so we’re going to get that and put that, probably on the fairground’s website.

TYLER: I mentioned to the Soil and Water Committee that we should have our first meeting there this month, also.

DOUGAN: Yup

TYLER: Even if they’re moved in or not, to have a meeting there.

MASCARENAS: Grand opening?

DOUGAN: I wanted to make sure that both of those parties were in there and then we were going to schedule a grand opening.

MASCARENAS: Maybe mid to late May, something like that.

DOUGAN: Yeah, we’re going to try and get the agencies that help fund it involved.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, I just want to invite the old Board, invite the new Board, people that had an awful lot to do with that.

DOUGAN: Yup

STANLEY, ANDREW: Former Probation Building: sheetrock and painting is complete. JFP, they’re in there right now doing the acoustical drop ceiling, they should be done today. All the materials for the flooring have been delivered. D & D is scheduled for April 21 and 22 to have that complete. It should only take about a day; we got two days blocked. Once the weather permits, JFP is going to begin on the exterior concrete foundation, slab in the rear of the building, near the new parking area that we’re going to install. HVAC mini-split materials, they’re onsite and Buildings and Grounds have been installing for the last two weeks.

MASCARENAS: And you’ve got conduit run.

STANLEY, ANDREW: Yup, there’s conduit in the slab. Hugh had that installed so that way we could run those line sets underground, basically through the conduit.

DOUGAN: We installed some spares, so those will be out beyond that foundation. We got the new exterior doors on the back installed since our last meeting and have installed the replacement windows on the Personnel side of things.

REUSSER: I’m not on this committee, but I am very interested. Do you have remote access to your HVACs? Will you use software to monitor remotely when we’re in some kind of whatever?

STANLEY, ANDREW: I do not believe that that building is set up for that.

DOUGAN: Not this building.

PIERCE: I notice this again this winter and it’s something for winter; do you have any process to keep an eye on that far corner? I just remember an incident that happened 30 years ago. Rick Carpenter and I were walking back from the building and had taken 2 steps and that whole sheet of ice from the high spot came down right behind us and would have killed us. I wanted to mention it as it’s a bit of a concern.

DOUGAN: Part of our second floor renovation which we didn’t really talk about, but the second floor is mostly demoed out. All the non-structured walls, if you were in there, it was all cut up. They just added and added and added and it was, it was a nice little maze.

MASCARENAS: It was weird.

DOUGAN: But we removed all those and part of our process up there is going to be adding some more insulation before we close it back up.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, just so the Board understands, too, this isn’t the only project that is going to happen there. This is, I would call this Phase One of the former Probation Building. So, when we have a contractor come back and do an acoustical ceiling in another section and somebody is going to say, wait you just did that. No, we did it in this section, we’re dealing with the lower half of the building right now, we’re kind of taking what we have budget-wise and working with departments that want to work with us in creating that space and then we’re going to go from there.

STANLEY, ANDREW: It’s really only like 2/3rds of the first floor, too.

MASCARENAS: Exactly

TYLER: Thanks for the head’s up on that Tim.

MASCARENAS: And Cathy, I’ve always been a little leery of controls. We had a company come in here years ago, wanted us to run controls on all of our buildings through here. Danforth did ours back then and the problem with controls that I find is you get into same issues that you get into with everything else. There’s a life expectancy with those types of things and you get into propriety and then you’re dealing, sometimes with a programmable thermostat on the wall will handle, will save you for $7-$8, will save you thousands, if not millions over the long term. There are some nice things about controls, but you can count on having a bill every 5-7 years for all the upgrades and maintenance and it’s only as good as the people that are trained on using them, too. So, what you find is, yeah, we have that ability, but nobody’s really using it.

REUSSER: What I like at the residential level is that I can be in Florida, and I can see what the temperature of my house is and if it’s real cold, I can kick up my heat pumps.

MASCARENAS: Yup, we do have those alarm systems like in Public Safety, right Jim?

DOUGAN: Yes, we do and in some of our bigger buildings we do have controls, but we’re trying to keep them, not as a full building automation system, but a little simpler and as you know at the Public Safety Building, we’re trying to get away from propriety. We’ve been stuck with a company for controls at the Public Safety Building for its entire life.

REUSSER: Do we have nightwatchmen that go around and do that sort of thing?

MASCARENAS: We do, we have staffing here, pretty much 24-7, some gaps, but not a lot.

REUSSER: Nothing dangerous.

MASCARENAS: Yeah

DOUGAN: This particular building has a propane fired baseboard heat, but the mini-splits that we’re putting in they’re electric, but they’re electric, both heating and cooling. So, if for some reason that boiler went out, you still have those as a backup for heating.

