Loading...
5.3. SR 11-06-2006 City of Elk River REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Agenda Section Meeting Date Administration November 6, 2006 Item Description ECONAR Acce tance of Conditions Administrator Introduction On October 26 Bill Maertz conveyed to ECONAR the City Council and Library Board's responses to the stipulations for acceptance of ECONAR's contribution to the Library project. ECONAR's president, Mr. Del Overholser's response, which was received on November 2, is attached. Discussion As of the writing of this memo, the cost reduction in the project for this contribution has not been identified. The architects have indicated that there will not be additional design or construction costs related to accepting the donation from ECONAR. Mr. Overholser's letter provides comments on the requested changes to the conditions of acceptance. Financial Impact Attachments · Letter from Mr. Del Overholser, President, CEO, ECONAR · Memo from Mr. Bill Maertz Action Requested The Council is asked to consider acceptance of contribution from ECONAR based on Mr. Overholser's letter responding to the conditions and that the warranty be the same as specified in the bid documents. Council Action Motion by _ Second by _ Vote Follow Up C: \Documents and Settings \ tallard\Local Settings \ Temporary Internet Files \ OLKF\ECONAR.doc ColdClimate™ Geothennal Heat Pumps ij ~ :Wu5 NOV (I October 31, 2006 ECOIAR~ -== Sales: 1-800-4-ECONAR Tech: 1-800-418-TECH Corporate Offices: 19230 Evans St, Elk River, MN 55330 (763) 241-311 0 fax (763) 241-3111 Manufacturin~ Plant: 33 West Veum, Apjlet. on, MN 56208 (320) 289-1403 jax(320) 289-1440 Mayor and City Council of The City of Elk River Library Board City Administrator City Attorney Director of Parks and Recreation Re: ECONAR donation. First of all, thank you. I've been out of town and only recently did I get a chance to view your last council meeting. You have all put forth a great deal of time and energy in your consideration of my offer to donate ECONAR geothermal heat pumps for the new public library project. I appreciate the time you have spent. Following this letter is some background information for your review that might help you better understand why this became an issue at all. You will find that ECONAR was not late in its attempts or at "the eleventh hour" at all on its own accords. It's how the process works and, as Louise Kuester stated, not very transparent. With my proposal, I set out to accomplish a number of tasks. They are listed in the same order as my proposal as follows: My first goal was to provide some oversight to the geothermal design of the library. No, I wasn't asked to do that but my firm has more geothermal expertise than anyone in the five state area and questions of the design now might avoid larger problems down the road. This is not a slam on the engineer; we are just more experienced with geothermal, plain and simple. Since I would be donating the equipment I no longer would have a conflict of interest, only the desire of a successful project. However, since the geothermal heat pumps need to be handled as a deduct and not a re-bid, this oversight will not be possible. Hopefully it isn't needed. Second; I wanted to inform and educate area residents and businesses on the merits of geothermal technology, a renewable energy source very few are aware of or understand. Although ECONAR has many geothermal installations none of them offer explanation to the building users. Most don't even know it's there. What better place to learn than the library? My reference to permanent meant not a one-day temporary display, but rather something well done and professionally matched with the building, not an advertisement. Since discussion has now surfaced that such a display will be created I'm satisfied this goal will be met. Page 2 Third; ECONAR has introduced Elk River and Energy City to engineers, architects and contractors form around the world. They travel a great distance and expect to see completed projects. I want to put our best foot forward and show off Elk River. Touring some facilities can be difficult. Because ofthe libraries' hours of operation it will be more conducive to outside tours on occasion than other buildings. You will find ECONAR staff to be very courteous and the visitors very appreciative. Fourth; the new libraries meeting room is an excellent setting for some ofthe training sessions ECONAR conducts. I want access to utilize that space for training scheduled well in advance but do not expect anymore than any other citizen. The problem I have is that many of us within Elk River do not have that access. Library personnel are telling me that only non-profits can use the space. That is public space and should be available to all. Granting me access subject to the Current Use Policy does not provide me use ofthe room. Fifth and last; the longer-term commitment to reference ECONAR in future correspondence. I did not convey what I was hoping for very well. What I desired was that after the press release was well behind us, the