I'd like to call the Monday, June 10th General Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 5:03 p.m..
We could do a roll call, please.
Starting with you can.
Typical school board.
Duty however. Stick School Board's.
Terry Singer School Board member Joe MacFarland.
Superintendent Maria Maumee School Board Member.
Mike French Business Manager.
The approval of the summary minutes, they are not attached.
So we will have those ready as well as these.
So the next meeting will have two sets of minutes to approve.
Moving on to unfinished business,
2019 2020 Capital Plan.
Mike.
Thank you. Mr.
May, we have Mr.
Schrager and Mr.
Anderson here to make some proposals for revisions to the 1920 capital plan.
So what is attached to the agenda
is the 1920 capital plan
as it stands now, without any of the revisions,
these gentlemen will point out to you which projects on there
they're essentially looking to to change.
This 1920 year was the final
year of the five year capital plan that we put together.
And that was the first foray in a long time,
at least in trying to put together a capital plan.
And so we chose five years because it seemed
seemed relevant and we had the information
in actuality kind of years two and three, the 18, 19 year
in the 1920 year, we found we were making a lot of changes
because the information that was kind of put in there
was was
some of it came from in the area of buildings and grounds.
It came from a facility study report that we had done
years ago that identified some projects.
So for some of those outlying years, the director at the time
just chose to pull some things from that report and place it in here.
So Mark will review some of those changes.
They were just were not projects that were on our radar
as being necessary to do next year.
So Mark will be able to talk about if we're pushing it into future years
or if we really don't even
aren't considering the project anymore just because of this news.
And then Mr.
Swiger is going to review some things about a lab at the elementary.
Currently, the lab no longer exists, so he's
proposing to use that those funds a little differently for you.
Sure.
Dave Swaggart, director of Infrastructure Technology.
And as Mr.
Francis said, I'll highlight the item
named Replace Lab One in the Early Childhood Center.
So five years ago we identified a need to refresh the computer lab.
They taught
basic computer skills and
and access to the Internet, to students, one in that building.
And not only has the curriculum changed, but the use for that
room changed because room one is no longer a computer lab.
It's actually a classroom today that's used for to accommodate full day.
Okay.
So we don't at this point,
we're rather we'd like to to re
allocate the funds for that project and use them to purchase
interactive boards in the CC.
So we set out to look an average class size in the elementary
and the early childhood center is about 11 classrooms.
So what we'd like to do is we
we obtained four quotes from four different companies,
all for a 65 inch interactive panel display
from from Promethean, and it's called the Active Panel.
And it's actually a freestanding monitor that you can go up a lot like these,
about the same size as this as well, that you can go up and interact and touch.
And it's similar to the technologies that the teachers have in place right now,
because most classroom teachers k25 have interactive boards
that are also made by Promethean.
So it uses the same standard, same tools.
And but the problem is
the projectors are dating out and the cost to replace the projector
actually is almost as much as just getting a whole new board.
So I'm asking the General Services Committee if you would consider
allowing me to change the focus of that of that project.
Any questions?
And we should come in.
Even though that list is 30,000, the quotes we got
put it somewhere around 27, 28,000 to do it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Do we need to take a vote or.
Is that just Mark's kind of.
Requesting the same thing?
So if you're if everyone's okay, we can take them.
Take them all as one
last time.
This is going to be a stay of the board.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm not sure.
Let's start with what I'm asking to remove from the stood there at the bottom,
the elementary cooling tower.
This really will be looped in as part of the assessment of the elementary facility.
And that really I'm not sure where that number came from,
but that really is not in the ballpark of what that project might cost.
The the additional staff parking lot,
the high school, again, that was in the plan but really found
necessary has not found that necessary at this point.
Generator maintenance was an issue that we're covering in our budget
right now and the replacement of the high school transformer.
We own that transformer
that feeds that building.
And in speaking with Bob Bixler about comfortable moving that into the five year
plan potentially at the end of a four or five year plan, should we go that far?
So that's what we removed and the total of that
would be $449,500.
What I'm proposing,
we'll go back down to the top of the list,
the middle school boiler
replacement of the heat exchangers this past year.
And let me go back last year
you approved the $180,000 investment for us to dump everything
in that system, and we'd hire a firm to come in and clean it.
It had been process through four or five times, and this past winter
we had no cold room calls a result of that system being polluted
because there was metal in there from years ago.
