Is that a ball I see rolling? While no actual work has been done yet, the County really got things going on second the phase of the Scully renovations with a pair of meetings this week. The first was a "mandatory walk-through" for the plumbers, electricians and general contractors interested in bidding on the project. The second was a kick-off meeting for the already-awarded fire alarm installation. I tagged along on both and took a few photos.
The first meeting, which was attended by more than twenty people and lasted nearly three hours, involved a complete tour of the building and detailed discussions of the project. The theme of the morning seemed to be "that's not in your plans!" The County's point-man for the project, Gerry Anderus, an architect with DPW, was put on the hot-seat a few times as various attendees (especially the electricians it seemed) complained about this omission or that under-estimate. In the end, I was told it was a relatively routine walk-through and that, despite all the moaning, most of the attendees would submit bids by next week's deadline.
The second meeting involved the whole-house fire alarm system. And by "whole-house", they mean the whole house -- it seems that every room, closet, nook and cranny is getting a smoke alarm! When it's done, the entire system will be connected to a central office so the fire department will know exactly where in the building a fire has occurred before they even arrive on scene. Pretty high-tech, but I'm told its a required system for all public buildings now. The meeting was attended by staff from Simplex (who designed the system) and All Service Electric (who will be doing the actual installation), as well as officials from County Parks and DPW. The County's historic services officials, Richard Martin and Eric Crater, were there to discuss efforts to hide wires and otherwise avoid interfering with the aesthetics of the historically-protected building. Work on the project is expected to commence within a week and take as long as six weeks to finish (I told you there are a lot of alarms to install!)
- Enrico

DPW's Gerry Anderus (right) with a few walk-through attendees at the greenhouse.

The fire alarm kick-off meeting kicks off.