reference in the future might sound more like this " the ECONAR geothermal system. . . " when geothermal was referenced. This is similar to references such as "the Apple computers in the media center" or "the Caterpillar diesel generator at the landfill". We hear such references all the time. I do acknowledge the additional burden to staff of managing such a commitment. I'm very happy with the Councils' offer to include ECONAR on the dedication plague, thank you. As one last note- Mayor Klinzing pronounces ECONAR correctly. ECONAR is an acronym for Earth's Concentrated Solar and should always be in all- uppercase. With my above comments I hereby agree to the changes in conditions you have put forth and look forward to working with the City of Elk River. Sincerely, ECONAR Energy Systems, Corporation dv/ ~~ Del Overholser President, CEO Background of Donation Offer After a presentation to the Energy City Commissioners by KKE and Karges- Faulconbridge on May 17,2006 (see attached minutes) commissioner Overholser swapped business cards with the architect and engineer present. She (commissioner Overholser) lobbied for the use of geothermal heat pumps and a design built on ECONAR Cold-Climate equipment. Numerous phone calls were placed after that date to the engineering firm by both Bob Donley and Mark Kennedy of ECONAR indicating support of the project and offering their assistance. None was ever requested. The design process, simply put, means the design engineer creates a design of a system that he/she feels is right for the application. The engineer receives feedback from the architect and owner and then completes the design. The engineer sometimes utilizes the services of manufacturers of selected components but many times has little contact with them. Even though the final design was completed by the end of July, ECONAR could not find out if they were being specified or even listed as an or-equal until the bid documents were released. The first bid documents received by a bidder was on September 19 (seven bidders received their set that day). ECONAR received a set on Thursday September 28 (along with five other bidders). Thirty-five more bidders received documents after the 28th. Twelve bidders received documents on October 4. In all, seventy-four documents were issued to bidders. ECONAR was in the middle of the receiving time frame. Upon review of the documents it was clear that ECONAR was non-existent in the design and furthermore, non-geothermal products were listed and several other errors were noted. Contact was made to Karges-Faulconbridge to make them aware of the errors ECONAR noted and to request ECONAR be added. The project engineer indicated ECONAR would now need to submit its own data at the conditions set forth in the current design however felt there wasn't any reason ECONAR wouldn't be accepted. During the design process of the Public Safety Building ECONAR was told by the mechanical design firm on that project that ECONAR would not only be included but that its products were being specified. It was not known until the release of the bid documents that ECONAR was excluded. The design firm stated that a change to a Florida Heat Pump (FHP) based design with a gas supplement was made near the end. Since a similar pattern was now emerging with the Library project a decision was made to put forth an offer to the city in the way of product donation. In no way was ECONAR negligent in its efforts to have its products incorporated in either the Public Safety Building or the Library. In both cases ECONAR took the expected steps and followed industry protocol. , ECONAR is not an unknown manufacturer. It is a key player in the geothermal industry and has produced over 16,000 geothermal heat pumps worldwide. It offers products with unit capacities of 1 '12 tons thru 30 tons. The larger 30-ton units have been operational in installations for more than seven years. The Library specifies 20-ton units. Because of ECONAR's reputation in the industry, eight bidders contacted ECONAR for a geothermal bid after they saw geothermal was being installed in Energy City, ECONAR's hometown. Although ECONAR has more geothermal applications of its products in Minnesota then all the manufacturers on the approved list combined, it was likely excluded from the Library design because the engineer wasn't familiar with ECONAR's range of products or hadn't any personal experience with them. The design process is difficult for ECONAR to affect. It can only offer support for the project and then hope its products are specified and when they are not, move on. Not being specified or not being listed does not imply an incompatible product or a bad design. It only implies that the engineer was more familiar with another product or the owner didn't suggest a desired product. From ECONAR's point of view, the Library is considered a small project. The city council seems to have been influenced that it may be too big for ECONAR or that ECONAR has not done this type of project before. Please review the attached sampling of domestic commercial