This spring we discovered that the first of the three
heat exchangers has begun to leak.
That is really a function of the bad chemistry.
All the years previous we did have the the firm that
does the commission to come in and look at it and confirm that, yes,
in fact those heat exchangers are bad and will need to be replaced.
What I'm asking for your permission to do is to
replace all three boilers at the same time.
Now, let me ask
I can answer a question maybe concerning do we needed them all the same time.
There's a couple of benefits here.
First of we can heat the building through winter on two boilers,
but we don't take advantage of overnight setbacks and temperature
because we may not recover for the next morning.
The other benefit here is this is a lot of mobilization to get there.
And so
to do all three at the same time does recognize some savings
both on the mobilization cost, but also the boiler manufacturer
is offering us a 50% discount if we purchase all at the same time.
So the boiler costs would be 66,007 62.
The installation estimate would be about 24,000.
We intend to publicly bid that.
But in working with the engineering firm,
they've said they've talked
to people that do this and figure that's a fair number to work with.
And then the the start up and commissioning work would be handled
through a private contract that we would also handle
and that request would be for nine 95000 to $262.
Okay, Questions.
Is this in the end, I hope
I'm sorry. You know.
I was going to just chime in for that.
This this is one of those things we we talked to extensively about in terms
of just doing the one or doing all three.
And because we know the direct cause that's going on here,
I think it behooves us to take advantage of replacing them all at the same time.
We know they're going to the other two are going to fail.
It's just a matter of when.
Also sharing with Mark, I've had an issue in my prior district in which we let
a boiler fail in the middle of winter and it's not inexpensive.
It's very expensive to provide temporary heat to a building
because obviously cooling off school is not an option for that.
So this is a little bit of that forward thinking as well,
knowing we have some things that are damaged
to take care of them in the season at which they're not used the most,
so that we are prepared
when it does get to those cold temperatures.
Just a quick question to these.
I'm sure these packages include warranties and proposals to provide service
and all of that or would that be And what's the warranty look like?
On the one hand, I guess.
For the actual heat exchanger, Yeah, I don't have that number committed to me
or I can get that for you. No, that's okay.
The ongoing maintenance would be would it would be necessary to have a contract
with a maintenance company to maintain them for us or.
We maintain them ourselves.
We also we are working on the middle school with a company
called Water by Design.
They're the folks that did
all the chemistry back last time and have checked the boiler for the last year.
We will renew that contract.
We were very satisfied with their with their service to us
and look forward to continuing that relationship.
So they would be able to service these heat.
Exchangers, they'd be able to serve, come in and check the chemistry.
The chemistry is what went wrong last time.
Our guys will continue to service the unit as normal.
Okay. Thank you.
For the questions.
Then we'll move to the middle school cafeteria serving line.
This situation was brought to my attention
this winter
years ago when this heating cooling system was designed.
It was designed to run the chiller all winter long because that's
the only place that gets cooled anyway, that that area gets cooler air.
What Greg experienced this past winter was the temperature in that serving
line area got to the point of 82 degrees, which means he had to cover over
some of the refrigeration is because product was getting too warm in there.
And so in working with more engineering and with Trane,
we were able to come up with a way
that we will be putting in some additional ductwork
that we will bring in cold air from the outside during the winter months
to bring that temperature down without having to run the chiller.
The reason you don't run the shower during the winter is you need to get enough
heat out of the unit as it's running
and if not, you can damage the chiller these units were not designed with.
Let's turn that economize air
which in economize you for example, in the high school gym brings in cold air.
If it's cold enough outside, it needs some inside
without running the air conditioning side of the unit.
So this is we've worked on this probably for three or four months.
The mechanical work that we did get this water for bids for
18,076, 60.
We will do this work hopefully with your approval in October.
And the control changes are about 13,009 $40.
Any questions?
And then we'll move to the SCC As part of needing
more rooms for students next year, we're going to be taking the LG.
I and converting it to two classrooms again.
When that air conditioning system was designed,
it was not designed with controls separate from the the LG,
the controls are based on the load that's in the cafeteria.
So bear with me just a second.
So if you're in the cafeteria
with a whole room for students, it's going to call for the air conditioning.
Problem is the other side.
You may have a few people in going to get frozen out because it's damp
and all that cold air based on what it's reading on the other side of the wall.
What we've worked out here is a way to it looks like it was originally laid out
for this to be done when it was built, but wasn't completed.
