Committee asks consultant to add survey to Turner Group pre-design proposal, flags DOT and state permits

The Municipal Complex Research Committee asked the project presenter, Doug, to submit a revised Turner Group pre-design proposal that adds the boundary/survey as part of the base scope and addresses contract clarifications, with the intention of forwarding that amendment to the Select Board for approval.

The committee said the 30% pre-design work should include the civil engineering needed to apply for a DOT driveway permit and flagged that New Hampshire’s Alteration of Terrain (AOT) rules now aggregate changes across an entire site. “We need to do a geotech survey. We need to do a soil survey … and then we probably need to look and see how we’re going to bring utilities onto the site,” Doug said, summarizing the open items the consultant expects to resolve before the town seeks a design-build contract.

Members stressed the importance of clear bid specifications and room data sheets so bidders supply comparable systems and equipment. “It really comes into play in the mechanical system because you want to make sure you’re getting a good mechanical system for this building,” Doug said, calling out the risk that bidders may propose lower-quality mechanical systems unless the specs are explicit.

The committee discussed permitting details and timing: sight-distance verification for a new curb cut on Route 125, the level of design detail needed to file a driveway permit, and whether a traffic study would be required. One member noted the state’s AOT thresholds now consider cumulative disturbance on a site and said the committee should verify whether municipal projects are subject to that aggregation. The committee agreed Doug and the civil team should check whether the AOT applies and confirm the submission requirements for DOT.

Budget and procurement items were also discussed. The consultant had listed a $12,000 budget line for boundary surveys; the group agreed to ask Doug for a revised contract that includes survey coordination and scheduling so the town would not need to manage multiple vendors. The committee asked that the revised proposal also address contract language flagged by members (payment terms, standard conditions and insurance/hazardous-material protection clauses).

Next steps: the committee asked Doug to submit a revised proposal that incorporates the survey and contract clarifications, and to send that revision to Julie for transmission to the Select Board. The committee expects the Select Board to consider the amendment at its next regular meeting so the consultant may receive a notice to proceed only after board approval.

The committee also recorded operational considerations for the future building — septic design, utility routing and generator/fuel choices — and recommended that preliminary design include alternates for entrance and circulation to preserve options if DOT standards or costs require different approaches.

Doug and committee members agreed to return to the group with clarified scope and permit requirements at the next committee meeting; no final design-build contract was approved at this meeting.