geothermal projects to ease those concerns. Numerous other commercial projects not on the list also exist such as Great River Energy's office addition and our own headquarters, an 18,000 sq. ft office building here in Elk River. Also submitted before the prior approved equal date, along with ECONAR's data requested by the engineer, was ECONAR's commercial warranty, which generously exceeds the plan requirements. If parts were needed, I would hope you would prefer to deal with a manufacturer in Minnesota to one in Florida. The following is a listing provided to me by ECONAR's commercial applications manager in chronological order of events that transpired after the bid documents were received and before bid date. It is apparent from the following that ECONAR met the requirements and was given the impression it would be allowed to bid. Del, Here are my thoughts on the time line. Oct. 2nd (late Monday) Received a fax from Chris Nelson (Karges-Faulconbridge) with a fax time stamp from their office of 16:22 (4:22) PM but dated Friday. The fax was the project heat pump schedule showing the FHP. The fax was the official request to select and submit a comparable ECONAR (20-ton). Oct. 3 rd Talked with Dale Mueller about the 20-ton Ultra. Dale started preparing the needed engineering performance data. I called Chris Nelson and told him the ECONAR heat pump will have the same performance as the selected FHP. I told him it looks like FHP is using the same Copeland scroll compressor that 2 \ ECONAR uses. I gave him the dimensions. Our unit has a slightly smaller overall footprint than the FHP (2" wider, 4" shallower, 15" shorter). That seemed to be OK with Chris. Chris seemed very positive about ECONAR. Lori Johnson called and asked that I attend a meeting on Oct. 5th in the PM. The meeting was to be with her, KKE, Karges and myself. The purpose of the meeting was to determine if the ECONAR equipment was comparable to FHP. Lori said if ECONAR and Karges could effectively communicate prior to the meeting then the meeting did not need to happen. Oct. 4th Continued talking with Chris Nelson. I told him ECONAR had successfully been making its new Ultra line it would like to use in the Library for about 3 years. I told him we had supplied heat pumps to many projects, some very large. He continued to be positive. I asked Chris why they did not consider ECONAR to start with - he said Karges did not believe we had these large of systems. Oct. 5th Early AM Submitted the requested engineering data to Chris Nelson. I was told the last Addendum needed to go out on by the end of the day on the 5th. It seemed Chris had everything he needed to accept ECONAR as an equal. Chris was very positive that ECONAR would be listed. Lori Johnson called and told me the meeting was cancelled. Oct. 6th Addendum #2 was received but ECONAR was not listed. The errors we commented on were. I called Chris. He said they decided not to include ECONAR. He apologized but would not give me a reason. Since I felt I was most likely going to be working with Karges in the future I did want to be too difficult. I also received the following email from KKE. -----Original Message----- From: Jennifer Anderson-Tuttle [mailto:jtuttle@kke.com] Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 6:07 AM To: Bob Donley; cdnelson@kfi-eng.com Cc: rpchristenson@kfi-eng.com Subject: Re: RE: Elk River Library (Request for additional information) Bob, Thank you for taking the time to communicate directly with us on this issue. Providing the information for us to review is the appropriate process. After the requested information has been provided our engineers will be able to advise the owner. Thank you, Jennifer Anderson-Tuttle, Associate KKE Architects, Inc. jtuttle@kke.com On Monday October 9, 2006 8 mechanical firms requesting a bid of our products contacted ECONAR. Many had installed ECONAR products before. By process, ECONAR was not allowed to bid. Bob Donley 3 Listing of ECONAR Commercial Projects Carleton Co. Maintenance Facility Year installed 2004 Application Business Offices Heat Pumps 14 forced air units 34 tons Stack Bros., Superior WI 7153982964 Horizontal Cain Ouse, St. Paul 651 4269549 DSGW, Duluth 2187272626 Contractor Loop Field Engineer Arch. Lewis & Clark Rest Stop Year installed Application Heat Pumps Contractor DOT contact Engineer Hartley Nature Center Year installed Application Heat Pump Contractor Owner Contact Carleton, Minnesota Chamberlain, South Dakota 1999 Interstate Hwy. Rest Stop 8 forced air units and 1 domestic hot water 41 tons Paulson Sheet metal 6059968616 Bob Griffen 605 773 3433 West Plains Eng. 6053348422 Duluth, Minnesota 2002 Nature Center Radiant floor heating & fan coil cooling 1 hydronic unit 8 tons Stout Mech. 2187246735 Bill Maier 2187246735 Science Museum of Minnesota - Environmental Exp. Center St Paul, Minnesota Year Installed 2003 Application Exhibit Building "Net Zero Energy" Heat Pump One 4-ton Invision High efficiency dual compressor heat pump Vertical Patrick Hamilton 651 221 4761 Loop Field Owner contact Namadji Research