School architects reveal details of proposed new building improvement plan

Present at last week’s board of education meeting were representatives of the district’s architectural firm, CSArch. The purpose of their visit was a presentation of a new and proposed $20.47 million school building improvement plan. With Dan Woodside and Joe Metzger (from the right above) were (from left) Eric Robert and Chris Brunette of Schoolhouse Construction, that will oversee the building project during construction if it is accepted by voters here this fall. (Dan McClelland photo)

by Dan McClelland

Two representatives from the school district’s architectural firm- CSArch- presented details of a new building improvement plan, which has been in the works for several years.

Dan Woodside and Joe Metzger presented with slides the half dozen or so components of a new $20.47 million renovation plan for school buildings.

The community is invited to a forum tomorrow night (Thursday) at the high school at 6:30p.m. where the entire plan will be detailed and discussed.

Superintendent of Schools Russ Bartlett has been giving updates to the elected district leaders on the unfolding plan since before the pandemic. From the start of those reports from the superintendent the price tag constantly grew from a starting place of about $10 million to the current number, as a result of large building materials hikes and increased labor costs in the past several years.

Typically the district has embarked on building improvement projects every half dozen or so years to address many structural and safety needs in school buildings. The building projects also typically generate large amounts of state education department building aid and the minority of the cost is financed at relatively low interest rates over many years as bonds.

“I think we started talking to you about two years ago about the ‘building conditions’ survey, which is the official record of the condition of all your buildings,” Dan Woodside of CSArch began that evening. Districts are required by state ed to do those surveys every five years.

“We started with that and there was a list of items which then got prioritized- as to structural items, health and safety items, mechanical and electrical items.”

From that point, he said, they also started “having conversations with school leaders about what some of the programatic needs might be and what some of the wants might be,” Mr. Woodside reminded the board.

He said the initial plan has been “pared back in terms of prioritizing for the district, in concert with conversations with the district’s staff.”

Mr. Woodside said he think they really have got the plan down “to the true needs of the district, to make sure its a project that makes sense for you and for your community. We really focused on security at both schools and health and safety and infrastructure.”

He admitted frankly, “there’s nothing glamorous in this project whatsoever!”

“But we think it’s the right project to bring forward now for your consideration and ultimately your approval to take to your voters.”

Accompanying the two representatives of CS Arch was Eric Robert, who grew up here at the Tupper Lake Motel when his parents, Nancy and Barry Robert, owned it. Eric is owner of Schoolhouse Construction. Eric’s firm has worked as site manager and clerk of the works on several building projects here in the past, in association with the architects. With Eric that night was his employee, Chris “Coot” Brunette of Tupper Lake.

Joe Metzger took the board through a tour of the buildings and their plans for them in this project.

He said much of the work planned there regards safety and infrastructure improvements. The plan involves the replacement of a large fuel oil tank, replacing a series of exterior egress, doors “which currently bind when they are pushed open and replacing all the exterior windows in the elementary school building.

A full tear-off and replacement of the building’s flat roof is also planned as well as the replacement of some of the structural steel and canopy in the rear of the school gymnasium that “is starting to fail,” he said.

“The other additional things are replacing a handful of corridor door hardware sets.” Knobs would be replaced with ADA lever-style hardware. Other details in the LP Quinn proposal include replacing all water pipes in the building, replacing ventilators with similar ones, replacing that old mechanical vent unit on the roof, which is in very poor condition.

“As part of a larger secure vestibule” created there would be the addition of a new camera system throughout the school, he noted.

The plan involves too the reconfiguration of the school’s main office area to create the new secure vestibule, where the visitor would come into it through main entrance doors where they would check in with someone in the front office, most likely a security officer. From there the person would be “buzzed into” the main office, Mr. Metzger explained.

“It’s kind of a check point needed with everything going on in the world today! No one will be able to freely enter the school building without checking in!”

“We wanted to make sure we set this up so there were several check points (when it came to entering the building) and you couldn’t just wander into the building, without passage through some secure vestibule.

He said the outside door into the library would be on some sort of key fob or card access so a person couldn’t enter that door without “being buzzed in.” The library door would primarily be an exit door.

Mr. Metzger said on the L.P. Quinn grounds at the Rotary Track and Field, the retaining wall behind the bleachers is starting to deteriorate. “It’s currently in pretty poor condition!”

“We’re proposing to remove the entire press box and remove your existing wooden visitor bleacher section on the other side of the field.” He explained the existing metal bleachers would be moved to the other side. They would take down and regrade that entire retaining wall, removing it completely, provide a new elevated grandstand with integrated press box attached to it.”

