Developers of Charleswood School will seek an alternative irrigation well site following a drilling attempt that did not yield water.

During Tuesday’s Elementary School Building Committee meeting, Vertex project manager Chris Kenney said the area was drilled to a depth of 800 feet, well above the standard 600 feet agreed upon, without hitting water.

Engineers are reviewing areas to relocate the well, and the design team will make a recommendation soon, Kenney said.

“All the talk of water out there — we went down 800 feet and could not find any,” Kenney said. “Everybody is a little surprised. An average of 500 to 600 feet is the neighborhood of wells in this area.”

Kenney said he was talking about a spot near the future playing field.

He noted it’s not part of the geothermal looping system and “would not provide the same level of conductivity.”

Kenney added, “Unfortunately, we need to abandon and see if we have better luck at adjacent locations.”

In a related matter, the project manager said Vertex had reached out to the town’s Department of Public Works to see if developers could connect to water service that comes in off Hayden Rowe midway through the site and has a hydrant.

The plan is to temporarily set up a meter and have the contractor draw water from there until an alternate well site is found, Kenney said.

Roadwork engineer discussed

Kenney also reported on obtaining a resident engineer to oversee Hayden Rowe Street roadwork this summer, at the town’s request.

Vertex reached out to three firms: Howard Stein Hudson, Beta and Nitsch, but only the first submitted a proposal. Kenney said the others cited challenges with the request for proposals (RFP) or stated their workload was too busy to take on the project.

When asked by board member Jagrut Jathal what the RFP challenges are, Kenney explained the job called for a professional engineer, because Vertex did not want “a summer intern with no value for the town” providing oversight.

ESBC member Bill Flannery questioned whether there is time to seek another bid, saying he is uncomfortable automatically accepting Howard Stein Hudson’s proposal without another option.

Kenney noted Vertex could try to find another bidder in the month before roadwork starts.

“There are other civil engineers out there, so it is not an issue,” he said.

“You probably should do that. It certainly won’t hurt,” member Mike Shepard added.

Change order for boulders OK’d

In other business, board members talked about a change order of $233,650 for further boulder removal costs. Kenney said the work involves breaking up the boulders on site, trucking them off to be processed — making them into gravel or other materials — and paying for disposal.

The project manager added there is still excavation to be done when weather permits, and he expects to return with one or two smaller change order requests in the future.

Other financial updates given

The ESBC also approved an invoice package totaling $2,922,023 for Vertex, architect Perkins Eastman, Brait Builders, Lucas Environmental and Tighe and Bond.

During a budget update, Kenney noted of the total budget ($158, 422,394), $121,353,024, or 76.6%, has been committed to date. Of that committed amount, $37,471,775, or approximately 31%, was expended.

The project manager invited board members to take a tour of the site.

Vice chair Tiffany Ostrander noted it was amazing to see the work that is being done after the process for the project began in 2021.