STANLEY, ANDREW: So, pictures of where we’re currently at. That ceiling should be done by the end of day. They really don’t have a lot left to do.

DOUGAN: Buildings and Grounds will start putting lights in. You’ll see the mini-splits is on the wall in both of those pictures there. They’re well on their way. The trim is here to start trimming out the windows and doors. We did talk about those conduits already and so.

MASCARENAS: And our guys did the lion’s share of that work, just so everybody’s aware. What we contracted out was the taping of the sheetrock and the ceiling.

STANLEY, ANDREW: So, H&T has provided about a 75% set of engineering drawings for the parking area and the drainage in the back. They’re expected to have us 100% by the end of this month. Just got a couple of comments back to them and they’ll clean it up and get them a little more closer to construction grade.

DOUGAN: Once we do that, we’ll put that out to our 4 civil term contractors to do the sidewalk work, the concrete curve work and the prep work and then we’ll probably pave it and line stripe it ourselves. It will be our plan of attack for a little later this year.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, the thought process for the backside of that building for that work is really trying to get together, not only access, but a loading dock. We get large deliveries, as you can imagine, and there’s no place to put it. A lot of time it gets set out in the parking lot, regardless of the weather. You’ll have whoever’s available, run around out there, trying to get stuff inside.

DOUGAN: It was me on Thursday night.

STANLEY, ANDREW: Just a quick update on Frontier Town. The contract with Aubertine and Currier has been executed and they’re going to begin their survey and building assessment, as soon as the weather permits. So, as soon as the snow is off the ground in North Hudson, they will all be there.

MASCARENAS: Will that project be completed this summer?

DOUGAN: No, we’ll have a report, we’ll have recommendations. We should have drawings, but I don’t think you’ll actually have restored any of the buildings by the end of the year.

MASCARENAS: Okay

DOUGAN: I think we’ll have stuff by Fall, we might be able to bid it, but I don’t think. I think weather will try on us before restore.

STANLEY, ANDREW: New Project, Transportation Facility: draft RFQ has been sent to DOT for their approval. Once DOT has given their concurrence on it, an RFP will be advertised for that.

DOUGAN: That, we had the one meeting over at the new building and got the green light at looking to relocating the campground area to allow this project to potentially go over there. Our process has to follow NYDOT. They’re the ones funding it and like Andrew said, we’ve got a request for qualifications that has to go out to DOT’s list of 15 pre-qualified engineering/architecture firms and so they’re reviewing that now and we’ll get that out shortly and then get somebody under contract.

Yeah, I wasn’t able, like I said, we chose not to do the pavement management program today, because of the shortened meeting, but I did want people to see where our asphalt costs have gone up. So, we bid asphalt in January. We also bid it based on, every month DOT publishes an update on the cost of what’s called performance grade debinder, that’s the liquid asphalt that goes into these asphalt mixes and so that’s how your price is based throughout the year. So, in January it was $643 a ton for the liquid asphalt. In April it’s now $730 and then down below, we have calculations for the different types of mix that we put down. How much liquid asphalt is in it, along with, there’s in NYDOT typical manual, there’s an adjustment for fuel and am adjustment asphalt. So, that $6.26 is how much per ton, buying Type 6 asphalt top, which is something that a lot of your towns will choose to use, that’s how much it went up since January.

MASCARENAS: Jim, if you were to consider your CHIP funds.

DOUGAN: Yup

MASCARENAS: How much less can you blacktop?

DOUGAN: For me, based on that number right there, it’s probably 2 miles that it’s going to cost us. Now, we did, in our first projection, we did project a $2/ton increase, because we know that early in the year it goes up when travelling season gets here. We all know gas prices go up there, but we did project $6.26, but we’ll be looking at it closely. We’ll see what it does throughout the reason, it changes every month.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, I can see that.

DOUGAN: I’ll be able to, you can see 2025/2024/2023.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, that’s what I am looking at, 2025, you’re talking $109 difference that’s pretty significant.

DOUGAN: It eats it up; it eats it up real quick. So, we’ll have to look at what’s on our list and decide which was the least in need for this year.

MENSER: Along those lines, I talked to our Highway Superintendent, last week about it and he’s going to attempt to push out the timeframe of when we’re going to do asphalting for the town, hoping that maybe once we get done playing in Iran that prices come back down.

DOUGAN: Yeah, there’s a real fine line there. If everybody’s doing that and the asphalt plant isn’t going to produce it for you, what we found and this is, honestly, you’re walking right into my pavement management discussion. We try really hard to push out as much asphalt that we can in the months of May and June, because it’s usually in July and August that the State is getting asphalt from those same plants, and so they’ve got every truck and DOT came out with something new, a year ago, 18 months ago called warm mix asphalt, instead of hot mix asphalt and when they’re producing that, you can’t get any of the hot mix out of the plants. So, we do as much as we can in May and June. You’re right, if I could hedge my bets and play with the costs, but I am not sure, I don’t know if it’s going to help me or not, it’s a real fine line.

