School Board OKs $245K in Capital Improvements

Last week the Salem School Board approved around $245,000 in capital improvement projects (CIP) bids for the 2011-2012 school year, including removal of non-functional boilers from Salem High and facilities audits at the high school and Woodbury Middle School.

The board unanimously approved all of the bids recommended by SAU 57 Superintendent Michael Delahanty and SAU 57 Maintenance Director Jack Messenheimer.

The bid project deemed the most urgent was a new elevator fire panel recall system at North Salem Elementary School.

"It doesn't have a five minute switch so you can override it in event of an emergency," Messenheimer said. "The new system would allow that."

Board member Bernard Campbell asked if the board was being asked to approve the $33,249 bid from Otis Elevator Company because there wouldn't be enough funds from the current North Salem renovation work for the elevator project. Delahanty said that was correct.

Messenheimer said the facilities audits at Salem High and Woodbury "will allow us to update our CIP projects, eliminate work that's already been done and see if there are new projects along with deferred items we can address."

The board approved a sole $54,700 bid from H.L. Turner of Concord for the project and expressed hope an audit of the school administration building could be added to the scope of their work.

The board also approved several other bids: a $27,743 bid from MSI Mechanical of Salem for a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in seven rooms at Woodbury; a $29,370 bid from MSI for a mechanical cooling system at the media center at Salem High; a $31,856 bid from Pentucket Glass of Haverhill, Mass., for entrance and window replacements at the Salem High library; a $21,500 bid from Trident Environmental Services of Marlborough, Mass., for the removal of two high school boilers that are "non-functional, cannot be repaired and have been out of service for five years," Messenheimer said; a $27,700 bid from TMC Services of Bellingham, Mass., for removal of underground fuel storage tanks at Salem High and Woodbury; and a $16,950 bid from EZ Coatings of Fall River, Mass., to replace the floor of the Woodbury kitchen floor.

The board also approved a $99,032 bid from Pentucket Glass to replace windows at the high school. Delahanty said this was a project planned for the 2010-2011 school year that was put off until the end of year because of its high cost. The money for the project comes out of the 2010-2011 budget year.

"There is $112,000 in the construction services account for the year," he said. "This is work that needs to be done."

"These windows are single-pane, non-efficient windows," Messenheimer said. "New windows will help with energy management."

Because of uncertainty with the state budget, Delahanty told the board he believed it wise to hold off on three projects totaling $284,000: paving projects at Haigh and Soule Elementary Schools and membrane roof work at Haigh.

If Phase II of the elementary school renovation projects is approved, the membrane work at Haigh would be included, Delahanty said.