Well, it's the witching hour, so I will call the meeting of the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board
of February 18th, 2026 at 3 p.m. to order. I wanna make a brief announcement that good news and bad
news about Mr. Baer. Good news is he got sworn in as a member of the board. The bad news is is that
by state statute, if you attend two meetings remotely,
you cannot participate or vote in another meeting until you attend in person. So this being the third
meeting that Mr. Baer is attending consecutively remotely. When we had our special meeting on our January
meeting, he cannot participate in our meeting today, nor can he vote in our meeting today. However,
when we get to comments from the public, he's allowed to participate as a member of the public. So when
we get to comments from the public, I will specifically ask him if anything has not yet been said in
this meeting that he would like to say to all of us. So with that, and you can't count towards a quorum,
not that we, you know, we've got a quorum, so we can't even call his name today. So I see that he's
there, at least I see JB and I assume that's Mr. Baer.
So I will ask Jace to take the role. John Weichart. Present. Doug Bruce. Here. Jim Silverstein. Here.
Joyce Pulling. Here. Adam Teese. Here. Galen Cassidy. Here. Okay, thank you. Item number two is approval
of consent agenda, which includes the minutes of our January 21st meeting, the minutes of our February
5th meeting, our claims, and the financial report. And if we could have a motion to approve that,
So we have a motion for approval. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded. So are there any questions
or discussion or comments about the minutes or the claims or the financial report? OK, seeing and hearing
none, item number three, Treasurer's Report. Oh, yeah, we better vote on it, hadn't we? OK, so why don't
we vote on it? John Weichart? Yes. Doug Bruce? Yes. Jim Soberstein? Yes. Joyce Polling? Yes. Adam Tease?
Yes. Galen Cassidy? Yes. OK, thank you.
Now, on to the Treasurer's Report. Mr. Silberstein, do you have any report you'd like to make? Jeff
Underwood has spent a lot of time bringing me up to speed on numbers. And for my first Treasurer's Report,
I have to say I have no report. OK. I would say that's an excellent job by both of you then. Very good,
very good. Item number four, President's Report. I wanted to report to you that I have approved a change
order for a sanitary extension due to unforeseen
elevation in the amount of $23,479. Approved that yesterday. The sanitary extension was an unforeseen
condition in the sanitary line pipe elevation that was exposed to meet IDEM's minimum regulation slope.
An additional 20 feet of pipe section had to be replaced, and that's why we have this additional cost
of $23,479.
So I approved that with the authority to approve such change orders under $25,000. And I think we have,
Deb, I think we have now a cumulative running total for the log that we wanted to show.
So we will forward this to all of you when the meeting's over, but we will keep a running total for
you, a log of these contingency change orders. And as you can see, we are now a contingency use to date
of 634, 658, which represents 26% of the contingency budget. I wanted to mention that we only had one
this month.
mid-February, obviously already, and we expected if we would have contingency change orders related
to the construction project that we would have had as we were coming up out of the ground. So I can't
anticipate that we'll never have another one, but we certainly are having fewer, and we're dealing with
fewer issues, fewer unforeseen circumstances as we move forward. So happy to answer any questions that
you might have.
about today's, the one I mentioned today for $23,479 or for the running total. All right, seeing none.
Construction update, Weddle Brothers, Mr. Sherry. Thank you, John. Andrew Sherry, project manager with
Weddle Brothers. Share my screen.
Okay, so a few things to talk about today in the presentation. I wanted to run through some safety,
the connector details as far as what was done over the last few weeks with the bridge connector that
we've got done, construction progress, upcoming activities, and then side note with the building information
modeling as we progress into the interior side of the building and all the systems and everything that
we're trying to do, just show the background and the pre-planning that's going into that level of detail.
From a safety standpoint, so we currently have over five separate contractors on site. They may have
third parties involved. We're averaging around 30 to 40 employees every day on site. That could have
an influx whenever we have concrete pours or different activities. This will continue to increase as
we start additional scope and activities. So as we free up more masonry work, we're free up more interior
work. Those crews will continue to grow in size. We've had over 150 participants in safety orientation.
That's employees and visitors to the job site.
