Fire Department Requiring Extra Safety Measures on Avery School

The School Building Rehabilitation Committee pushed back recommendations by the for additional equipment at the new Avery Elementary School.

Project manager Jim Byrne told the committee Tuesday that the fire department asked the committee to approve a second annunciator - a device that tells firefighters where a fire is located - and a pair of lock boxes on the sides of the entrance facing High Street.

In all, changes would cost roughly $21,000 that the committee didn't budget for the project.

While not code to have more than one annunciator in a building, both Byrne and Christian Riordan, project manager for Consigli Construction, said it is becoming customary to have another one as a backup device.

"If your emergency is in where the annunciator is, and you couldn't enter the building that way, you have another entrance which will have a remote annunciator panel," Riordan said.

Committee members said that it was a redundant measure, but understood putting in a second device.

"Sounds like we don't want to walk it back, and it sounds like we agree," said committee chairman Andy Lawlor.

Members did, however, want to see if the department needed two lock boxes that held keys to the building and rooms inside.

The committee will try to sit down with Dedham Fire Chief William Cullinane at a later meeting to discuss the recommendations.

Lawlor told the project managers, who said they've begun ordering some of the equipment, that approval for the purchases should've come first.

"When you get north of $5,000, even though we have a fair amount of contingency [funds], you should be getting a reality check from us," Lawlor said. "No matter how shiny the badge is of the guy that's talking to you."

Winter Work Skyrocketed Costs

Project managers told the committee Tuesday that the cost to heat the ground during a snowy January cost $63,000 - $26,000 over their budget.

Work continued on track while Dedham got pounded with feet of snow in January. Construction crews had to keep the ground thaw in order to work on the site, said Byrne.

"It went way over as you know to keep the foundation work going," Byrne said.