Town of Ashland, NY

Town Board Minutes

TOWN OF ASHLAND
12094 ROUTE 23
ASHLAND, NEW YORK 12407
518-7343636 Fax 518-734-5834

Richard E. Tompkins, Town Supervisor
James Lawrence, Councilman                         Martin Blanden, Councilman
Thomas Soule, Councilman                                         Dennis Mattice, Councilman

Special Town Board Meeting
November 29, 2010

A Special Town Board Meeting was held at the Town Hall, 11980 Route 23, Ashland, New York on the 29th day of November.

Present

Richard Tompkins----------------------Supervisor
Thomas Soule--------------------------Councilman
Robert Ferris---------------------------Deputy Supervisor
James Lawrence------------------------Councilman
Martin Blanden-------------------------Councilman

Absent
Dennis Mattice-------------------------Councilman
Justine L Koehler----------------------Town Clerk

Present
: Henry Lamont, Julie Barown, Nate Hendricks and Randy Tuttle

Supervisor Richard Tompkins opened the meeting at 4:30 with the pledge of allegiance.

Nate Hendricks passed out for the Board’s review packets of the results of the compaction testing to address the concerns of the Town Board.  Lamont Engineers passed out a letter and ensued with discussion to ease their concerns.  Julie went over the basics of the compaction testing.  She went over the time line.  The contractor is required to hire a tester in the field.  All is going as planned.  Julie stated that the formal reports are as follows:  93% to 97%.  The specifications state that the results should be 98%.  Julie received the field notes in August and determined that the density in the field on the first day was less than it should have been.  The results did not have the values that were necessary.  The building had already been started when these results were found out.
The packet that the Town Board received includes summarization of the field notes and the communications of Lamont with the field tester.  Lamont’s requirement is 98% and the tests were coming back with between 93% and 97%.  The first day was the first concern.  The material had already been there for four months before they detected the error.  Geotechnical engineers reviewed the packet.  Their opinion is that whatever settling was going to occur would have occurred already.  They will monitor the situation and re-evaluate in the spring to see if there is any movement or shifting in the building.  The geotechnical engineer will do this monitoring. 
The discussion continued with questions with the issue of the warranty on the work.  The Town Board feels that if we are going to own this building they want to make sure things are correct.  Rich is concerned that there is too much fill under the footings.  Henry Lamont stated that the fill testing is not failing by a huge margin.  He thinks that the retests are valid.  There is a three month settling requirement and it has only been 1 ½ months.  Jim Lawrence does not feel comfortable with future shifting.  Loucks needs to keep his bond open.  Jim would like to see a ten (10) year warranty.
Due diligence as stated from Henry Lamont is to continue to test.  He also stated that the engineers came up short and is uneasy with what happened.  There are many concerns about what is not known yet.  Lamont will explore the guarantee of the bond warranty.
The contractor is responsible.  If there was going to be any settling it would have usually happened in the first few months, but there is no guarantee that it won’t happen down the road.  Henry Lamont stated that he is fairly confident that nothing will happen, but the situation will be monitored. 

The cupolas will be almond and the louvers will be the same color as the roof.

There was discussion of the building permit fee.  Apparently Lamont had an old permit application to start with.  The Town Board will make a decision and get back to Nate about waiving the fee or what to charge. 

This meeting ended at 5:20 PM.

Open meeting with Fred Grover at 5:20 PM.

Fred brought a final set of plans.  These will be stamped.  There was discussion and review of what changes were made in the final plan.  F-1 to F-7 is the completed foundation plan.  Rich talked with Gallo and hopefully the first pour will on Friday.  DEC is coming tomorrow to discuss the contamination issue between the walls dividing the building.  The contamination issue will not hold us up. 

The fire siren has been moved.  Randy Tuttle talked about moving it to its original location in the back of the building.

Rich reported that Kevin at Gallo is the new foreman. Terry will be in and out overseeing the job.

Fred passed out change order copies for the Town Board to review.  A motion was offered from James Lawrence with a second from Martin D. Blanden to accept change order #2 and for Rich to sign an increase of $1,011.62.  Motion carried.

Should be 3,000 lbs per square foot with no settlement.  Earl Nace from Delaware will be here for the pour and to check soils under the building.  Construction Technology will be here to check test.  Fred is concerned about the increase cost for field inspections.  There are certain inspections that are required to be performed.  Fred does not want to surprise the town with additional costs.  Construction Technology is in Gallo’s contract.  The back corner of the building is not in the contract and this may open a Pandora’s box.

Jim Lawrence talked to Rob Drum.  Fred is waiting to talk to him about the radiant heat and is looking for the layout.  Jim will get a hold of Rob and see if he can get the layout.  Fred wants to keep the ball rolling with the windows and doors.  Fred will get with Tom to approve the fire codes.  He wants to know the fire rating for the doors before they are ordered.

Discussion of the electric.  Nothing else we can do at this point, back in Fred’s court.

Bruce Templeton has not been around for Marty to talk to him about the water district.

A motion was offered from James Lawrence with a second from Thomas Soule to adjourn.  Motion carried.  The meeting adjourned at 6:12 PM