We're working in all areas of the project site. So the south lot, the roof, the elevated decks, we have
concrete bores going everywhere, subgrade prep and underground utilities. We are all over the project
site. A lot of planning, a lot of logistics, a lot of safety mindset that's went into this. So the other
day we were walking the job site and just in the main exhibit hall we had seven pieces of heavy equipment,
excavators, skid steers, boom lifts,
So again, we're pulling all these employees into approximately 30,000 square feet of an area, doing
all these different activities. And again, no safety incidents to report. Just great kudos to the whole
team that's out there, the safety mindset. We start off every day with a daily hazard analysis. Not
only our careers, but we require all of our subcontractors to do that.
We document that and save that. So they run through what they're gonna do that day. What are potential
hazards and how can you eliminate those potential hazards? So again, I think that it's had a great turnout.
It's very tight project site, but great success. So at any time there are around 15 to 18 pieces of
heavy equipment on the job site. This does not include the days that we have concrete trucks, vehicle
job trucks, or additional vehicles, testing agencies, things like that. So with two main entrances to
the job site,
That's a pretty substantial feat. Here are a few photos I just wanted to include. In the top left picture
you can see just around the sanitary line and the deep foundations. On the south side of the project
there are four large excavators here with our material lay down. On the right hand side this is some
of the bedrock that we did whenever we exposed the existing sanitary line.
And then on the bottom left, it's hard to see, but that's the seven to eight pieces of heavy equipment
where we're doing our slab on grade sequence one and sequence two. So trenches are open. The utilities
are stepped up through the ground. There's just a lot of different moving parts and pieces. Connector
details. This was a huge milestone for the project. We had around 12 working days, not including weekends.
The crews were able to complete structural steel erection, structural steel detailing, including all
welding, the adjustments.
Roof and floor decking concrete pouring and final fall protection cables and posts so If anybody remembers
the snowstorm that we had that was the day that we planned on doing our closure was that Sunday night
We had to work with the limited travel restrictions with crews out of Indianapolis for our barricades
and things like that We ended up closing college down on Tuesday, and we still hit our same end date
that we showed in our schedule of June of 2025 Again that was a
A great feat, a lot of pre-planning, a lot of long days for the crews out there. Wednesday that we started.
Wednesday that we started, I think, that we started, I think, 22 or 22. And that's the day that they
set the columns. And then every connection on the bridge out there had about 60 inches of welds. So
not only after that was erected, both of together, but the welding and all the detailing that went into
that, again, just a great feat.
would like to note that city engineering did note that over the entirety of our closure that we had
no complaints. So that was a great milestone there too. We didn't know what to expect. There was a lot
of communications, a lot of planning that went into that. While we had the road closed, we were calling
them on a constant basis and saying, hey, you know, we have this, especially with the snow. We had city
crews with the plows and stuff help us whenever we went to
to close the road down, they plowed, they oversalted the roadways. There was just a lot of help. So
here are a few pictures on the left hand side here, you'll see the crane set up right in the middle
of college, about 120, 130 feet high at that point. In the middle picture, you'll see what it looks
like up there prior to them pouring the floor. So that's looking from the east towards the west. And
then the concrete pump on the right hand side whenever the day that they pumped that Thursday, the day
before we opened up.
Construction progress, so structural steel update. All structural steel around the main exhibit hall
has been set besides the back of house area. So the kitchen, the mechanical spaces, that is what we're
calling sequence seven. That follows the sanitary line and all that south work. So crews are now working
on final detailing, the clips, welds, the pour stops. So after they erect that, they have to put pour
stop down, all the decking so we can pour the concrete out. The low roof and high roof decking has started
on the building, including the exterior patio.
On this photo in the bottom, you can see the patio area that has been decked. And then this picture
was from last week. They're actually flying through on roof decking. We're really hoping to start putting
roofing material on the project within the next three weeks. If we remember, the slide on grade had
five total sequences. So sequence one has been poured. Sequence two is scheduled to be poured tomorrow.
That means that the whole eastern half of the project will be poured in concrete.
and have a floor. And then sequences three through five will be between now and April. So one thing
I wanted to note on the slide lawn grade preparation. So we see the underground, we talk about
the underground and stone and then pouring concrete, but here are just a few activities that we have
to do. So we get in and install our deep utilities in Backville.
Then we come in, put the geogrid down in all of our compacted stone, roll that in with heavy equipment,
install all of our shallow utilities and backfill, so all of our conduits, things like that. Then we
fully encapsulate under slab with a vapor barrier. We tie rebar, place forms along the perimeter, and
then isolate every column. So every column out there is isolated from the actual pour itself. And then
we pour the concrete. And then the next day, they come in and saw cut. So there's a lot that goes into
that process. Here are a few pictures.
