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On Tuesday, July 30, the Sudbury Select Board allocated $111,350 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Department of Public Works office space renovation project. Town Meeting had previously appropriated $125,000, but the sole responsible bid came in at $197,933.67. The allocation covers the bid, and a 10% contingency budget.
The warrant article from 2023 described the project as follows: “These funds are required to create one small conference room, one team meeting room, three offices and storage space for the Board of Health and Facilities Department staff at the DPW office building.” (PDF page 31)
Combined Facilities Director, Sandra Duran, presented the situation and explained the timeline of events from Annual Town Meeting in 2023 to now. Select Board members asked a variety of questions about the project, generally voicing support for getting it done.
During the discussion, Vice Chair Dan Carty peppered Duran with questions about the timeline and how long various steps of the process had taken, as he felt is was not the “immediate” execution that he was expecting after Duran presented at the 2023 Annual Town Meeting. Duran explained how the timeline worked, and how many projects her office has been managing simultaneously. She presented a slide of highlights:
Vice Chair Carty then added “We’ve heard it time and time again, the longer we wait on stuff, the more expensive it gets.” He went on to suggest that perhaps this project should have been paused in 2023 if the department had so much work in front of it. (1:23:00)
A pause, under that logic, would result in a cost increase as well. Duran immediately clapped back:
“With all due respect, I do consider this to be immediate. If we were to wait until after the facility condition assessment would be done, it would cost us considerably much more because it would take an additional 15 to 24 months to get done. So I do consider this immediate. It was gotten on immediate. It is a priority for our department, particularly mine, and my colleagues next to me, as we all sit next to each other in such close proximity.” (1:24:00)
Vice Chair Carty then questioned if Duran could have switched architects, and characterized the project as “essentially building within the shell of an existing space, popping up a couple walls.” Duran responded by listing the components of the project including walls, HVAC, acoustical tiles, floor patching, A/V and data drops, electrical modifications, fire protection modifications, septic work, trenching, and sidewalk modifications. “It is more complicated than what I’m showing you here. This is just to give you a sense of what the outcome will be…”
As tension increased (1:26:10), Chair Jennifer Roberts moved the conversation along to Member Charlie Russo, who noted that the presentation had answered all his questions, and that the project was an ideal fit for the intent of ARPA funds. He indicated full support of the allocation for this project, as did Chair Roberts in ensuing comments. The board voted unanimously to allocate the requested funds soon thereafter.