ROBBINSVILLE: School contracts for energy upgrades awarded

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
    ROBBINSVILLE — The Board of Education has awarded five contracts under a self-funding $4.6 million energy savings improvement program that provides a range of energy-efficient upgrades at three different school buildings.
   Project highlights include a new roof and new boilers at Pond Road Middle School, new windows, doors and new boilers for Sharon Elementary School and energy-efficient lighting at the high school, middle school and elementary school.
   ”The work with the ESIP is about $4 million of infrastructure work that we’re able to do at no cost to the taxpayers because we’re permitted to use the energy savings over the next 15 years to pay for all of those things,” schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said Jan. 22. “It’s a huge win for the district because we get to address some old facility failures, and we get to do that without a tax impact.”
   State law allows school districts to contract with energy services companies to develop and provide ESIPs so school districts can avoid large financial outlays for capital projects such as the repair or replacement of building HVAC systems, mechanical controls, windows, doors, boilers and leaky roofs. Lease-purchase agreements are used to immediately install the new equipment, which then is paid for over 15 years, using the savings generated by the energy efficiencies.
   The $4.6 million figure represents the total cost of the project, including construction bids, architectural fees, Honeywell equipment controls and the fees charged by Honeywell International for developing and implementing the ESIP. The projected energy savings are guaranteed under a separate contract with Honeywell.
   The financing for the lease purchase that pays for the ESIP projects likely will be arranged through a bank, not through the issuance of bonds, school Business Administrator Bob DeVita said Monday.
   School board member Matthew O’Grady, who chairs the Facilities, Finance and Transportation Committee, said at the Jan. 22 meeting that the ESIP-related upgrades are expected to be “substantially completed by August.”
   Mr. DeVita said at the meeting that in addition to the new boilers that are being installed at Sharon and Pond schools, both buildings also are getting new mechanical control systems for the HVAC units. The software systems that now control these systems are so outdated they no longer work properly, he said.
   At Pond Road Middle School, which was built in 1993, “the system there is so old, it’s literally running on a very early version of DOS,” Mr. DeVita said.
   Five construction contracts, which are part of the $4.6 million ESIP, were approved at the Jan. 22 meeting and include:
   • A $481,943 contract with Facilities Solutions Group, of Perth Amboy, for energy-efficient lighting at all three school buildings.
   • A $703,000 contract with Preferred Mechanical LLC, of Aberdeen, for four high-efficiency boilers for Sharon and Pond and the relocation of several heat pumps at Pond.
   • A $369,285 contract with Building Controls Inc., of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to install high-efficiency automated building climate controls with web-based management to replace systems at Sharon and Pond that are obsolete.
   • A $1,020,600 contract with Levy Construction Inc., of Audubon, for new energy-efficient windows and doors for Sharon School, the installation of some new toilets and water fountains in two schools and the replacement of about half the roof at Pond. (Levy Construction also was awarded a separate $491,600 contract to cover the cost of the remainder of Pond’s roof, but the funds for that part of the project are coming from district’s capital reserve account, not the ESIP).
   • A $361,768 contract with Wholesale Energy, of Mountainside, for new transformers, de-stratification fans, new motors and power factor optimization devices that reduce energy consumption.
   Some upgrades that had been sought in the district’s request for proposals in connection with the ESIP, such as rooftop solar panels on school buildings and the replacement of hundreds of classroom computers with more energy-efficient models, have been omitted from the final plan.
   ”The original RFP looked at a number of items that did not make the final list because the payback period was too long and the ESIP needs to fit within 15 years,” Mr. DeVita said Monday.
   IN OTHER NEWS from the Jan. 22 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Mayer and Mr. DeVita provided an update on the projects associated with the $18.9 million classroom expansion referendum approved by voters Dec. 11.
   ”The two projects we hope to have completed for September are the cafeteria renovation at Sharon School and the classrooms (being built) in the media center at the Pond Road Middle School,” Dr. Mayer said.
   The district hopes to have those projects go out to bid sometime in February, he said.
   ”The classroom addition at Sharon — the big 24-room addition — we’re tracking toward being ready in September of 2014, and the same would be for the cafeteria at Pond,” Dr. Mayer said.
   Mr. DeVita said the major Sharon and the Pond Road construction projects should go out to bid later in the spring.