On the top left, you can see the Northeast restroom. And then, so that's our deeper rough ends. On the
right-hand side, this is after we placed the geogrid and the stone, so they're running some of our conduits
for our floor boxes. On the bottom left, it's hard to see, but that's all the rebar. So the rebar and
the slab is on baskets. It's six inches on center both ways. And then again, our formwork. And then
the bottom right is the sequence one pour.
The building envelope masonry work has started with the brick work starting this week along registers
lot on the southeast side of the project. This picture was from last week is probably six foot tall.
I think right now they're 22 ish somewhere in there. Exterior column wraps are starting today.
So our framing, sheathing and exterior wall rough ends, which is electrical and plumbing are taking
place. Our roof deck continues with roofing installation starting again in approximately three weeks.
Interior work with the slab pours, we're able to jump on the interior walls too. So this picture was
taken right after lunch this morning. This is the first course of the south corridor on the interior
side. Interior masonry walls are starting today. We'll follow our slab progression, which is
a counterclockwise orientation. Our in-wall rough-in, so as they lay these masonry walls, mechanical
and electrical and plumbing is starting also. So they build up, they rough that in. And then door frames
are being installed today also.
All doors, frames, and hardware are on this week, and we have door frames starting today in these walls.
Our exterior facade, so our masonry work is to be completed at the southeast side of the project, and
then we'll continue up to each elevation. So this is the southeast side looking north. The left-hand
side there is the brick that we expect to be done within the next two weeks, and then those column wraps
right there are what are starting today.
We will also be placing blocking and prep work around all of the curtain wall systems. We expect the
curtain wall systems to be on site in April. We'll start getting everything installed there. And then
exterior framing will progress on the east side and then go to the north elevations for our brick and
our column ramps. So building information modeling, BIM, as we like to call it. Again, this is something
that it's 3D rendering that all systems go into the building
They model this. This allows us to identify clashes where different systems may hit, and then change
our plans and alter the plan for the system. So again, this allows for clashes to be identified early
in the process prior to us coming in, installing these, and then saying, hey, back to the drawing board.
What do we need to do? After areas are designed virtually in BIM and issues are resolved, areas are
signed off for prefabrication. We have the whole underslab signed off.
These are being prefabricated in shops. A lot of this work is taking place in the south lay down lot,
south of the hotel here. But they create these puzzle pieces in large sections, bring those over, and
then install exactly to how this was modeled. So it helps enhance our schedule. We currently have duct
work, overhead piping, electrical runs, and other scopes being built off site in order to deliver and
install when the project is ready. Again, another thing that we do in this model is we take into account
even down to the thickness of the insulation. So the pipe insulation, the ductwork insulation, the overall
end user maintenance standpoint, can people get in these cable trays and access it. So all that detail
goes in here. Again, build that and then build it inside. This picture here.
is basically if you took a cut at the roof line above the kitchen in the back of house, that is all
the existing or that is all the new systems and equipment that will actually be installed.
So fire protection, cable trays, low voltage, duct work, anything that you can think of that is everything
that will be above the ceiling in the back of house. This next picture is the high roof. So above the
exhibit hall in this, you'll also see all the long span trusses. So we get down to the level of detail for
duct work to go in the web spacing of those long spans that are out there, how everything ties together,
how do you insulate it. So again, this is just a neat picture to see all those systems in their entirety.
I think better than the BIM model. We want to go ahead and talk about our hard hat update video. I was
able to co-star with Mr. John Whitecard in. He got a lot of work done on site that day. So we'll see
how this one plays out. Co-star. Co-star.
Here we are again. I've taken a little break from all the work I've been doing here on site and we're
going to take another tour and see what's been happening.
Here we are again, I've taken a little break from all the work I've been doing here on site. And we're
gonna take another tour and see what's been happening. Hello again, John Weichert, president of the
Capitol Improvement Board. I'm here at the construction site for our expansion project. Amazed at all
the progress that's been made since our last hard hat edition.
Today's actually the last full day of the closure of College Avenue, and we're excited about that. I'm
under the bridge that connects the two buildings. I'm looking for Andrew Sherry from Weller Brothers.
He's going to join me today. Oh, Andrew, there you are. What are you doing up there? Waiting on you
to come see the best view in town, John. Well, come on down and tell me what's been going on. We can do that.