I can't tell you why, but what we're looking to do is to do
some electrical controls work for about 50 $300.
The equipment, which is a valve box, is a variable air volume box,
and that is what moves back and forth to supply the air to.
We need five of them.
And then the mechanical installation.
And that requires
some piping, some duct work,
both on the hot and the cold side, too, to move the air around to provide the
the temperature needed and then the balancing of those two systems.
I will say the mechanical installation piece, Mike and I have kind of talked
back and forth about, I believe that 50 50,000 down number is a good number.
And the caveat to that is this we need this job
completed by the 23rd of August so we can start school on time.
And with air conditioning controls,
the balancing piece we can do probably with students
in the building around the weekend,
that it may actually be better to tell you the truth,
but we need to get the mechanical court portions done.
We're working with some other vendors that we've used recently to get these numbers
in, and it's just I don't have them, but I feel that's a pretty good guess.
A pretty good estimate move that way.
I just have a question.
So it sounds like these changes that you're going to make
would be good regardless if they weren't even going to be a classroom,
if I was going to utilize that space on a more constant, yeah.
It would be.
What we did was we put a wall, we built a wall in there
with the idea that we can remove it.
It was built in a two by fours and it's brick
clearly built in such a way that it can be disassembled.
And that room returned to an LG some point,
but these controls will remain there.
That if at some point you decide you want to put a curtain in there
or some kind of wall to make them into two conference areas,
this is certainly be a benefit.
Thank you.
DCC Playground equipment.
I know that we've had some what we've done
some work on trying to upgrade that facility.
I know there's been
some issues with student injuries this year.
The the tiles that are down there I guess are original to the building.
And they had this started to warping to deteriorate
and the equipment is rather dated again we're I'm looking for $175,000
to replace that equipment.
My goal is to get that done before Halloween.
Why Halloween?
Because we're putting in a poured in place soft surface
and they will not pour them generally after Halloween because you need ambient
air temperature that remains above 40 degrees.
So we are still in the process of developing that project
right now.
Any questions on that?
Well, stay with
UCC one more time and that is the gym floor needs to be done down there.
That gym floor gets a lot of use during basketball season from high above
and then during sports seasons by softball and baseball, it's
showing its wear and we need to come in and just resurface that.
We will be using Miller Brothers with your approval.
They did the floor
at the middle school last year and did a very satisfactory job.
There's a known a number repairs that had to be done.
They did very nice job.
And I don't think I'm following this. Right.
That playground and equipment that says 175 and then the totals 24.
What am I missing?
What's going on there? My apologies.
My apologies.
I see. Okay. Gotcha. Got it.
And then the
the buildings and ground 25 pickup truck.
We're still waiting on our final quote back, the oh five truck.
Steve knows the history and there's been some issues with
it has served us well but it's time to be was in the pasture
so that is in there needs to be replaced and we'd like your approval for that.
And then with this would be phase two of the AC controls that we did last year.
Last year we did this building
and we did the office down below to kind of get the new system in place.
I can tell you we're very happy with it.
I can tell you that in the last year
I've just of room temperatures and a number of things from my phone
and it works very, very well and we're very pleased with the results.
The other system had been outdated and we were kind of begging and borrowing.
We do have leftover parts in the shell for the next two or three years out.
Should something fail, we can still keep the old system going.
But this is this has proven to be a really good investment for us.
And this looks like a pretty
a pretty neat swap of things that can be moved or removed
and things things to do on the projects
to be moved or removed,
I guess which is which will some of them never be done or
these are just all going to be possible projects for future years.
I think as Mark mentioned, really the only thing on that list
that I don't see being done is the added staff parking.
It's not something that,
you know, being here five years that has come up as a as a need.
And that was one item that was identified on
solely in that that facilities
study we had.
I believe everything else will be moved moved out.
We are looking at a little bit different and Mark had mentioned, you know in next
five year capital plan and as I stated before, because of that
information in year four and five not really being extremely useful.
We are looking at a rolling three year plan where it's the the year
where in 18, 19, next year.
And then at our first General services meeting for the next school year, we will
present all of the stuff
for the 2021 capital plan.
But keeping some of these on the list
kind of from that, if it's, as Mark noted, if some of these like
the generator could be more like three or four years out,
it'll be
the maintenance departments.
This front's ability
to make sure they're keeping track of those
and then submitting them on that yearly basis.
When we say, okay, what are your what are your projects?
