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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
The Patrick County School Board has undertaken three projects to upgrade schools and facilities and put Patrick residents to work.
A special meeting of school officials and media representatives was held recently to present an update on the work and clear some “misunderstanding in some areas,” according to school board member Bobby Mangrum, who serves on the building committee with board member Ronnie Terry.
Bobby Rorrer and Annie Hylton, board chairman and vice chairman, respectively, along with Schools Superintendent Roger Morris and other school officials, also attended the meeting.
The three main projects were identified as a track/stadium upgrade, energy program and a renovation/construction project.
Each project has a different source of funds, Mangrum said.
TRACK/STADIUM
State school construction funds and lottery proceeds were tapped after an August 2004 report showed that both sets of bleachers at Patrick County High School were out of compliance with the building code and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Mangrum said.
Bleachers on the home side were made ADA compliant in 2005, Mangrum said. At the time, it was agreed that projects to upgrade bleachers on the visitors’ side, along with adding a handicapped parking area, would be completed later.
The track was “in serious disrepair” and out of compliance with state and national standards, Mangrum said.
Morris said that meant even if a student set a new record while on the track, “it was of no value. ... It didn’t count.”
“There was no money” in 2006 to pay for the remaining upgrades, and the project remained on the school division’s Capital Improvement Plan, Mangrum said. By the 2007-08 school year, no track events were held at the high school due to the disrepair, Morris said.
Options to address the issues were proposed and studied in 2008, Mangrum said.
The first was a renovation project estimated to cost between $900,000 to $1 million, he said of the proposal that called for rebuilding the track, realigning the ball field, adding a drainage system and removing unsafe curbs.
A second option — estimated to cost between $350,000 and $400,000 — proposed building a new track, he said. That was the option that was chosen by the Patrick County School Board.
School officials requested a carryover of unspent state funds from school construction and lottery proceeds from the 2007-08 school year, Mangrum said. Had they not requested the carryover, unspent funds would have been returned to the state, he added.
Once funding was in place, the project was delayed due to soil and water issues, land acquisition and bidding the work, he said. Work on the bleachers had to be scheduled around sporting events.
Land became an issue when a 20-foot drop on one side of the track required construction of two retaining walls that would have totaled 29 feet in height at a cost $115,000, Mangrum said. The school board tried to buy adjacent land to reposition the track to remove the severe drop and cut the cost of the project, but was unsuccessful, he added.
Cecil Hall, a local contractor, helped the board buy nearly 3 acres of adjacent property for $25,000, according to school officials. A wall was not needed after that, and the project cost less than anticipated.
Work on the bleachers was completed in August, and work on the track is expected to be finished by November, Mangrum said.
ENERGY PROGRAM
In 2007, the school board made energy saving programs a priority and asked Morris to investigate cost-saving measures, Terry said.
After meeting with county officials and getting public input, the board pursued what is called “performance contracting,” a program offered by several companies in which municipalities, school systems and nonprofits use utility and operating/maintenance savings to pay for energy efficient products such as lights, windows, roofs and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.
Ameresco was selected in May 2008 and began installing products through what is called a “tax exempt lease purchase,” officials said.
Lighting, HVAC and window upgrades were made as needed at all seven county schools and the school board office. New roofs were installed at Meadows of Dan Elementary School and the school board office, Morris said.
The $3.5 million project to install energy efficient and environmentally friendly products will be paid for in 15 years at zero cost to taxpayers, officials said.
The equipment belongs to the school system when it is installed, Mangrum said, but “there is no bond referendum and no check written up front.”
State law requires companies such as Ameresco to guarantee the savings, negating the risk to their customers, according to Richard Ritter, an account executive with the company. The savings are used to pay for the equipment.
Accounting principles require the equipment to be listed as a debt in the school’s budget, but it is offset (paid) by savings, and “the county is not responsible for it,” Morris said.
If the amount saved is less than the company estimated, the company — not the county, not the school division — is required by law to pay the difference, Ritter said.
“The burden is on Ameresco,” Mangrum said.
