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Office of Facilities Planning
Newsletter #24 – February 2002

Get to Know us Better:

Let us introduce you to the newest project manager in our office, Curt Miller. Actually, his real first name is Henry but he prefers to be called by his middle name, Curt (obviously short for Curtis). Curt, however, is anything but short! He even claims he was born as "a very large baby" at New York Hospital in Manhattan. He is now "a very large man"—6 feet, 3 inches tall and well over 200 pounds, size 11½ shoes!

Curt was educated in Queens and Rockland Counties as a young boy, so he has some "street smarts." (By the way, that’s really an important asset for a project manager.) He received his undergraduate degrees from SUNY and his Master of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

He was formerly a stockbroker as well as a Senior Policy Analyst for the NYS Assembly.

Curt enjoys hiking, birding, and fly-fishing but his main interest is photography. While still in high school, one of his photographs was chosen for exhibition in the 5th International Photographic Exhibition in Antwerp, Belgium. Curt continues to make photography an important part of his life, photographing and teaching workshops around the state.

He has also been working to climb the 114 highest peaks in the northeastern United States. So far, he has climbed 76! Curt is active in the Adirondack Mountain Club, and has served as Treasurer and CFO of the organization for three years.

Curt has been with Facilities Planning for one year and says he really loves working with people in the local districts and the challenge of keeping up with their capital projects.

He is married to a nurse anesthetist, Elizabeth, and has four children ages 16 to 22. As he so succinctly puts it: "No dogs, no cats, no fish...no time."

Change Order Submissions:

Starting immediately only one copy of each change order is required. Once the change order has been received, our staff will enter the information into the computer. We are already using this process for change orders that have been received within the last six months. Therefore, you will no longer receive a copy of the approved change order. Eventually you will be able to look up the status on our web site.

Regarding SHPO correspondence in the SEQRA process AND OUR NEW FORMS:

PLEASE identify all building projects completely in letters sent to SHPO. When drafting the required letters for your projects to New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, it is important that you completely identify each one by District Name, County and Project Number. Incomplete information prevents SHPO from using the district name and SED number when corresponding to districts, architects, and SED. If SHPO can reference the appropriate SED number, we can route letters to the appropriate individual for handling, response, and storage in the appropriate project file. Remember that we maintain files on over 2,000 projects per year on over 8,000 facilities! Please help us.

In addition we have added two new forms on our web page for use during the SEQRA process. Each is self-explanatory and should be used immediately with your SEQRA submissions.

https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/SEQRA/SEQRA.html

Revised Code Compliance Checklist:

Please download the revised Code Compliance Checklist and begin using it right away. You will find helpful pull down boxes providing information for different subjects as well as several other changes addressing items to be reviewed. https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/CodeItems.html

If you have been using either of the two previous versions, please dispose of them. You will find the latest date indicated in the top right corner of the newest version is 12/01.

As a reminder, please remember to paper clip the Equivalency Clause, the Non-Collusion Certification, the Wage Rates and the Required 155.5 information in your specifications before they are sent to SED.

Wood Playground Alert:

If you have any projects pending which involve the new installation of wood playgrounds please take a moment to review the following. You may want to reconsider the use of this material! We will keep you posted as we learn more on this issue.

The US EPA is in the process of reviewing, evaluating, and developing recommendations on chromated copper arsenate (CCA) - a product commonly used as a wood preservative in playground equipment. Specifically, this review will include an evaluation of arsenic and chromium-related health risks to children who play on and near structures made of CCA treated wood. The full EPA report is expected sometime in the spring. In the meantime, a bill has already been introduced into the NYS Assembly (A9690) which would amend Education Law to require the removal, replacement, or sealing of such wood or wood products, as well as a new grant program to offset the cost of such remedial action.

You can find additional information with the following hyperlinks. Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/research/poisoned-playgrounds and the US EPA:

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/1file.htm

New Engineer Position:

Facilities Planning has received approval for hiring a new Senior Mechanical Engineer. We are interested in applicants. The Starting Salary is $54,079 and will increase automatically to $55,972 on April 1, 2002.

We are asking those interested to apply as noted in the following announcement no later than February 22, 2002. http://atwork.nysed.gov/hr/postings/nc66.htm. We have only a three-week window of opportunity to hire for this position.

If you know of any interested individuals, we would appreciate it if you would pass this notice on to them.

If you would like to have this Update sent directly to you by e-mail, please send your e-mail address to Joe Levy at jlevy@mail.nysed.gov

Please continue to send in your comments and requests. If you have a subject you would like addressed, feedback on the material you read, input or general comments we are happy to hear from you.