Belmonte building board approves change orders

SAUGUS – The Belmonte Middle School Building Committee approved a series of change orders for the middle school repair project Monday, which included an additional $40,000 for asbestos abatement and testing.Jim Dowd, project manager for Skanska Builders, said workers detected additional asbestos in piping between the second and third floors, and in the caulking around exterior louvers.Dowd said the $40,000 is “below average” for a building as old as the Belmonte and noted all asbestos work will be done while students are out of the building.”We have worked out with Consigli that all of the abatement will only take place when students are not in session,” said Dowd. “There will be no asbestos abatement work when there is a student in the building. We have it arranged for school vacations.”Janine Murdoch from construction management firm Consigli, said the majority of the asbestos abatement will be finished this week while fire alarm and fire protection should be wrapping in the next “week-and-a-half.””Systems will be live and active for school,” she said.Katherine Clunie, interior designer for architecture firm Fletcher Thompson, presented the colors that will be used in the school, which includes the classrooms being painted mostly white with orange, yellow, green and blue pastel accent colors.”They will all come together in the lobby space,” said Clunie. “It will give variety. The building was built in the ’60s and these colors were popular in the ’60s so they kind of pay homage to then.”Clunie also showed samples of the carpeting, which is black with tiny multi-colored dots that she said gives the appearance of “earth tones.”The committee also voted to form a three-person subcommittee to handle change orders. The committee voted that any project changes costing less than $25,000 would be approved by Chairman Wendy Reed or Town Manager Scott Crabtree. Changes between $25,000 and $100,000 would have to be approved by the subcommittee and anything over $100,000 would have to be approved by the full committee.”We’ll still get the full reports every month,” said Reed. “All the changes will be brought to the committee so we’re aware of them.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].