The new heating system at town hall is expected to be installed by the Nov. 21 target date.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
Township employees may be able to disconnect the portable heaters they have been using to warm up their offices by the end of this week, according to township officials.
The Municipal Building has been without a heating system since August, because of a renovation and addition project for the building, so employees have been relying on portable heaters to keep out the fall chill.
But Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun told Township Council on Tuesday that several components of the heating system the burner and some parts for the chimney flue have arrived and should be installed by the end of this week.
"We will just, just make it" by the Nov. 21 target date that township officials had set for restoring the heating system, Mr. Krawczun told the council.
The Municipal Building renovation project calls for updating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and that’s why the old furnace was removed, he said. A new one also is needed because the building will be expanded by about 5,500 square feet.
Township officials expected a new furnace to be in place by the time cold weather arrived, but technical details caused the delay, he said. The original specifications for the project did not include details for the exhaust flue for the furnace, he said.
When the details for the exhaust flue were prepared, Driscoll Mechanical, the Cherry Hill-based HVAC contractor, proposed a furnace that was not compatible with the flue design specified by M. P. Hershman, P.E., Inc., the Feasterville, Pa.-based mechanical contractor, he said.
The mechanical engineer designs the heating and air conditioning system. The HVAC contractor orders the equipment and installs it.
The two contractors discussed the issue, and the HVAC contractor ordered a furnace that is compatible with the specifications proposed by the mechanical engineer, Mr. Krawczun said. Furnaces for large, nonresidential buildings are custom made, he added.
Mr. Krawczun said the mechanical contractor will pick up the tab for the additional cost, which is about $11,000. It will not cost the taxpayers any money, he said.
In other business, Township Council awarded a $213,575 contract to the Kingston-based Trap Rock Industries Inc. for road work and also amended two prior bond ordinances to reallocate money toward the road projects.
The contract awarded to Trap Rock Industries calls for road repairs to sections of Cold Soil Road, Keefe Road, Princeton Pike and Province Line Road. The work is set to begin Nov. 28 and will take about two weeks to complete.
The township’s 2005 road program called for making repairs to Basin Road in addition to Cold Soil Road and Princeton Pike but township officials decided to delay the Basin Road project until after Mercer County repairs a bridge on that road, Mr. Krawczun said.
Township officials decided to work on repaving a portion of Province Line Road and Keefe Road instead, but discovered that it would cost more money than had been allocated, Mr. Krawczun said. The council decided to use the unspent money from the earlier bond ordinances to make up the difference, he said.
After the meeting, Municipal Engineer Christopher Budzinski said the unspent money in the bond ordinances about $30,000 will be used for the Province Line Road repair project, which calls for repaving the eastbound lane between Princeton Pike and Stratford Drive.