Andrew, the sky bridge will probably be the most identifiable project activity everyone can see. And
it is such an exciting new downtown feature. So tell me about what we are seeing and what is happening
here. Yes, so as you can see in the last week, week and a half, there's been a lot of work that took
place here between the structural steel, all the concrete work, all the prep that had to go into this
for this closure to hit these days that we've been planning for. We've got the existing floor that we
have to match.
We've got the new concrete. We've got the ramps. As you can see here at the top of all this structural
steel at these intersecting points, we've got 60 inches of weld. So a ton of detailing that people may
not think about, but there's a lot of work that goes into this as we progress and try to get to the
final product. You know, and symbolically, Andrew, we've talked about this at the bridge, but it's literally
a bridge between the past and the future. As we look across at the current convention center and look
at this new construction, this is not really a break from the past. It's a connection.
Absolutely. Obviously, this building, the expansion behind us is a monumental piece. But another big
piece of that is matching the historical aspect of the existing building. Progressing with our slab
here, we've got our nice hole covers to protect our floor boxes. Because once we get this next slab
poured, we're going to bring a bunch of scissor lifts in here and start detailing all this decking,
all these long-span tresses. Because right now, there's a ton of other members to be tied in up there.
They'll remove all this temporary bracing and such.
our existing, our new utilities existing in the slab, we want to protect them. Yeah. Not breaking things.
But again, our first section of the dance floor. So. Well, that's good. Yeah. And all this, all these
stones, what we paid extra for, right? Actually, this step was the base contract. The step underneath,
that's what we paid extra for. Oh, it tore you down? Yeah. Yeah. So basically, you had a foot of the
stuff that you see right now on the geogrid. And you'll be able to see it over here whenever we get
into these trenches. But the step right underneath that is what they wanted to fix.
So yes, a lot of stone. Thank you. Oh, look at all of this. Yes, sir. Quite a bit of masonry work already.
Yeah, last time we walked this a few days ago, we were five or six foot high. You see the work that
this group can do in three days. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, last time I was here, I
offered to be a hod carrier and they didn't take me up on it, but I'm glad I didn't get
hired for that. As soon as they heard that, they started flying through it. They worked more quickly
because all they needed was my help, right? Yeah. Well, this is very, very impressive. Yeah. And actually,
again, I think we talked about it before, but next week, we're looking at next Wednesday, they're going
to come in here and lay out. But this will be our interior wall. It dives into the center line of these
columns here. So it follows this saw cut joint. We'll have a little frame set in here, everything.
the door friends of the project in your wins that it's just it's just amazing so you know we're out
here originally and we were this was pretty much just a level ground and you describe these things to
me it was hard
It's hard for me to visualize it. We're in here now and it's happening. It's just amazing to look at.
Yeah, so when will the masonry work take place? And when will they come out and put the brick down?
And how's that fit into all the scheduling? Yeah, so we're looking at having like this wall down here
on the south side of the project done next Wednesday. At that point, they'll jump in and bring the block
guys in, have this interior wall done, and then immediately the exterior brick, red brick starts. And
there'll be a couple of weeks' worth of work for them to face that all.
So here's one of the main entrances. And where's the reception area going to be right here? Yeah, the
reception desk will be right here. Whenever you walk in the project or the building at the end of it,
we'll have a main entrance over here and a main entrance at that corner. So you'll come in. There'll
be a vestibule here, double set of doors, lights. You open the doors, and here's your desk. So this
is the Northeast entrance here. Yes, sir. And you're coming right in off of Walnut Street, third. And
here's the reception area. Yep. Yep. And then you have open corridors, your restrooms.
And then again, right now, we can see this beautiful exhibit hall. Basically, this column line in is
all exhibit hall, so you'll have your walls all the way to deck, and you'll have various doors that
you can go into that. We're coming around from the reception area, and this is the exhibit hall. Yes.
So again, you'll have sets of doors here, and then you'll come in. This column line here is the break,
so you'll have corridor, and then you come into the exhibit hall here.
The exhibit hall, again, we're approximately 30,000 square feet of finished space, wide open ceiling
space. We'll have foldable partition walls, so this could be an open area, basketball courts, things
like that. Or you can have different rooms with our folding partitions that come out. You know, and
I didn't realize how large an open space it could be until you're standing here within it. Yes.
