Costs rising for MMS fuel conversion project

Mansfield Middle School

Voters and the town council may have approved a $3.8 million price tag for the ongoing fuel conversion project at Mansfield Middle School.

But town officials have learned in recent weeks the price tag has increased to $4.6 million.

According to Mansfield’s Finance Director Cherie Trahan, town officials have officially submitted paperwork to the state for reimbursement of the state’s share of the increase.

She said, so far, $3 million has been submitted and she hoped to receive the town’s first payment in December.

Residents approved the project in 2006 with the understanding the state Department of Education would pay for approximately 73 percent of the project.

Although the total cost increased $800,000, the local share town officials approved was an additional $476,000 in town funding.

Some of the materials being purchased that account for part of the increase are not reimbursable, so the town must fund a greater percentage of the increase, Trahan said.

She said the state will pay the labor costs associated with the project, but will only pay for certain materials used during construction.

For instance, new ceiling tiles and lights - which are more cost-effective to install - are not reimbursed by the state because state officials prefer existing materials to be reused.

The town’s portion of that increase will come from two different budgets.
The board of education funded $100,000 of the increase from its operating budget and the other $376,000 will come from the MMS Heat Conversion Project line item in the town’s capital nonrecurring fund.

The increase was approved during an October town council meeting.

Now, with the approved increased budget, Mansfield will fund $1.5 million of the project and the remaining $3.1 million is expected to come from grants from the DOE.

Town officials said they needed to increase the local share because Mansfield was approved for an increase in state funding associated with the project’s cost hike.

“Under the school construction grant program, it is important to note that without the required amount of authorized local funding, no reimbursements from the state for expenditures to date will be made,” said Town Manager Matthew Hart in a memorandum to town council members.
Town officials said Mansfield has not yet received any project reimbursements from the state.

Previous Councilman Bruce Clouette said the sooner council members approve the new budget, the sooner state funding would come into Mansfield.

If the budget increase and local share were not approved, the reimbursement from the state could have been in jeopardy.

According to Hart, the project costs increased because the project was broken down into two phases of construction for the alternative-heating source.

The project is costing more than budgeted because the conversion was originally supposed to be from electric heat to oil heat.

Increased costs are associated with the change of bringing in natural gas heat and increased costs for construction.

Town officials contracted with Manchester-based Nutmeg Mechanical Services, Inc. for the project earlier this year after sending the project out to bid for a second time.

Trahan said Nutmeg’s bid was the lowest bid submitted and was $3,685,481.
The first group of bids was rejected by the town because they “considerably exceeded” the town’s projected budget.

Posted Nov. 21, 2009