Used HVAC units could not be sold for scrap metal, because state law regulates the disposal of chemicals inside the units. The cost of preparing the units for sale would have exceeded what the school division would have made if the items had been sold as scrap metal.
Ameresco not only took the old units and paid for their disposal, but also paid to rent HVAC units as needed if projects were not completed on time, officials said. In the first eight or nine months since it began, the project has generated savings of more than $96,000, Rorrer said.
That does not include “hidden cost savings” such as fuel, manpower, supplies and other costs associated with replacing/repairing failed lighting at various schools, Morris said.
Because performance contracting also does not require the lowest bidder to be selected, Mangrum said local contractors and businesses were used whenever possible. In Patrick’s case, more than 70 percent of the energy upgrades were done by local contractors, Ritter said.
The school division is applying to participate in the Green Schools Challenge, a program that involves students and staff to design and implement green initiatives in schools, Morris said.
The project “was the right thing to do,” Mangrum said. “It was the right thing for the environment, the right thing for the future, the right thing for the schools and most importantly, the right thing for the students.”
ADDITIONS/RENOVATIONS
Phase I of a $24 million renovation/addition project also is under way. It is the result of studies/recommendations by the state Department of Education and community input beginning in 1976 and continuing through late 2007 when the plan was developed, Mangrum said.
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors initially agreed to the then-$37 million project, with the school board planning to use state school construction/lottery funds to pay $10 million and the county paying $27 million, Mangrum said.
In early 2008, county officials reduced the amount of the project to $24 million, providing that all seven schools receive renovations. The county would fund $14 million. The school board would use state construction funds/lottery proceeds for $10 million, Mangrum said.
Bonds were sold on June 2, 2008, to pay for the project that was needed to meet safety standards, comply with ADA standards, program changes and prevent teachers from having to hold classes in closets and hallways, officials said.
The project is designed to add more classrooms to house prekindergarten, special education, speech/physical/occupational therapy; relocate the main office at the high school from the back of the building to the front to address security concerns; provide more room for band/choir and guidance; and address other needs, officials said.
As plans proceeded and contractors were hired, “none of us saw October 2008 coming,” Mangrum said of the recession.
Regardless, bonds for the project had been sold, and it is illegal to repay them with proceeds from the sale, Mangrum said.
The economic downturn also helped, as the cost of some supplies fell and companies may be more willing to negotiate prices, Mangrum said. The local economy also got a boost.
“We are trying to put this money back into the local economy and give people jobs” at a time they are in short supply, Mangrum said.
So far, preliminary estimates show 90 percent of contractors on the stadium/track project were local; 70 percent worked on the energy upgrades. Local contractors also completed between 57 and 59 percent of the work at Blue Ridge and Meadows of Dan elementary schools as well as Patrick Springs Primary, officials said.
Ritter said those percentages are almost unheard of, and he uses Patrick County to illustrate how local economies can benefit from renovation projects.
“When I go into other areas, I hold you all up as an example as to what can be done” when there is a strong commitment to use local contractors, Ritter said.
The project will be completed in three stages, and all are expected to be completed in 2011, officials said.
OTHER PROJECTS
• An upgrade for the water system at the high school is under way. The school will hook up to the town of Stuart’s water system, and six fire hydrants also will be added at no cost to taxpayers.
Mangrum said the school division is one of many entities suing after chemicals known as MTBEs were found in drinking water.
The chemicals were not at a dangerous level and students’ health was not at risk, Mangrum said.
An attorney told the school division proceeds from the lawsuit should be used only “for the purpose of bettering the water system at the high school,” Rorrer said.
School officials are using those funds to pay for the water/hydrant project at PCHS, Mangrum said.
Although some companies involved have settled claims in the suit, others have not. It is not known as this point how much the total will be, officials said.
• A cafeteria fund — which can be used only for operations, supplies and capital expenses for the cafeteria — was tapped to install a new line, new stove hoods, a fire suppression system and other items requested by the federal government, Morris said, and added state/federal laws dictate how cafeteria funds can be spent. |
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