Putnam County Schools replacing a failing mechanical unit at its central office that has caused leaks and disrupted the district’s administrative staff.
Putnam County Schools Deputy Director Tim Martin said the equipment is an interior air handling unit located above the ceiling that connects to the building’s main chiller and boiler system. Martin said the unit is original to the central office building and is more than 30 years old.
“It has affected day-to-day,” Martin said. “That particular unit, and again, it’s not the only one in the building, but that particular unit has been shut down. And it’s also caused us some some issues, before we shut it down, it caused us some issues with leaking through the ceiling tiles and things like that.”
Martin said the school system decided to replace the unit after multiple inspections determined that attempting to repair the three-decade-old equipment was no longer a feasible option.
The district will pay $18,835 for the project, which Martin said will be funded through the maintenance department budget.
“That would be removing, completely removing the old unit, purchase of the new unit, and complete installation of the new unit and getting everything back up and running,” Martin said.
The school system is utilizing the TIPS contract for the purchase, a program that allows the district to bypass the traditional bidding process. Martin said the district often uses these programs for less expensive projects because the participating vendors have already undergone a process to verify their pricing.
“So those, those people that are in those programs have to go through a process of sharing their prices and showing their prices, and if you can use people through those programs, then you do not have to do bids,” Martin said. “So we do that sometimes for the cheaper things. If we’re looking at something that’s really, really expensive, a lot of times we would rather go ahead and do a bid.”
Martin said the installation process is expected to take at least a couple of months once the new unit is ordered and delivered. While the work will take place in an upstairs hallway, Martin said the project will not stop operations at the central office.
“They’ll be mainly working in one of the upstairs hallways, so we may have to reroute any workers or visitors around that hallway for a few days, but but we can make that work,” Martin said.