Library Board sets special meeting April 4 to consider contract

A special meeting has been set for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 4, for the Belleville Area District Library Board to consider a proposed contract with O’Neal Construction of Ann Arbor to construct the new library.
The board had hoped to approve the contract at its regular meeting on March 14, but board attorney John Day had been called out of town on an emergency and the contract was not ready.
Board chairwoman Sharon Peters said Day had suggested he could send his partner to the March 14 meeting, but she decided to wait until Day returned.
“Once we know what contract is preferred by both groups, we can move forward,” said architect Dan Whisler. He said the AIA contracts are pretty much standard, but have some small differences which Day wanted to consider.
Building Committee chairwoman Joy Cichewicz said both contracts are for construction manager as constructor. One is for cost plus and one is for guaranteed maximum price.
Day wanted to be sure which is better for the community before he made a recommendation.
Present at the March 14 library board meeting were three representatives from O’Neal: Will Gordon, president; Matt Ratzow, project manager; and Dean Kokkales, project superintendent. Gordon and Ratzow used to live in Belleville.
They came even though they had been informed the contract was not ready for a vote. They all agreed to make themselves available for any special meetings to help move the project forward.
The builders also suggested having tours of the construction site as building progresses to get young people interested in construction. President Gordon said construction companies are going to have a labor shortage coming up.
“That’s why we need construction trades back in the schools,” said board member John Juriga.
Kokkales said Eastern Michigan University had tours of one of their projects and, “It was kind of cool to see the students out there.”
Ratzow agreed: “Even little ones. Show them everything and then give them some ice cream, and they’ll be interested.”
Building Committee chairwoman Cichewicz said O’Neal has agreed to monthly reports to the board as construction progresses and weekly reports to the building committee.
In other business at the March 14 meeting, the board:
• Approved setting up two new accounts at Chase: the 2017 Library Bond Debt Retirement Fund to pay bond holders and the 2017 Capital Projects Fund to pay for construction. The account signatories are Chairwoman Peters or Board Treasurer Tanya Stoudemire for the board and Library Director Mary Jo Suchy or Deputy Director Hilary Savage for the library;
• Learned the $14 million General Obligation – Unlimited Tax bond sale is scheduled for April 10 and the tentative bond closing is May 1;
• Discussed how to communicate with the public about what is happening with construction. But architect Whisler said there really won’t be much to report at first, as the design work develops. He said constructing a building takes a long time to come out of the ground. He said they will be digging foundations and pushing dirt around for a while. He said they could think of time-lapse photography or a video on You Tube, but it will be “like watching paint dry.” He said the ground-breaking ceremony won’t be until January, February or March 2018 – a year away;
• Heard Cichewicz say fund raising for public art could be ongoing; and
• Heard Peters announce that Sumpter has some $200,000 in its library fund and wants to meet with library representatives to discuss the possibility of building a new building for the library media center in the township rather than refurbishing the old DPW building.