Air-conditioning units
reported to be working
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — A problem with the air-conditioning systems in the community’s three newest schools has been repaired.
The three new schools in Howell’s K-8 district — the Greenville and Adelphia elementary schools and the Memorial Middle School — were built after voters OK’d a $46 million referendum three years ago.
The Greenville and Adelphia elementary schools opened to pupils in September 2003.
The Memorial Middle School is scheduled to open in September.
Valerie Rosenberg, who chairs the Board of Education’s ad hoc construction committee, said Ronald Sanasac, the former board president who is now the construction supervisor for the district, was able to devise a repair for the air-conditioning systems that worked.
Rosenberg said Sanasac was hired on a one-year contract that carries a salary of $70,000. She said he will assist maintenance supervisor Jeff Sharp in overseeing ongoing construction projects at the district’s schools.
Those projects include window replacements, bathroom improvements and roof repairs at several Howell schools. She said Sanasac will supervise the sewer installation at the Land O’ Pines School on Windeler Road.
Rosenberg said the air-conditioning systems at the district’s three newest schools were plagued with problems that forced administrators to bring fans into the Adelphia and Greenville elementary schools at the end of the 2003-04 school year.
She said that after sitting down with the cooling system’s designer, installer and project architect, administrators were considering a major repair decision that could have cost $130,000 to $190,000 and entailed installing two additional "chillers" or air-conditioning units at the schools.
In lieu of pursuing that option, Rosenberg said Sanasac cleaned "gunk" out of the system’s pipes and vents and made some control modifications. She said the air-conditioning systems at all three schools are now running at 100 percent capacity.
She said Sanasac’s contract as the school district’s construction supervisor will be reviewed when it ends and a decision will be made as to whether to extend it past the initial one-year time period.