This is a huge, huge area. Yeah. I mean, these long span trusses that we talked about for a long time,
we're able to accommodate that load. We've actually got decking. We're starting decking right now. And
I say we, but Indy Steel, All Met, the steel iron workers are starting decking over there. But our goal
is to start doing all the roof decking over this. We have roofing material in the lot. As soon as we
get this decking down, we're going to put a roof on it. And again, our goal is to get this building
enclosed. Yeah. I'm sorry, it's not just athletic events we can have.
1,400 people to sit down, dinner in the city, or concerts or lectures, and get a couple thousand people
in Harry Eaton's. That's a great space. It'll be a great space. So Andrew, next time we're here, what
are we going to see next time? I think that's a loaded question. We're going to see a lot. But we'll
see interior walls here, our masonry walls we talked about earlier. We're hoping to see interior framing
from floor to deck. We'll have decking places on all of our elevated surfaces.
and then slab on grade, we'll see a lot. Great, great. Well, Andrew, thank you for taking time out of
your busy schedule for the other tour. And we look forward to seeing all of you for the next Hard Hat
Edition. Someday we can see volleyball tournaments taking place in this space where we're standing.
We're going to play Devils, me and you, versus we've got to find two people. Yeah, maybe an Oval 75
league of some kind. RF. Yeah, OK.
For anybody who was worried about safety, I didn't even have the keys to that piece of equipment. So
don't be concerned. Well, yeah, I ask that they knew better. Okay, thank you, Andrew. Any questions
for Andrew about the construction update? All right, working group updates, wayfinding.
Thank you. Eddie Layton, which is an associate. And I have Karen Gilmore with me as well. She's our
graphic designer who's working on this. So we wanted to come to the CIB today. We're kind of at the
end of our design concept phase. And so we want to share progress. And then at the end of our presentation,
ask for approval of that design concept. So like any good design project, we start with goals. And so
these goals are not too dissimilar to the goals for the building design, but have a specific angle towards
the signage and wayfinding
Things like that should be simple and not overly complex, given visitors coming to the convention center,
be able to find a way around easily. Want to work with the building, so be timeless. Include the colors
from the building and that go with the building. Want to be memorable and unique, of course. Durable,
so Talisha and her team don't have to maintain it and worry about that.
flexible and adaptable. This space is going to be very many different things to different people. And
so the signage and wayfinding needs to work with all of that. I want to leverage technology as much
as possible to new building. And we wanted to make that exciting. I want to be consistent with the branding
and all the work that was done to create some of those graphics. It should make sense that the building
should reflect that. And we do know we're, just as we were talking about in the video, we're connecting
to the existing building. We need to make sure that
The signage is replaced in this building. The package can be complementary. But even if the decision
is to utilize existing signage, the new items make sense as well. So we look at the schedule. We started
back in November with our design concept work. And so we've been through the last couple of months with
the way finding committee to refine the design. So we're here today in February to ask for that approval.
the next line item under that, and the key milestones is the variance approval. Similar to the building
where the UDO was, we needed some variances to meet the UDO, because the UDO is not written around convention
centers. You don't have 50 different convention centers in town, but you have one. And so similarly,
the UDO signage requirements for our zoning, there's just, we don't meet them all the requirements,
or there's things that we'd like to do that are not included in the UDO. So we've had a meeting with
Jackie at the city,
have reviewed kind of what we're thinking and talked through that process. So the current plan for that
is that we will be submitting to appear in the March hearing, which means we need to submit at the end
of February, which we've intentionally left some time there in the schedule as we're working towards
the May completion schedule for the construction drawings. If we need to push to the April PZA hearing,
we have time to do that, but we'd like to leave that option open at this point.
So one of the big things that we're getting into much more detail as we work towards the construction
drawing portion of the project is the actual locations. We need to start with locations to be able to
pick the types of signs, but we're going to get much more detail into the specific locations. I just
wanted to share with the group kind of what we're thinking in terms of general areas. So we're going
to start outside, and I will zoom in because I realize that's kind of small on the big screen. So we're
looking at, start maybe on the west side of campus,
The existing building, the existing parking lots, there's our existing signage in many of the parking
lots already that we'd want to look at replacing some directional signage. We want to look at, I mean,
in the College Avenue, replacing the existing ground-mounted message sign, which we'll see what that
looks like, as well as the, looking at the building sign on this building. We've talked about just taking
that sign off and leaving the Graham Auto Sales,
piece there is kind of like an homage to the past of the building. We also acknowledge that if you're
coming to this campus for the first time and parking in the main parking lot, you may not know where
the entry is. It's not immediately obvious from back there, and so we might want to add some signage
to the backside of the building. The big thing, though, is along College Avenue, knowing where to turn
into the parking area,
One of the requirements from our building variances was that we needed a sign at the loading dock entry
to alert pedestrians to truck traffic and that sort of thing, but also just for trucks to know this
is where you turn in. The expansion is going to have signage. Obviously, we've talked about building
signage on the corners of the entries, wayfinding signage for people walking and driving around campus
and where parking can be found and that sort of thing.