MENSER: Yeah, we’re not sure either, but that’s what we’re considering.

TYLER: And when the State starts getting theirs, like you said, nobody else can get it.

STANLEY, ANDREW: Yeah, they shut us right off.

TYLER: Last year, we had to shut down in Westport, because we wanted to do a project.

STANLEY, ANDREW: Yeah, it makes it very difficult. Even if we were willing to put down warm mix, you know, chances of us getting enough material for a project is unknown.

STANLEY, MATT: In November

MASCARENAS: We do pave in November. Is the warm mix as durable?

STANLEY, ANDREW: The warm mix, so DOT implemented that through the Green Initiative. It’s supposed to be, you know, less fuel to make the product. Is it more durable? No. It’s hard to put down. They claim it’s just as durable as the hot mix, but.

MASCARENAS: Time will tell, right?

STANLEY, ANDREW: Yeah, it’s supposed to be greener, basically.

MASCARENAS: And if you do a road with CHIPS, it’s got to last how long?

DOUGAN: 10 years, a minimum of 10 years and we’re just for interested in being a Guinea Pig, up here to be honest with you. They haven’t touched enough to know.

STANLEY, ANDREW: That and the cost, too, because there’s so many chemicals, plasticizers added to that to compensate for the loss of heat, basically that it just drives the cost up.

DOUGAN: Is it really green? When you start putting all that stuff in there.

STANLEY, MATT: And not to prolong the asphalt discussion, but the cost is even going to go up if we’re hiring to have the materials trucked to us?

MASCARENAS: Correct

STANLEY, ANDREW: Sure

STANLEY, MATT: Because the prevailing wage is affecting that this year?

DOUGAN: The prevailing wage rate, yes, I have been telling you, partially because they are now paying it even if you’re empty. The previous law said hauling of aggregate and Department of Labor, who regulates prevailing wage rate didn’t come out and say that asphalt was aggregate. Now I don’t know how, but they didn’t, so okay we’re happy with that. They have now cleared that up and say asphalt is aggregate and you’ve got to pay it whether your truck is full or whether your truck is empty. So, that has increased the price, probably about the same amount as the new Federal Highway’s Administration’s law that you have to go through entry level driver training, which has cost us a lot of truck drivers.

STANLEY, ANDREW: And adding to that, a little bit back, with buildings, concrete has dodged that law, currently, but that’s probably coming down the line also.

DOUGAN: And so, honestly the law doesn’t affect towns that are outside of Essex County as much as it affects all of us. We don’t have a single asphalt plant in the County. Every time we’re hauling it, we need a lot of trucks to get, we can pretty easily on most of our roads we could put down 1,500 tons a day, it wouldn’t be hard. It’s about getting the trucks and getting rounds of trucks there. But if you’re hauling all of it a tandem versus a triaxle versus a Flow Boy, the hard part there is how many tandems do you have to put on the road to get you enough asphalt where it’s worth a day’s worth of the paving crew. That’s why we bought a Flow Boy. That’s why we’re trying to haul more with triaxles when we can or why we still continue to use hired trucks if they’re bringing us a Flow Boy, because we’re getting 33 tons instead of 18, you know almost double.

TYLER: Alright, anything else?

DOUGAN: We’ll get into more detail on that. Just a couple of other things, we did get the bids for carpet across the hall, once Personnel moves over to the former Probation Building. Our bids for the County Attorney and Real Property’s big room and the clinic room and a bathroom over at Public Health are all out. The septic system materials for over at Public Health are just about to go out to bid. The mini-splits for the Public Safety Building that we do annually, those are already done and some of the grant funded work over at the Public Health Building, remodeling some of the bathrooms, we now have those drawings done. We got that coordinated for code for handicapped accessibility and those will be going to the general construction term contract, here in the next month, as well. So, just a number of other things that are going on other than these big hitters.

TYLER: Thank you.

PIERCE: Just one last comment, I won’t speak for the Board for the Town of Lewis, but I don’t believe that we’re going to be in a position to move forward with purchasing the old Cornell Building. I will know more after the next meeting, but I don’t think so and I wanted to give you the heads up there.

MASCARENAS: I appreciate that, thank you.

TYLER: Anything else from anybody? Alright, we will move onto our next meeting. We are adjourned.

AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS BUILDING AND FACILITIES TASK FORCE, IT WAS ADJOURNED AT 9:25 AM

Respectively Submitted,

Dina Garvey, Deputy Clerk

Board of Supervisors