School News
- Last Updated on Monday, 01 April 2013 00:26
By Paul Chasko
Representatives for the District Engineer/Architects (HHSDR) shocked the Ringgold school board recently by presenting much higher estimates for renovations at the high school.
Representatives for the District Engineer/Architects (HHSDR) shocked the Ringgold school board recently by presenting much higher estimates for renovations at the high school.
HHSDR was contracted in February to prepare bid packages for three projects for Ringgold High School Building that the board hoped to have completed during the summer of 2013.
1) Masonry repairs on the exterior of the building
2) Retrofitting the building’s HVAC system with electrical controls and a digital control system.
3) Replacing components of the swimming pool air handling system that are in poor condition.
The masonry project will go out for bids as planned. However, instead of a simple conversion for the HVAC system from pneumatic controls to electrical controls a closer examination of the HVAC air throttling units revealed that they were not adaptable to electrical controls as was indicated on the original system blueprints. In order to achieve the control capability necessary for an improved HVAC efficiency, all 154 air throttling units would need to be replaced. This bumps up the cost from the original estimate of $350,000 to $550,000. There are additional hardware costs for the proposed swimming pool air handling system as well that would drive the project cost from $150,000 to $330,000. HHSDR and the Ringgold Maintenance Supervisors recommended that the board step back and wait for additional information that may permit portions of the work to be done rather than tackling what have now become two major projects. It would be unlikely that either of these projects could be completed over the summer vacation due to long lead times on most of the major equipment items needed. The Districts Facilities Committee is scheduled to meet on April 1. HHSDR may have additional information for this meeting.
