School’s heating, cooling to be fixed

By Harold Gwin

School officials are hoping the third time is the charm in resolving the problem.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board will spend another $75,000 on what it hopes will be the final effort to correct heating and cooling problems at an elementary school opened just four years ago on Cordova Avenue.

“There have been problems from day one,” Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs, told the board moments before he board authorized Western Reserve Mechanical, the original heating and cooling contractor on the $7.8 million school project, $69,900 to install new piping and related materials to six or seven rooms at Harding Elementary.

Those rooms are not getting “optimum temperatures,” said Steven Ludwinski of Heery International, the school district’s construction manager.

The board also agreed to pay Johnson Controls, the original temperature controls contractor on the job, $5,640 to provide the new control valves and related materials for the work to be done by Western Reserve.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission is expected to pick up 80 percent of both contracts.

This is the third time the board has had to act on the heating/cooling problems in the school, which houses some 400 children.

The board approved a $97,540 change order for Western Reserve Mechanical to install new hot water piping, new combustion air ducts and related items for the art room, media center and cafeteria to correct problems in those areas in August 2005.

School officials warned at the time that the two boilers in the school didn’t appear to be sufficient to meet heating needs and a third boiler would likely be required.

A second change order was approved in September 2006 for Western Reserve to add that third boiler at a cost of $26,700.

The OSFC picked up 80 percent of both change-order costs.

School officials have said there is sufficient money left in the building construction contingency fund to cover the district’s share of the expense.

“This has been going on a long time. We want the problem over,” said board member Jacqueline Taylor, as the board prepared to vote recently on the latest work at the school.

Just why the heating and cooling system designed for the building has failed to work properly has yet to be resolved.

DeNiro said the district has been working with insurance companies on the project and will continue to pursue the issue.

“We think we will now have the problem corrected,” said Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent, adding that the determination of who is responsible for the extra work to correct the problems will likely wind up in litigation by the school board.

The heating and cooling problem did generate some employee complaints that were dealt with by the district’s Employee Relations Committee before they escalated to the point of an actual grievance, Webb said.

Ludwinski said it will take the contractors about a month to secure the materials required for the latest correction effort. The goal is to have the work completed before the start of school in the fall, he said.

gwin@vindy.com