Green Level Site:
At their October 16th meeting, County Commissioners approved the final bond sale and approved additional capital reserve funds for the remaining bond projects. The bond sale was also completed on October 31st. On October 26th, Samet held the pre-bid and outreach session for subcontractors interested in bidding on the project. Bid packages are due to Samet on November 14th. Construction is currently scheduled to begin in January 2024.

Burlington Site:
A draft lease/memorandum of understanding has been presented to the College for review. Mr. Longest has also reviewed the document provided his comments and recommended changes. We expect the City to review the agreement at their 11/20/23 work session and consider approval shortly thereafter. We also expect to present the agreement for approval in December to the Board of Trustees. Once approved, the lease will be sent to the NCCCS system office as required.

Green Level Site:
Construction drawings are still under review with State Construction. The latest cost estimate is now in-line with the overall construction budget of $13,400,000. Various items of value engineering were agreed upon to bring the estimate in-line with the budget. Samet is on track to provide a final GMP to the College on 9/27/23 and the County has set the bond sale date for 10/31/2023. Based on a recent schedule update provided by Samet, we now believe construction may commence in the first quarter of 2024, slightly ahead of the previous recommended schedule. College administration is also working diligently with Martin Marietta to complete the required permitting process for the project including requirements of NCDEQ and NCDOT.

Burlington Site:
College administration continued discussions with the City of Burlington on July 25th regarding locating the fire burn tower at Burlington’s existing training site. This location can provide many positive attributes for the college including enrollment opportunities, close proximity to the Green Level Site and ample water that is required for training of this type. A lease agreement between the College and the City is currently under discussion. Various funding options are also being considered by College administration and a recommendation will be brought to the Board at a future meeting.

Project design updates were presented to the Board of Trustees at their February meeting with a recommendation to approve the design. In the meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the designs that were presented. Design Development documents will then be submitted to State Construction for review. We expect Construction Documents to be sent to State Construction in late April in preparation for bidding on the project in early August with construction beginning in late September. The College continues to look into funding options for the indoor firing range. This component will be bid out as an alternate. Should funding become available, the Board can consider adding this scope back into the project.

The College received the latest construction cost estimate from Samet and the third-party estimator on December 6th. The new December estimate increased by $507,183 over the July 2022 estimate. The major contributing factor is additional escalation due to the later July 2023 bid date. Overall the project budget shortfall based on the new estimate is $5,691,515. If the Indoor Firing Range is removed from the project, the overall project budget shortfall would be $127,221 which could most likely be resolved through additional value engineering within the remaining scope of the project. The College continues to explore opportunities for additional funding for the building of the Indoor Firing Range.

The design team has submitted the schematic design package to State Construction for review and approval and is currently working on the design development documents.

Public Safety Training Center – Bidding on this project continues for the PSTC. Due to inflation, the new estimates would require an additional 5.7 million dollars to complete the project. ACC plans to propose to the Board of Commissioners access to 3 million dollars of bond funds. ACC plans to request access to the authorized, but unissued” 3 million dollars of bond funds. If the firing range is taken out, ACC would be able to continue with the project with its current budget. This project could potentially be phased out once ACC receives more funds to complete the project. Delaying the shooting range could risk a price rise and potentially have students enroll elsewhere. ACC met with the delegation on December 17, 2022, which seemed to be received positively. There is a possibility of a companion bill in both the House and the Senate. ACC will follow up in January to set a date to review this information. The Geotech/soil samples are complete and some buildings had to shift due to the soil samples that were provided back to ACC. The soil samples have also increased in overall price.

The College emphasized the importance of having an indoor firing range and the potential positive impact that this facility could have on the College’s enrollment as well as professional training for citizens in the community. ACC anticipates receiving a new cost estimate at the beginning of December 2022 and needing additional funding to complete the PSTC. ACC plans to go back to the Board of Commissioners after receiving an updated cost estimate to ask for additional funding.

ACC recently met with the design team, Samet, Timmons (civil engineer) and ESP (completed geotechnical work) where we discussed the results of the recently completed soils report for the PSTC project. Both Samet and Timmons stated that the results of the report are positive and they don't see any issues that are concerning. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a site with very challenging conditions, they give this site a 2 or 3 and stated it is very similar to sites they typically work on. Some structures may have to move slightly to help avoid any potential site issues to help reduce costs. Two key points is that rock appears to be deeper than they thought which will allow us to avoid the need to blast or remove much rock and there doesn't appear to be too much unsuitable soil so additional fill being brought in will be limited. Also, there appears to be good fill on the site that can be utilized. All of these things help keep costs in line.

