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Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 18m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1010597040?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here. I'd like to call to order this September 17th Finance and Operations Committee meeting. My name is Arvin Estreffi, and I'm the chair of this committee. I'm joined by Chair Mansfield and Mrs. Griffiths.

[00:00:19] We'll start with public comment. Is there any public comment for today? Seeing no public comment, we'll move over to the minutes from the September 3rd meeting. Did everyone have a chance to review the minutes? Any comments or revisions?

[00:00:39] Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from September 3rd? I make a motion to approve the minutes from September 3rd. I will second that motion, and we'll take it to a vote.

[00:00:55] All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. And that motion passes unanimously, and the minutes have been approved. And we'll move on to the approval of the consent agenda. Are there any changes to the consent agenda? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[00:01:16] I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. I'll go ahead and second that motion, and we'll take it to a vote. All those in favor? Aye. The motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously, and that brings us to our action items.

[00:01:38] So we'll move to our first action item, 5.01, Support Services, GMP-1 Award for RFP. P 23 5 2 0 CMA are part 2 construction services for Parkview high school replacement and I believe this is presented by mr. Pasquarelli director of construction hi good afternoon so last year we administered a solicitation process and awarded construction management services to dustin construction for Parkview high school at that time they were awarded pre construction services so they started working alongside our group and our

[00:02:15] architects and our engineers as we developed a design now the design is nearly complete we are seeking approval in the first construction contract for the Parkview High School project this is the first of a total of two construction contracts we're anticipating to complete this project this first GMP consists primarily of site work and long lead materials so this project has an extensive amount of site work associated with it so by approving GMP number one it allows us to start that process now and we anticipate a

[00:02:49] second and final contract to be brought to you in December of this year thank you board members any questions or comments so this is what is the extent of like practically speaking what are we accomplishing at Parkview with this specific GMP so it's a good question so this will allow us this will give the contractor their first contract so they they've given us pricing to do the site

[00:03:26] work to order long lead materials like switch gear for electrical so they'll start with shop drawing process which usually takes several months so we when we're at this time of year with our CIP process we'd like to get started in construction before the winter starts so this will allow us to start you know getting on site putting down materials doing that kind of thing before the winter sets in okay and it's also I'm sorry Seneca Ridge as well so we're building up Seneca Ridge turf field so we'll get started on that and our goal is to have that ready for February of next year and this this will allow us to

[00:04:03] actually break ground at Parkview correct yes any other questions or comments chair Mansfield just I'm just wondering what are long lead items so those are things that take a long time to get and make so for example things like electrical gear in our schools are all custom made and so those could take up to a year by the time we order those and by the time we get them on site so we need to start that process early to make sure we have them in time to you know properly sequence into construction okay so it says site work building

[00:04:41] foundation long lead items and the interim sports field at Seneca Ridge correct how long is it gonna make take to do the interim sports field do we know so how long will take to construct it so our plan is to start construction in October and be completed by February 20th of next year thank you any other comments or questions seeing none we will yeah please chair Mansfield if you would like to motion I move that the Finance and Operations Committee approve

[00:05:21] and recommend Loudoun County School Board approve the contract award for GMP under contract number 23-520 for $36,532,804 to Dustin Construction Incorporated and authorizes the chair to sign the final documents upon presentation.

[00:05:42] Thank you, Chair. Mansfield, I will second that motion. Now that it's motioned and properly seconded, we'll take it to a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. That motion passes unanimously.

[00:06:02] I see that the recommendation is to put this on consent board members any objection to putting this on consent for the next full board meeting so this will go on consent to the full board moving on to action item 5.02 support services grant of easement to Dominion Energy at Woodgrove High School this is again presented by mr. Pasquarelli director of construction so although this property is owned by the county board of supervisors we've been asked to approve

[00:06:42] the easement to allow Dominion Energy to provide electrical service for the cell phone tower that's existing thank you board members any comments or discussion yes chairman field how long has been here without any power it was just recently constructed in the last several months and so it was finished maybe in June and so I know there were some questions about it being up there for several years but that's that's really not the case it's only been there

[00:07:17] for a couple of months. And so it's in June and then, I lost my train of thought. So then we would give the, and there's no power to it right now. It's completely not working. That's correct. So then we would give it, give Dominion the easement potentially, and then it looks like Milestone then takes it from there. Can you explain that to me? Sure. So technically speaking, the Board of

[00:07:55] Supervisors is giving the easement because they own the property and we lease the property, But in the review of the process, they would like us to sign off on it since we are the actual long-term leasor, leasee, whatever the term is, leasee, right, of the property.

[00:08:11] So they've asked us to be a party to the easement as well. And so once that happens, the Dominion Power will come in and essentially pull their wire through that easement. And so Milestone is the contractor building that tower, and so they will be a part of the coordination of that.

[00:08:30] But Dominion Power will be bringing their wires in, their feeders in to supply power to the equipment on the pole. So it looks like the county will be granting a utility easement to Milestone Towers. What does that mean?

