The Northborough Fire Station Building Committee approved an additional-services agreement for the owner’s project manager (OPM) on April 16 that increases OPM fees to cover a longer construction period and related services.

Project staff said the additional fee — described in the meeting as about $117,000 — was not part of the OPM line item carried to Town Meeting last year and will be funded from the project owner’s contingency. Committee members questioned why the amount was not identified earlier; staff said the scope and the contractor schedule were unknown at the time of the Town Meeting submittal and that the additional services became necessary after the town awarded the construction contract and the project team confirmed a longer construction duration because of site complexity.

Presenters explained the $117,000 increase mostly reflects added months of observation and on-site services tied to a construction duration that was increased from 15 to 18 months; closeout timing moved accordingly. Committee members expressed concern in principle about surprise draw-downs from contingency but noted the town’s overall project budget (presented at the meeting as approximately $41 million) and an available contingency (discussed in the meeting as about $4 million) meant the increase was affordable. Project staff said the OPM additional fee will be charged to owner’s contingency and that future requests for similar increases would be tracked and presented to the committee.

The committee approved the additional OPM services. The transcript records the motion and an affirmative vote; a roll-call tally was not included in the public transcript.