The design team is finalizing any needed redesign. Samet will provide ACC with a revised cost estimate by 12/7/22. This information will help ACC to determine next steps and provide final recommendations regarding project scope to the Board of Trustees.

ACC continues to explore opportunities for additional funding for the building of the indoor firing range.

The geotechnical work at the project site is complete and ACC has received positive reports back. The College emphasized the importance of having an indoor firing range and the potential positive impact that this facility could have on the College’s enrollment as well as professional training for citizens in the community. ACC anticipates receiving new cost estimates in December 2022 and needing additional funding to complete the PSTC. ACC plans to go back to the board after receiving an updated cost estimate to ask for additional funding.

Geotechnical work at the project site is complete and ACC expects the soils report in the next week. Once received, the design team will review and determine what, if any, impact the results may have in the design and locations of the structures. Samet will then use any updated design information, as well as the geotechnical results, to update the construction cost estimate for the project. This information will help College administration to determine next steps and provide final recommendations regarding project scope to the Board of Trustees. In order to continue the discussion of needed funding for the indoor firing range, College administration, led by Dr. Gatewood, attended the September 19, 2022 BOC Meeting to provide an update on the project as well as provide information as to why the indoor firing range is an important element of the project. The College shared information regarding the populations and agencies to be served by the training center, the additional revenue it will produce and discussed how critical the indoor firing range is to
the overall project.

The budget for the PSTC was increased from $10,400,000 to $12,900,000 in April 2022. ACC notes funds from the Biotechnology Center of Excellence project have been transferred to the PSTC, increasing the funding to $15,850,218. Unfortunately, the cost estimates for the Public Safety Training Center have increased to $21,034,550. Due to the shortfall of funding, the firing range has been eliminated from the PSTC design. ACC is waiting on Geotech results to finalize how much of the project can be completed with the available funding. Additionally, Samet has informed ACC that the January 2023 bid timeframe is no longer feasible for this project. Samet believes that a June 2023 bid date is more realistic for the Public Safety Training Center if the Geotech findings are favorable.

On July 11, 2022, the Building & Grounds Committee met with representatives from Moseley Architects and Samet Construction as well as College administration to discuss the recent cost estimates for the Public Safety Training Center project. Prior to the completion of the schematic design of the project (Fall 2021), the design team provided the College with a construction cost estimate of $9.4M. Upon completion of the schematic design (July 2022) through consultation with Palacio Collaborative, a third-party construction cost estimator and construction cost estimates from Samet, the revised construction cost estimate grew to $18.72M. According to the design and construction team, cost escalation is an issue throughout the industry and unfortunately, this project is also getting hit hard with the inflation in construction costs. It was indicated that labor costs may settle down as we move forward, but they do not foresee overall construction costs going down. Unprecedented escalation in the construction industry is continuing in 2022 that was not foreseen in the fall of 2021. In addition, the rising cost of fuel/diesel doubly makes an impact on this project due to its extensive site scope.

A large unknown about the project is the soil conditions at the project site. The Committee agreed that moving forward with geotechnical subsurface exploration services was needed in order to have a better understanding of the potential impact of soil conditions on the site. If better than planned, cost estimates could be less, but the inverse is also a possibility. ESP Associates is completing the geotechnical work and the College should have a report back in approximately 4-5 weeks.

Once the impact of soil conditions are known, Samet will provide an updated construction estimate to the College for review and discussion.

On May 10th, the Green Level Planning Board approved recommendation for conditional use. The request for conditional use will be considered by the Green Level Town Council on June 9th. Once approved, the College can begin the process of fence construction around the parcels. In addition, geotechnical activities will be completed on the training parcel needed for the civil engineering design work. The design team is close to completing the schematic design of the project and will now have a third-party construction estimator provide cost estimates for the project. The College will also have Samet complete a construction estimate as well. Alamance Community College expects to bid the project in November with construction commencing in late December/early January.

At the County Commissioner’s February 21st meeting, the Commissioners approved amending the budget for this project to $12,400,000 through a $2,000,000 fund transfer from ACC’s capital reserves and funding an additional $500,000 for water/sewer and broadband connection to the site through County ARP funding. Martin Marietta officially approved the two new boundaries for the leased parcels and the survey firm is now working to have those new plats recorded with the County. Once recorded, the College can then seek a conditional use approval with the Town of Green Level. Also, on April 14th, College administration along with other stakeholders in the training center project will hold an informational session/presentation as part of Green Level’s Town Council meeting to help answer questions from the community and town leadership and solidify the interest and excitement in the project soon to start construction in the community.