So as I mentioned, we're going to get into much more detail on those locations as we determine quantities
of signs and the exact messaging of those. So right now, we're just looking at types. The same exercise
is going on inside. Entries into the exhibit hall rooms, a directory signage at the entry is important,
a restroom signage. But all the questions that Talisha and Lisa and her team get asked, where is this?
Where is that? We want to make sure the signage is helping as much as possible.
There's not always someone there to answer those questions. So as I mentioned, one of our exercises,
we're working with the committee to schedule a meeting probably late April or early May to really walk
through every location there's going to be a sign. What is it going to say? Which of our sign types
is it going to be? Which I'll share in a second. And that will help with determining the quantities,
which is what the big package will look at. And one of the things we're looking at as well in terms
Phasing is all the signage done at once, is it done in groupings and alternate amounts so we can work
that out from budget perspective. Looking at upstairs as well, of course, both floors are important.
So then really the item I wanted to share with this group and get the approval for is the concept. So
we wanted to start with what was already given to us from the branding package, which was a great starting
point. The building,
The logo, the font, the color scheme, it wanted to be consistent with all of the information that Bloomington
Convention Center is using to sell the space. So when a customer is coming, they've already seen these
colors, they've already seen the logos, and it's all very, you know, cohesive to the design.
So we went even as far as the angle. That was a very important design concept, the roof line of the
building. And so that angle finds itself in the signage. So this is all of the exterior signage concepts
we're looking at for different types of signs. Starting at the left, these signs would be the things
you would find along College Avenue, for example, leading you into the parking lot or pointing out where
entrances are.
The blue line here, so one of the variances we need to request is for signs taller than 48 inches, and
that's one of the requirements in the EDO that we don't meet currently. So this would be a metal sign,
a vertical blade sign on a stone plinth. In the parking lot, there's already existing signage attached
to many of the light poles for parking. And one of the things that talking to a general group is that,
you know, maybe that's one way to designate the
The convention center parking versus hotel parking, perhaps, just with a different sign color or type,
that sort of thing. The sign here in the center, that would be the replacement for the message sign.
And being able to go to a digital sign would help with ease of changing, but messaging, of course, being
able to do more than one thing at a time. There's multiple groups here.
Obviously, there will be restrictions on how fast that can change from a distraction point of view.
That's a requirement we'll have to face. A similar materiality and form. And then on the building itself,
we had had a placeholder in the building design for a sign above the doors. And so just using the logo
from the type font, typeface from the logo for that there seemed to make sense.
So, and all the exterior signs were planning on being aluminum, painted aluminum, so very durable,
long-lasting, and will be, you know, around for as long as the building is. Moving inside, one of the
things we heard over and over again with the way funding committee is we need to keep the messaging
as simple as possible. So, these are just some examples of different types of signs. Right now,
they're not, in this graphic, you know, the different signs
might be different scales, and not as all, depending on where they're located. For example, the ceiling
mounted sign, which based on the text that's here, this might be what's in the connector on the first
floor when you walk in from the parking lot, telling you if you go to the right, you're going to the
courtyard. If you go to the left, you're going into this building. If you go straight ahead, you'll
hit the new building. That might be a three by six foot sign that's hanging from the ceiling. That's
a larger scale sign. Something like this directory sign,
that might be next to the reception desk when you first walk in, that would be a much more kind of pedestrian
small scale that you're up close to. So that's one of the things we're studying is how large should
these signs be and based on their content and legibility. Things like the meeting room signs and the
restroom signs that are above entries into the spaces, those would be higher and larger so they're visible
from further away. And just trying to keep a consistent,
approach to the text and the logos and that sort of thing to be very clear. So what does that look like
in the space? So this is just a quick rendering example of, you know, pre-function rendering you guys
have seen before with some of these signage pieces added. So there's things like the meeting room sign
that has a digital calendar display on it for that day, what events are going on. There's letters over
top of it.
dimensional characters, you know, just calling out attention to the exhibit hall as well as the ceiling
mounted sign that is visible from far away. So if you're in a, if this area is crowded and you're down
at one of the entries, you'll see that exhibit room A hanging up high and nowhere to go. Restrooms are
a different color. So that's something we've heard asked a lot. It's a very common question.
