LUDLOW — Daniel Phillips from Colliers International met with the Board of Selectmen on March 21 to discuss the facilities condition assessment.

The town contracted Colliers, a consulting firm specializing in architecture, engineering, construction, facilities planning and operations, to conduct the facilities condition assessment in 2022. The company has a local office in Agawam.

Phillips said he went through all six municipal buildings and looked at all the major building components from the exterior shell like the roofs, windows, doors and interior finishes like the ceilings, HVAC systems, floors and more.

The municipal buildings include Town Hall, Ludlow Community Center, clubhouse at the Ludlow Country Club, the DPW building, the Hubbard Memorial Library and the public safety buildings.

“We did identify 300 projects across the buildings. Some of them are small. Some of them are large. We wanted to be comprehensive to make this a document and list of items that you can start to address over the next five to 10 years,” Phillips said.

He added there is about $12.5 million worth of need but “not every project is equal, and we prioritize those roughly on urgency. We have a time frame but that’s not to say that things are going to fail if they are not done. It is to say if you had the money, that is where you should start.”

The cost estimates factor in project, construction and design costs.

Priority one items total $6.4 million, priority two items total $5.4 million and priority three items total $700,00.

The biggest need across the major maintenance systems according to Phillips is the HVAC systems, which would cost a total of $4 million including $1.5 million in priority one projects.

Phillips said some major issues with HVAC system include Town Hall, the community center pool, the golf course, and the public safety complex.

The highest priority one projects are exterior shell items like the roof at the Community Center along with the Country Club, DPW office area and the salt shed at DPW.

Phillips added, “It looks like the salt shed has had it. Structurally it looks like it is ready to go. There are some duplicate costs there because we have repair costs or a complete replacement.”

Selectman Derek DeBarge thinks HVAC is the main concern to protect the health and safety of the employees.

He said, “I am still concerned mostly for our HVAC systems. I know we are taking that on but I did not know the roofs were that bad.”

Selectman James Gennette asked the cost of potentially changing some of the flat roofs in town to a more “pitched” roof.

Phillips said, “It all depends. Some roofs have shorter lives based on material. The big problem is roofing costs have gone up over the years. We used to do a flat roof for $25 a square foot, it now cost upwards of $50 a square foot. It has almost really doubled in costs. It is a big issue.”

Some other projects to certain town buildings include window replacement, pavement to parking lots and drives, electrical work and carpeting.

Phillips said, “The interior shell, spread out all over there is nothing that is huge on that. There is a lot of small things. There is not a lot of meat on the interior shell numbers and honestly compared to the other components, it is relatively low.”

Colliers also ran accessibility tests in each building to meet the standards of the American Disability Act.
Projects that need to be done to meet the current needs is repairs to the elevator in Town Hall along with the entrance and locker areas at the golf course.

The elevator would cost approximately $600,000 to meet the ADA standards.

The building with most needs based on dollar per square foot is Town Hall because of the projects to the HVAC system and elevator.

The building with the second most needs based on dollar per square foot is the Country Club building which Selectman Bill Rosenblum agrees with.

“I believe the course was built in 1957 and that is probably the original building, and I don’t think anything has been done to it. The locker rooms show it too,” Rosenblum added.

“Buildings are different sizes, so we try to identify need by square foot,” Phillips added.

Phillips explained the next steps are typically to put all the projects together and construct a plan for the next 10 years to recognize the needs and funding.

DeBarge said, “I thought the assessment would be worse and the cost would be much higher. There are things that need to be done.”