Mr. Woodside said they went through several discussions with school leaders “looking at different iterations and the costs of different options.” He said at the last meeting here Building and Grounds Superintendent Pierre St. Pierre brought to their attention the fact that in the plan at that time there was a budget item for removing and replacing that retaining wall which was “quite expensive to do. When we were out their looking at it, we thought why do we ever want to keep that berm there? Let’s take it down and we’ll still have bleachers that elevate the spectators above the track, and just eliminate that retaining wall issue altogether!”

“We were able to save quite a bit of money by doing that!” he told the board. “It seems like a good solution to something that is currently problematic!” he stressed.

Joe Metzger said the track would be “reconstructed” in the new building plan. “It’s at the end of its life,” having been coated many times.

“It will continue to crack and bubble from underneath. It needs a full re-construction,” agreed Mr. Woodside. The track’s sub-base will all be replaced in its complete redo, it was noted.

Mr. Woodside said many of the renovation plans at the elementary school are replacing the original materials and systems. “It’s time to replace many of those original systems!”

The men said similar renovations were recently made by their company at the Ausable High School’s track, should the board members want to visit it to get a clearer idea of what they were proposing.

At the middle/high school building many of the proposed upgrades involve health and safety improvements.

All exterior entrance doors would be replaced with card access.

“We’re proposing replacing the main entrance steps as the existing ones are starting to fail significantly.”

The plan also includes replacing all the windows in the Baker wing as well as several small roofs over it and the locker room in the school.

“There’s currently a bathroom in the Baker wing that doesn’t meet ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) requirements. We’re proposing to update that to meet those standards,” explained Mr. Metzger.

“Additionally, a lot of exterior paved areas and sidewalks are in pretty poor condition as well.” One of the worst areas of pavement is where the buses are parked behind the bus garage, Mr. Metzger told the board.

The asphalt there will be re-milled and laid back down as would the surface of the bus loop in the front of the school, he said of their plan.

At the back entrance of the cafeteria, the floors are starting to disintegrate, “based on all the salt that is tracked into the building.” The lower steps there are deteriorated and so “there’s small maintenance-related work needed there to fix that.”

He said too the existing high school generator “doesn’t meet the required exhaust standards. After looking at various options for improving it, we are proposing purchasing a new generator that meets current building codes.”

“The existing air handling units to the gym and auditorium are original to the building” which dates back to the 1930s. “We’re proposing replacement of both of those units, as well as electrical switch gear and panels, which are also original to the building. They are pretty big infrastructure needs for that building,” he stressed.

They are proposing a similar secure vestibule at the high school as they are at the elementary school. “The only bigger piece of scope at the high school, however, is modifying the existing stairwell. In order to renovate the main office and the existing nurse’s office and guidance suite, we would modify that stairwell, remove the first floor landing and put in a new stair addition thereby creating a continuous office suite that would house all of your offices.” The guidance and nurse’s offices would no longer be separated by the stairs, he added.

“The stair relocation is the thing that makes all of this happen,” Mr. Woodside assured the board. “It’s the only way we can connect (these front office) spaces!”

He said the state education department would not ordinarily provide building aid for such a change, “but because we are doing it to improve health and safety, they will! So that was good to hear.”

The new secure vestibule to interview visitors would work similar to the one proposed at the elementary school, where a security officer would check in visitors at a secure window.

All visitors would have to enter through the secure vestibule, it was noted in response to a question from President Jane Whitmore.

A new gas detection system and oil separator system are planned at the bus garage, Mr. Metzger said. Other improvements planned there include a new bus wash, French drain and enclosing the diesel fuel tank. At the civic center, he said, the ice-making system “is approaching the end of its life cycle, and so that system would be upgraded in the new improvement plan.

Mr. Woodside said on many of the existing systems in the school building the machines are so old it is difficult to find parts to fix them. “It’s difficult for your maintenance people to take care of them!”

He said that after “paring” down many of the original plan, the total project cost is now $20.47 million.

A slide was shown indicating the share of the total going to each building, with the lion’s share of the money going to the two schools.

No work is planned at the school-owned Tupper Lake Public Library this round.

“We’re working with Eric and Scott and their team on many of these cost estimations, and so it’s always nice to have a third-party estimator in the mix,” he told the school officials. “So it’s not just us coming up with these numbers!”

He said the total includes all the costs, including the contingencies and “the things you need to move a project forward.”

On the time line of the project, a building tour for the board was scheduled for 5p.m. on Thursday, June 15 followed by a discussion of the plan for the public at 6:30p.m.

The board is expected to vote on whether or not to move the project forward at its August meeting. If the board okays the plan, an October public vote will be held to decide its fate.

Mr. Woodside said all the final design and planning work would be completed by his firm by the vote.

He predicted if voters approve the plan it would be submitted to the state education department for its approval and bids could be let by late spring or early summer which he called “a very good time” in the construction world.