And then things like the large text, kind of just to help you way find where you're going, where the
elevators are, where an information desk might be. Just examples of things that we're thinking about.
So that's what we've got for today. Our next steps, as I mentioned, is with your approval, we'll move
into the construction documents phase. We'll work on kind of cataloging, like I mentioned, every single
sign, what it says, where it goes, how it's made, that sort of thing, using kind of these types and pieces.
Thank you. Thank you. Deb, would you help me? We've had a working group that's been working with Schmidt
on this. We've had several meetings. Can you identify everybody who's been involved in this working
group as we've gotten to today? Yes. On the committee has been President Whitehart, Jim Silverstein,
and Joyce Poling have been part of it. During the design process, I will say there were several options
that were provided to the committee for their input, and so that has been
part of as typical for any design process and has been reviewed by the committee. And then they gave
them clear direction. And then this is what came back. So just share that. And included in the committee
of Convention Center staff. Convention Center staff are also part of, excuse me, yes. They are also
part of it. Yeah. Talish and Lisa. So Eddie's asking us today for approval of the design concept so
that they can move forward with this plan. And so I would ask if there's a motion for the design concept.
moved. So we've had a motion second it's been moved and seconded so is there any discussion or comments
or questions Mr. Teese? It looks great the only thing I would add is there are potentials that someday
rooms spaces would be named that happens often over time and it's good to think about that graphic now
rather than later like oh hey we got to append this to this so I would just ask that the team be
Anticipatory of what is the font size, shape, tone when things might get named, as opposed to, I didn't
think about that. I don't know where we're going to put that. Do that now, because I think that's highly
possible in this kind of environment. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? OK, so we have a motion
and a second. Mr. Paris, would you?
Take the roll. John Weichart. Yes. Doug Bruce. Yes. Jim Silberstein. Yes. Joyce Pulling. Yes. Adam Tease.
Yes. Galen Cassidy. Yes. Thank you. Also under working group updates, and we won't always have updates
from each group. We just have a placeholder for them each month. Furniture fixtures and equipment, is
there any update this month? Yeah, just to really.
So thank you for providing the word to that contract. We had some initial meetings with delicious and
her team. One of the, there's really been only one sort of major change from what we had and it's a
good thing I think for the budget at least is that the catering team is actually going to provide all
the utensils plates glasses so.
We can take that out of our budget, which is a good thing. But there's more coming. There's scoping
by realist strategies, as well as budgeting. There is going to be a small group, I believe, of the CIB
with Talisha staff that will be reviewing that later in March, and then more updates to come.
Thank you. Arts installation. Bead Advisor Galen, is there any update this month? Yeah, just another
quick update.
We all five finalists are underway working on some proposals and we're actually gonna begin welcoming
a few of them over the next few weeks here to town to get to know the community a little better and
meet with members of the recommendation committee as well. So we're excited about the next steps.
Thank you. I didn't ask any questions about any of these updates that you. All right, thank you.
Item number seven, old business. Let me report out under old business that since our February 5th meeting,
Mayor Thompson has been in contact with me and wanted me to mention today that the Thompson administration
will fully support providing the south properties at no cost to the CIB for project development. These
land parcels are owned by two different city entities. The Board of Works owns
one or two of the parcels redevelopment commission, the others, I may have the numbers backwards, but
those are structured public decisions that are made by those boards and commissions. So the administration,
the Thompson administration and the mayor are working towards the most seamless transfer of those parcels
possible with the intention to provide the land value as an incentive to the expansion project. So that's
a development since our last, I would also mention that Mr. Whitlatch has formally communicated to the county
our request for their review of parcels for donation as well. And I've been advised that the county
commissioners are looking favorably at transferring parcels, the parcels to the west, that's a parking
lot now, as well as looking at the parcels that are further south of our current south parking lot to
second street. That would also require county council approval.
