Northeast Elementary HVAC In Design Phase

Work to upgrade the HVAC system at Northeast Elementary School has entered the design phase.

Putnam County Deputy Director of Schools Tim Martin said the project is too large to simply buy replacement units without precise engineering and customization. Martin said it will be at least a month before the documents are finished and the district can start taking bids for the main portion of the work.

“The school staff won’t be involved hardly at all,” Martin said. “At the very most we may have to move a classroom around or something like while we’re doing some work but usually that’s not even necessary. But the companies will come out, most of the work is outside of the building.”

The school board approved a $29,500 design fee to begin the process. Martin said they will know more beyond their original $800,000 estimate once they actually have bids with concrete numbers.

“Part of what the companies will tell us during the bid is how much customization they’ll have to do, how long that’ll take,” Martin said. “So timelines generally come along with the bids.”

Martin said a local engineering firm will design the documents that will be used for the project. Martin said it feels great to be moving forward with the improvements as they has been on the district’s radar for some time.

“We haven’t had any total failures inside the building,” Martin said. “But sometimes on really hot days it has a hard time keeping up and so we know that sometimes it gets uncomfortable in that building. And so we will look forward to having mechanical equipment that can run at one hundred percent efficiency.”