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JERSEY SHORE -- Six projects have been identified by the Jersey Shore Area School District's Capital Projects Committee as a priority moving forward. The committee's recommendation is expected to go before the school board for a vote at their Oct. 23 meeting.
The six projects are: at the Senior High School, CTE shop ventilation, $47,000; at Avis Elementary, EDC HVAC control, $355,000; at Avis, replace heating plant, $398,000; at Salladasburg Elementary, replace heating plant, $347,000; at Salladasburg, replace domestic water heater, $94,000; and at Salladasburg, replace boiler pump, $23,000.
The total cost to the district would be over $1.2 million, but according to Dr. Brian Ulmer, superintendent, the hope is that number would come down during the bidding process.
"We believe we could get that down as we bid it out," Ulmer said, noting that the total includes soft costs and contingency for each of the projects.
The goal of this week's committee meeting, Ulmer said, was to make sure that the capital projects would be ready to be put on the agenda of next week's school board meeting so that the district can "move forward and commit capital projects funds for projects listed as not to exceed an amount."
In his conversation with SitelogIQ, design consultants for the projects, Ulmer said they had indicated that the projects would still be able to be done next summer once approval is given.
"They're still saying that's doable because as soon as we would vote on Oct. 23 to approve it, they would immediately start designing what would need to be purchased and what would need to happen with each one of these things," Ulmer said.
Another aspect which could result in a cost savings for some of the projects is the possibility of rebates from energy companies.
"Some of the things that are on this list, the controls and the heating plant and the boiler pumps, were all things similar to what we did at the high school and middle school that you just got a credit for from UGI," Ulmer said.
"So, some of what they (SitelogIQ) might tell you as we start to design this project is what rebates and things are out there that you might have. You might have a cost above a million upfront, but you might be promised a rebate at the same time and all that would be part of the conversation as they design this. They won't know that until they design it," he said.
Ulmer indicated that for the high and middle schools' projects, the district had received two $40,000 rebates from the energy company.
Earlier this year, the school board had voted to keep all schools open and at the time they were tasked with keeping capital projects' expenditures at $1 million or less.
"Based on this list, if the board says we were committing a million dollars, then Mark (Wall, director of maintenance/buildings and grounds) and I are going to tell SitelogIQ that's all you get," Ulmer said.
"If we have to take one or two things off this list to make that work, then we do that and then that would be where the committee would give input to SitelogIQ as they move forward," he added.