[00:08:45] To Dominion, right? Not here. It says the proposed Dominion easement will extend from the right-of-way line at Alder School Road to proposed transformer on the Woodgrove High School site, but will not extend to the cell tower. See the attachment.

[00:09:01] The county will be grounding a utility easement to Milestone Towers that will allow Milestone to extend the electric service from the proposed transformer at the southern end of the Dominion easement to the cell tower site. And this will be able to grant Milestone the right to install telecommunication lines to the tower site.

[00:09:21] Yes, thank you for that. So the way this works, transformers like you see sitting all the way around these little green boxes all over the place that provide power, there's a primary side which is from Dominion Energy to the transformer and then the secondary side from the transformer to the use so whenever we're doing this building or any of our buildings we provide that that secondary side to the actual building so you're right milestone will be providing that from the transformer in but this is the easement from the street into the transformer that makes sense and then the second portion of that is that milestone this easement will grant milestone the right to install a

[00:09:59] telecommunication lines to the tower site that's different from the actual Dominion power right right it's just extending that so they come in they stop at the transformer and then the end user picks it up and takes it from there yeah

[00:10:13] board members any other questions yes please do miss Ewing is this subject to

[00:11:19] the next six years or if this goes in this will be another 30 years because our our contract with milestone ends and what in six years so the easement will be there forever now just as a reminder we don't own the property in fee simple the county does so we're just consenting to it but it will give them rights to the property just like any other easement any other permanent utility easement that exists on any property both school board

[00:11:49] and private so the cell phone tower will be there forever not necessarily that's subject to a lease agreement that's with the county on the property so that's separate from your actual electricity electric easement so this is not our property period we have a leasehold interest we are the less say as you know Kevin mentioned just a few minutes ago but we do not own the feed simple ownership of the property it's still owned by the county I think in the next maybe a couple of months there's going to be a move push towards getting that property transferred over to the

[00:12:27] school board but we're still working through that process because it requires as I think a site plan to be completed but right now no we do not have fee simple ownership of the parcel that's Woodgrove high school so is this the cell tower that they have requested for emergency services the cell tower will definitely house for lack of a better term emergency services for allowing County Fire and Rescue is Sheriff's Department and our bus radio systems so

[00:13:07] it is a critical infrastructure for our systems as well this one is yes it is

[00:13:11] remembers any other questions or feedback so the thought was that this is

[00:13:50] not something that we vote no on because it's County property correct yes and so and that's what I was getting out earlier and it was voted on earlier yes by previous board I think maybe this is our cell tower not the easement but not the easement so we don't have really any control over this and my understanding is that this cell phone tower is critical infrastructure as opposed to the other ones that are that were up like this one right is that correct I can definitely speak to this one does have critical infrastructure on

[00:14:28] there and others may consider other towers with critical infrastructure but I'll leave that to others so but this one definitely affects our systems and I think it was I came here what year was but it's this project to put all the radio towers is a Loudoun County Public Schools CIP project that we jointly funded with the County Board of Supervisors so buying all the radio equipment all those things was a capital budget for us that was set to go on this poll thank you for that clarification that's that's important

[00:15:01] information to know that it was a joint effort for emergency system any other questions or discussion if we can't vote yes or no on it I'm not sure I mean if we can't vote no on it I'm not sure why we have it today can you explain I'm gonna let miss Ewing take that one well the school board has a prerogative of saying no but the easement is still could still get approved by the County Board of Supervisors so Dominion is saying hey we want you to consent we under we acknowledge that you have a leasehold interest but even if we sit even if the school board says no it could still move forward with the county

[00:15:40] board granting the easement and one more question you said that towers for emergency services where's the nearest tower next to that school like is there another tower any any nearby there is one nearby I'm not sure exactly how far we currently have a tower site that we have just our radio system on and we lease that tower site we have seven sites across the county we do that that site will then be replaced once this equipment all gets put up but I don't know exactly how far it is I think it's Northwest of the high school property

[00:16:20] any other questions or discussion so we'll go ahead and vote do I have a motion so I'll I move that the Finance and Operations Committee recommend that the Loudoun County School Board approve the Dominion Energy right-of-way agreement associated with the tell cell tower on the Woodgrove high school property further that the chair of the school board is authorized to sign the

[00:16:55] right-of-way agreement upon presentation you have a second seconded by chair Mansfield we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor aye aye so that vote will pass unanimously I apologize so I miss miss her to you miss Griffith so that vote will pass do you say no oh yes okay that vote will pass with myself and

[00:17:30] chair Mansfield in favor and mrs. Griffiths opposed moving on to new business is there yes so yes so this it sounds like this will not go on consent for the next full meeting then generally easements do but that's a that's up to the committee to decide that but we would support going into consent agenda okay so it sounds like we don't have a unanimous conclusion so we'll take it to

[00:18:06] the full board. Absolutely. Moving on, is there any new business? No new business? So we'll go ahead and adjourn. This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you very much.

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