Office Bldg. Year installed 2002 Application Office - retrofit of a school Computer data research 14 forced air units 48 tons horizontal Region Air Light Power and Heating Moose Lake, Minnesota Ramsey Fire Station Year Installed Application Building Size Heat Pumps Loop Field Owner contact Engineer Merrick Companies Year installed Building Size Application Heat pumps Owner contact Loop Field Heat Pumps Loop field Contractor Hunter Office Bldg. Year installed Building Size Application Heat Pumps Loop Field Owner contact Brixon Mfg Year installed Building Size Application Heat Pumps Loop field Owner contact Ramsey, Minnesota 2001 City Hall & Fire Station - Business Offices 4,500 SF 5 forced air units 23 tons Vertical City of Ramsey, Fire Chief 763427 1410 Emanualson- Podas Vadnais Heights, Minnesota 2003 50,000 SF - retrofit Non-Profit: Hiring handicapped for little assembly 23 forced air units 113 Tons John Barker 651 789 6208 Vertical Bruno, Minnesota Brooklyn Park, Minnesota 2001 10,000 SF - retrofit, 2 floors Office rental space four 6-ton forced air Vertical below parking lot MAE Properties Craig Hunter 651 6332040 Eagan, Minnesota 2001 20,000 SF forced air for offices & light manufacturing 10 forced air units 48-tons Pond loop Jeff Roberts 651 688 2540 ECONAR Commercial Projects West River Light & Power Rapid City, SD 26 tons The Factory Condo's South Haven, MI 70 tons Central Electric Cooperative Parker, PA 24 tons Garrison Fish Hatchery Garrison ND 30 tons Lincoln Elementary Minneapolis, MN 677 tons Furniture & Things Anoka, MN 150 tons Woodlands Bank Onamia, MN 28 tons Health Quest Elk River, MN 58 tons MarTek Manufacturing Onamia, MN 38 tons Wahpeton City Hall Wahpeton, ND 5 tons St Leo's Catholic Church Valley City, ND 21 tOllS Honeywell, Inc. Minneapolis, MN 26 Tons Concrete Inc. Grand Forks, ND 40 tons Sisseton HS Practice Facility Sisseton, SD 18 tons Appleton Library Appleton, MN 35 tons Prairie State Bank Appleton, MN 8 tons Benson Library Morris, MN 25 tons Sisseton HS Sisseton, SD 21 tons OtterTail Power Offices Fergus Falls, MN 150 tons Assisted Living Center Gregory, SD 36 tons River View Offices Anoka, MN 25 tons Park Manufacturing Cambridge, MN 82 tons JJJ Building Big Lake, MN 57 tons Twin Valley Senior Housing Twin Valley, MN 50 tons Otsego Elementary Otsego, MN 300 tons Becker HS Schools Becker, MN 423 tons Becker Middle School Becker, MN 350 tons Onamia Elementary Onamia, MN 230 tons Energy City Minutes excerpts as relayed by Energy City Commissioner Overholser January 18,2006 Mayor Klinzing informed the commission that the Elk River Public Library will be relocating. The proposed location would be across from City Hall. Since the library is a public building, this is an opportunity for the Energy City Commission to educate, demonstrate, and promote energy efficiency and renewable energy products in the design and construction of the building. MOVED BY COMMISSIONER STOUTENBURG AND SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER KAMPA STATING ECC WOULD LIKE TO PROVIDE INPUT ON THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW ELK RIVER PUBLIC LIBRARY. MOTION CARRIED 8-0. March 15, 2006 Bill Maertz, Park and Recreation Director, gave the ECC an update about the City Council's recommendation to go for the Platinum LEED Certification for the library. There is currently only one other library in the U.S. with the platinum certification. The discussion of what is required to make it the platinum level was discussed. The plan is to construct a 16,000 sq ft building with an approximate cost of $3.8 million. The plan is that the building will be completed constructed in August or September 2007. KKE has been selected as the architect for this project. Commissioner Rohlf asked what would be done with the current library. Bill told him that it may be kept for Park and Recreation activities or sold to a church, or something else. Bill asked if anyone knows of any funding sources for the library project. Commissioner Rohlf indicated that there are federal tax credits for using geothermal products in the building. April 19, 2006 Staff informed the ECC that KKE will be attending the May meeting to get some ideas for the library to achieve the Platinum LEED certification. May 17,2006 KKE presentation about Library (KFI representatives were present also). Jennifer Anderson-Tuttle and Mohammed Lawal were present to discuss the LEED certification plans(architecture) for the new library. Wallace (Wally) Jensen and Chris Nelson were present from KFI to discussthe technical aspects of the mechanics and engineering (toward the LEED certification). Jennifer and Chris gave a presentation of the progress they have made toward the project. Jennifer stated that the proposed library is attempting to obtain LEED certification at the Platinum level (most prestigious scoring mechanism). In order for the library to get certified, it needs to score between 52 and 69 points on a scale which is derived from six categories. The following is a brief over-view of the six categories, etc. from the presentation: · Sustainable Sites (14 pts. Possible... trying for 11 pts.) o Deals with site selection which allows for connection to alternative transportation, public maintenance, high albedo roof, and reduced site lighting · Water Efficiency (5 pts. Possible... trying for all five pts.) o Deals with water efficient landscaping, water use reduction, and innovative wastewater techniques (i.e. low flow water fixtures) · Energy and Atmosphere (17 pts possible... trying for 12) o Deals with heating and cooling of the building using energy efficient systems, renewable energy, and green power... several options were discussed including (but not limited to) a dual fuel heating system, fan cooling systems, and energy recovery units , o Discussion revolved around pre-tempered air, sub-metering and renewable energy (wind). Chris stated that no additional, supplemental heat sources will be necessary. o A side-bar discussion focused upon tax incentives/ credits that might be available to the City. Tradability of credits was also discussed. · Materials & Resources (13 pts possible... trying for 10) o Deals with waste reduction, reuse of materials, and recycling all available products (or using recycled products) as well as using locally produced, renewable materials. The three points that the City cannot try to obtain deal with building reuse since this is new construction. o Jennifer stated that construction waste management will be built directly into the bid proposal · Indoor Environmental Quality (15 pts possible... trying for all 15) o Deals mainly with ventilation and low VOC emitting materials, but also with lighting (daylight, shading, etc.) and comfort levels (temps) A comment was made that the shading will have to be automated or there will likely be problems (since each person perceives things differently. · Innovation in Design (5 pts possible... trying for all 5) o Deals with specific topics regarding design innovation and gives credit for having LEED accredited professionals (staff) Examples of topics included: public education components, energy conservation library reference collection, green cleaning contract, City's overall commitment to energy conservation (energy city, energy commission, etc.) Jennifer stated that they are still in the schematic design stage of the planning for the library and added (when asked) that the number of points being proposed may change depending upon feasibility/cost, etc. She stated that every project that has been proposed has been changed in some way. As a result, they are proposing 58 points (with six points possible for negotiation) to ensure that platinum rating can still be obtained. July 19, 2006 Mayor Klinzing commented that the final plans for the new library have been submitted. They are not going to meet the Platinum level for LEED certification. The design was just not conducive to making that level. Gold or Silver is definitely possible though. A comment was made that LEED certification needs to be pursued with the new YMCA also. Mayor Klinzing thanked the commission for all their hard work and dedication on these issues. October 18, 2006 "'\lthough KKE was on the Agenda, they did not appear. MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Bill Maertz, Parks and Recreation Director DATE: November 3, 2006 SUBJECT: ECONAR Contribution A local business, ECONAR, has offered to donate the heat pumps for the new Library geothermal system. KKE Architects have evaluated the ECONAR heat pumps and believes they are suitable for the Library project. In addition, KKE Architects have determined that there would be no additional design fees related to using the ECONAR product. ECONAR set forth five conditions of acceptance for this donation, see attached. These conditions were evaluated by the City Council and the City Attorney and they have suggested the following changes: 1. The public bidding process does not allow the re-bid a specific portion of the design. A change order specifying ECONAR will work instead of a re-bid. The general contractor would then need to reduce the project cost by the appropriate amount. 2. An educational display regarding geothermal, will likely be included in the library but should be generic in nature, not specifically referencing any particular brand. 3. ECONAR would be allowed to conduct tours of the library during regular hours of operation as long as it does not interfere with normal library operation. 4. ECONAR's use of the public meeting room would be subject to the current use policy. 5. The City of Elk River would not agree to continually reference ECONAR's donation in any future correspondence. On October 25, 2006 the Library Board met and recommended that the ECONAR donation be accepted with these changed conditions, with the understanding that the warranty equals the warranty called for in the original specifications. The City Council indicated that if Econar agrees to these changes in conditions the City would accept this donation. The City Council indicated that Econar could be included on the wall mounted building dedication plaque.