Representatives of the company charged with overseeing $14.66 million in building renovations and equipment replacement at Lakeland Union High School says work should begin in four to five weeks.
The school board Aug. 4th put in motion renovation work designed to both save energy costs and as a preemptive measure against major systems failures at Lakeland Union High School. The decades old steam and water boilers are the board’s main concern.
The board with a 5-member quorum approved the energy conservation performance contract with Schneider Electric Buildings Americas, Inc.
“In about a month we will be back to do what is called a kickoff meeting where we have our construction team here that includes our construction manger, our site supervisor and the person overseeing subcontracting,” said company representative Scott Mason. “So in the next month there’s a lot of internal paperwork. But in about four or five weeks we’ll come back and reconvene and lay out what we believe is to be our construction schedule.
“At that time we’ll also be talking with (Administrator/Principal Jim Bouche) and everybody about the school calendar year when we can do certain things and when we can’t. So we’ll tweak that a little bit. But work should begin within the next two months, just depending on us being able to finding the right subcontractor and also their lead time for getting a certain project done.”
The company’s first priority will be to tighten up the building’s envelope, seal air gaps and other measures to ward off the winter cold and summer heat, as well as lighting replacement and water conservation measures.
The board approved two contracts for the work; the second was for the locker rooms renovation work that still has yet to receive board approval.
To finance the $14.66 million in renovation work, the board approved the first of two initial resolutions to award the sale of $9.6 million in general obligation school improvement bonds. A second bond issue will be taken up later.
In all, it took the board just five minutes to approve the contracts and bond issuance. Board members had no questions or comments before voting. But its Finance Committee has already spent weeks reviewing the project proposal, which has also been before the school board.
