Library Expansion Minutes Archive

Minutes of the Meeting of the Special Library Committee
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Alan Tollefson at 6:35 p.m. in the Senior Room at City Hall.

Roll Call

Members Present: Mayor Wehrle, Ted Anderson, Stuart Harper, Kathy Addison, and Kevin Koester

Members Absent: Mark Bartels, Kathy Kolb

Staff Present: Alan Tollefson

Guests: Charles Lange, Grant County Historical Society; Rick Udelhofen, Grant County Historical Society; Dave Kurth, Grant County Historical Society; Dave Timmerman, Herald-Independent

Minutes

The minutes of the November 14 meeting were approved as mailed. Motion by Addison, second by Anderson. Carried unanimously.

Review of RFQ for Architectural Services

The draft RFQ which had been mailed prior to the meeting was reviewed and discussed. This is a request for “qualifications” rather than a request for “proposals” which generally includes a proposed fee. This was recommended by consultant George Lawson. The idea is to determine the best firm for the job and then negotiate the fee with that firm. Asking for dollar amounts can put the focus on the wrong place at the outset. Consensus of the group was that this made sense.

The idea of indicating a budget range for the project is to let firms know in a general way what to expect in the way of a fee. This is intended to discourage any firms that would not do the work within our budget and thus keep them from wasting their effort and save us the time of reviewing their material. There was some disagreement as to whether to include a budget figure in the RFQ, but by a straw poll the majority decided to leave it in.

Kevin Koester questioned the 150 square feet of storage for the community band as a previous memo had used the figure of 250. It was determined that in a written communication the band had asked for a 12 x 12 storage room, which was rounded up to 150 square feet. Consensus was that this might be too small.

The rest of the RFQ was reviewed with general agreement that it was satisfactory. There was discussion of the total architectural fee for the project, which is generally a percentage of construction costs, possibly as much as 10%. The RFQ asks the question of whether a portion of the pre-funding design fee will be applied toward the total fee.

Following further discussion, Harper moved, second by Addison that the RFQ be approved with two changes: increase the size of the band’s storage room from 150 to 250 square feet which also increases the total size of the project from 22,384 to 22,484 square feet and eliminate the phrase “any portion of” in the question of whether the pre-funding design fee will apply to the total project fee. Carried unanimously.

There was consensus that at some point a field trip would be in order to view projects identified by the candidate firms and talk to the people who work in the facilities. Library Board members relayed their positive experience in touring libraries, as part of its space needs assessment process.

Set First Meeting of the Building Subcommittee

Anderson moved, second by Addison that the first meeting of the building committee be set for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23 at City Hall in the Senior Room if available. Carried unanimously.

The group decided the building committee should be the ones to review and decide on the score sheet provided by consultant George Lawson.

It was noted that the Historical Society has already named its two members to the committee, the Library Foundation will name its member tomorrow, December 13, the City Council will name its two members on December 18 and the Library Board will name its two members on January 10.

Schedule Next Meeting of This Committee

Members believed that the role of this committee will be to oversee and coordinate the two subcommittees: building and fund raising. Addison moved, second by Anderson, that the next meeting of the Special Library Committee be set for Tuesday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall in the Senior Room if available. Carried unanimously. Mayor Wehrle pointed out that the City Council will meet the following Monday, March 19, and that would be a good time to bring the Council up to date as well.

Adjourn

On motion by Addison, second by Anderson and carried unanimously, the meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Alan M. Tollefson, recorder

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