Martin Marietta has approved the preliminary surveys so we can now move forward with finalizing the boundaries and recording the two parcels with the County. Samet is currently coordinating a bid package for fencing on the properties. The lease requires the College install an 8 foot fence with barbed wire along the southern boundary of the parcels. Designers continue to move forward on schematic design documents. We expect to have the schematic design and design document phases completed on the project by the end of April 2022 with construction documents completed and ready for bid by early fall 2022. The College continues to review the scope of the project and budgetary concerns. Due to rising costs, especially the escalation caused by Covid-19, the original budget of $10,400,000 is no longer sufficient. The College has reviewed the project scope and has made all of the reductions possible without jeopardizing the effectiveness of the facility. Even with those reductions, the overall cost is projected to be $12,900,000, which is $2,500,000 more than the original cost. Any additional reduction of the facility scope would undermine its training function for law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, and medical providers. College Administration has, therefore, reached out to the County and requested the use of the County American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to offset the cost to construct the Public Safety Training Facility with one (1) indoor firing range.

The ALTA boundary survey has been sent to Martin Marietta for review and approval. Once complete and a title commitment package has been ordered, the boundary survey will be finalized, and the recombination of the plats will be completed and recorded with the county. ACC team members have visited some exiting training center sites and is working with the design team to better define the scope of the project to meet the needs of all of the stakeholder groups. We expect to have the schematic design and design document phases completed on the project by the end of April 2022 with construction documents completed and ready for bid by early fall 2022.

Work continues on finalizing the recombination of the plats to be recorded with the county. The design contract with Moseley has been finalized by State Construction. The Pre-construction contract with Samet is being finalized and should be in place by November 1. An amended 3-1 form will be presented to the Board of Trustees to adjust the appropriated amount to the full project budget of $10,400,000. This will allow the project to continue to move forward with various project costs required before the sale of the bond.

Negotiations of the ground lease continue between Martin Marietta and the Board of Trustees legal counsel. County bond counsel have weighed in and commented on the lease terms as well. We appear to be in a good place and hope to move to a final lease version very soon.

Once the ground lease is executed, the College will work with Moseley Architects and Samet Corporation and the North Carolina State Construction Office to develop contracts and begin work with the stakeholder group.

ACC received 13 proposals from architectural firms on January 9. A selection committee reviewed and recommended the top candidates who then attended a pre-proposal meeting and toured the site. Moseley Architects, Lord Aeck Sargent, and HH Architecture gave one hour presentations to the committee with Moseley Architects scoring 163, HH Architecture 150, and Lord Aeck Sargent at 143 points. The Building and Grounds Committee then made a motion and approved Moseley Architects as the design firm selected for the Public Safety Training Center. This recommendation will then be presented to the Board of Trustees for their approval.

Lease negotiations for the Training Center property are ongoing with Martin Marietta.

College administration is currently finalizing the lease agreement with Martin Marietta for the property that will house the training center.

An RFP for design services was issued in November with designer proposals due 1/9/2020.  A pre-proposal meeting was held on 12/11/19 with 25 design firms in attendance.  In addition, designers had the opportunity to visit the Martin Marietta site on 12/16/19.  We expect to complete the designer selection process in January/early February and bring a recommendation to the Board of Trustees at the February meeting.

An RFP for Construction Manager at Risk was issued 12/17/19 with proposals due on 1/30/20.  A pre-proposal meeting and site visit is scheduled for 1/9/20.  We expect to complete the CM at Risk selection process in February/early March and bring a recommendation to the Board of Trustees at the March meeting.

An RFP for design services for the Public Training Center will be sent the week of 11/25. The Martin Marietta lease for the land has been negotiated, and a copy will be sent to the County for the bond attorney and the Local Government Commission to approve. The Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) is expected to be chosen at the December ACC Board of Trustees meeting. ACC will provide a schedule for the costs of the first project, and is anticipating a June-August 2021 bond issuance.

Public Safety Training Update to Commissioners 

The next step is to put out an RFP for the architect and CMR roles for the Public Safety Training Center. The ACC Board of Trustees Building & Grounds Committee will be updated and presented with a potential property for the facility.

On November 6, 2018, the voters of Alamance County approved a bond referendum in the
amount of $39.6 million for Alamance Community College. The bond referendum was for
multiple renovation and construction projects. The Public Safety Training Center project is
estimated to cost $10,400,000.

On Monday, August 5, 2019, the Board of Commissioners approved a bond reimbursement resolution which will advance Alamance Community College $718,344 for the cost of architectural services and other up-front costs as needed. The County will be reimbursed from bond proceeds once the bonds are sold. The estimated bond sale date for this project is during Fiscal Year 2021.