BRATTLEBORO — The Police-Fire facilities project will move forward with its same project manager, architects, and construction company.
The Selectboard approved contracts for these professional services on April 19. Efforts to renovate the town's two fire stations and one police station are relaunching after the board put the project on hold two years ago.
Owner Project Manager Steve Horton's contract is based on a $100 per hour fee not to exceed $105,000, Town Manager Peter Elwell said. Horton has worked on the Police-Fire project in its latest 2012 incarnation.
Elwell told the board that Horton also helped the town research alternatives to the project after a special referendum defeated the municipal budget in 2014. He has since helped other town departments with projects such as Brooks Memorial Library.
Horton does all this work “at a reasonable rate and is a real teammate,” Elwell said.
The board approved the contract of the project architect, Northeast Collaborative Architects, for an amount not to exceed $507,800.
Elwell and Horton informed the board that the contract price reflected Northeast's work to redesign portions of the stations' plans.
Northeast's original plans have undergone multiple changes based on the town's revisions - such as moving the police department from the Municipal Center to Black Mountain Road - that will require new designs.
Elwell noted that Northeast's fees were higher than the estimates that appeared in previous public documents.
The Town Manager said he made a math error in the estimated hours in the public documents, which artificially lowered the fee by $26,300.
DEW Construction Corp. will receive $15,300 for construction management and pre-construction phase services, and a second fee of $220,000 for construction phase services.
The town attorney will review all the contracts before they are signed, Elwell told the board.