So they are also moving forward with our request to see what other properties may be available for donation
for the project. Once we've been advised of all the properties transferred to us, we can look
at a comprehensive land use plan to include a hotel and parking needs, any opportunity for land exchanges,
as has been suggested by the City Council, and the best
benefit of a comprehensive scope of the project for the best benefit of the comprehensive scope of the
project. And then we can consider a new RFP for a hotel after we've identified the land that we own
for the project and what other uses we may need to make for the land. So I wanted to provide that as
an old business update. Any other old business that you wanna bring before? Is there any timeframe
that you're aware of when they might have those parcels transferred over to us, just so we can go forward
with the RFP? No. Obviously, it'll take some time. So the first thing that has to happen, if I understand
correctly, is I think the mayor's goal is that the parcels will all come under one ownership. They're
currently under two, the Board of Works and the Redevelopment Commission. I think her goal is for the
Redevelopment Commission
to own all those parcels and then at that point to make the transfer to us, to the capital improvement
board, but I don't have a timeline for it. The county process may take a little longer because it would
require the county commissioner's approval and then in public meetings and the county council would
have to consider that and move it forward as well. So it's hard for me to say when that might happen.
I guess I would be hopeful that it's odd for me to even think we're almost to the end, next week will
be to the end of February.
But I would be hopeful by the end of March, perhaps all this can be more clear for us and where we are
and what ownership we might have. I do want to mention, though, that as we've discussed, the project
is multifaceted. So we have an expansion, we've got a renovation, we've got parking to consider, we've
got a hotel developer to select and a location to select. So I think as soon as we know
what land we own, that will lead us to what do we want to make available for which part of those projects.
And we all recognize the importance of parking to this project. And so we have to be very mindful and
thoughtful as we move forward about how we identify what pieces of land we own and for what purposes.
So I think that'll then drive us to what the RFP is going to look like for a new hotel developer. Any
other comments or questions?
Any other old business from anyone? New business, any new business from anyone? Comments from board
members. Any comments from board members? Comments from the public. And let me first ask Mr. Baer, now
participating as a member of the public, if he has any comments he would like to make about our meeting
today. And now we would happily invite them. And Jay, do you have anything you'd like to add?
Yeah, thanks very much, Mr. Weickart. Sorry I couldn't be with you today. Just a couple of
quick acknowledgments. I just want to say how lucky I think we are to be working with Andrew and Eddie
on this project. Their work has been exceptional and their ability to communicate highly complex issues
to everybody involved has been really spectacular. So we're really fortunate to have the team that we
have and big thanks to Deb.
for working on our behalf to keep everybody together as well. I absolutely love the signage. I think
it's spectacular. It's really, really spot on. The consistency of the angles and mirroring the roofline,
I think, is really going to be a signature and a really nice wayfinding package. And I just say, I imagine
that there's some folks who are a little frustrated about what appears to be sort of back to square
one with regards to the hotel. And in truth, yes, it probably would have been great if we had all the
land figured out
before we did the first RFP, but at some level we didn't know what we didn't know. And we thought the
land piece of this would be easier than it has ended up being. But I'm delighted that we're sort of
back on track and everybody understands how important it is to truly think of this project holistically,
not just as a convention center, but as a convention center with a hotel and with adequate parking.
So all's well that ends well. And as you always say, survive in advance. Thank you.
Any other comments from the public? This is an opportunity, if you would so like, we afford two minutes
of time for anybody from the public who would like to make a comment. I'm sure. Isville Piedmont Smith,
the City Council member. Yes, thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Whitehart.
I was heartened to know that the land ownership and what land the city and the county governments are
willing to put towards the project that seems to be working out. I recognize that the hotel is an integral
part of this project. So I agree with Mr. Baer that
despite some fumbles, we seem to be moving ahead and that's good for the community. Just a comment on
the signage, in particular the interior signage. I just hope that accessibility for people who are visually
impaired is being considered or is hopefully a default by default part of the signage in Braille and
such and good
high contrast seems to be the case for what's being proposed. Also, another accessibility issue that
some people may not think about, but if patterns in carpeting or in the wall covering is too busy, sometimes
that can be a problem for some folks as they make their way around the facility. So I just hope that
a wide view is being shared and implemented in regard to accessibility.
Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Any other comments from the public? OK, all right. Seeing and hearing
none. Our next board meeting is scheduled for March 25th, and that's out of sync because of spring break.
So I think it's maybe the fourth Wednesday of March at 3 PM here in the Convention Center.
And that being said, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. We are adjourned.