And then for the next year that we have, we have everything
submitted for 2021.
So I'll be pulling that together and presenting it.
But just like before, we would talk to see
if there were anything on here that if it needed to be done next year, well,
that would take more precedent over something that maybe they've requested.
Do you feel comfortable, Mike, with the with the
level of funding in our capital budget in general
with this
kind of swap, especially since the numbers are.
I do know in some ways is, as Mr.
Anderson noted, like the cooling tower, $50,000 that I don't know
what $50,000 is going to buy us for a cooling tower,
maybe a quarter of it, if that.
Yeah.
So some of these budget numbers, I think have to be inflated.
But in terms of the the million dollars a year that we've we've
committed ourselves to, I think it's a really nice plan
that we're taking care of things on a yearly basis
and really not seeing too many things going for want
or having to be put off that we're able to deal with them as as they come up.
So I'm very happy with with how this has gone about.
Thanks.
Okay. Thank you.
Neal.
So what we would be looking for for this,
traditionally when we've gone through this, this committee provides
their approval to the full board for the recommended changes.
We would communicate that to the full board through a
a board brief for the June meeting and then in July meeting
have the revised 1920 plan on our
schedule or on the agenda for for final approval.
However it has been and this is just historically
not the way that it has to go, but the way that it has worked is that once
this committee approves that it's gone to the full board for approval.
I mentioned that just because some of these things,
obviously we need to keep working at and if the committee's okay with it,
I mean, I'm going to operate assuming that that we can move this through.
So I will give authority to for some of these contracts to be
started.
Of course, everything requires force for school board approval,
as we've done in the past.
Any contracts that we have to sign or bids go out, we'll go through
that normal process for each of these.
So nothing is binding us to anything.
It is just approval of of the switches in the plan.
Do I need to say it perfectly that way?
No. Just a motion to approve.
The revisions to a motion.
Motion to approve the 2019 2020 Capital Plan
revisions as presented.
So moved
I guess a second.
Okay.
Motion carries all those in favor.
Say I
will put that on the board brief on the
for the last board meeting in June for the expectation that be approved.
And if our meeting in July. Thank you. Thank you.
New business items
Mr. Friends
you know talk about the elementary facility study.
What I have proposed and Joe you might be able to to speak more to
to some of the needs and things but we are looking at
a renovation of the elementary school for various reasons.
Both of you know, as we talked about some of the space limitations
currently at the UCC, but those are going to continue to move forward
as well as looking at some other things from a parent drop off,
really looking at this as a an entire renovation project,
kind of nothing is left off the table in terms of the elementary.
What I've asked
warehouse to do is pull together
a proposal for the the architects portion
to go through that process, which they have provided.
I don't know if Joe, if you want to add
some more things about the actual the needs there.
Well, I think
the needs are quite extensive.
We know one of the pressing factors is the HPC,
the two pipe system that's currently there.
And in conversations with Mr.
Anderson, we can probably nurse that for three more years, maybe
curriculum.
As I have contacted Trane to ask them to in the event that the current system
fails, would there be something that we could pull in in park?
And what we're doing right now is we're assessing both what that would look like.
We'd have to do some electrical upgrades and we're assessing that,
but we believe we can.
Nurse was there for another two or three years.
And when I say nurse, it's metal and water.
They don't really mix too well.
And the units 27 years old.
So, you know,
there's a lot of pitch on the inside and whatnot that we've held together
and it's just
a matter of having a backup plan and we'll continue to patch that along
as best we can.
But I would say it's clear we're coming to the end.
So with that, along with the challenges that we have
in moving children between the SCC and the elementary
and the sprawling nature of the elementary and the fact that we're landlocked
with regard to playground space
and because of the road and the bus
corral and everything,
there are many factors we wanted them to look at as far as
what's the best option, knowing that we have to do something major
to the infrastructure within the next two or three years
and trying to look long term, long term, long range
planning versus, you know, let's fix this and then let's fix that.
Let's look at the whole picture to see what are our best options.
I just have to ask is,
I mean, all that needs to be done to it.
We don't know yet.
I'm sure the full picture,
is it worth it all, exploring other
possible facilities in the area?
No. Okay.
I just had to ask that because, you know.
Having the campus set up is extremely beneficial.
Right.
We would lose a lot at this point by going off the campus.
But we do want them to look at everything within our campus and what our real.
Estate in Hershey is also not that inexpensive. Right.
I was just thinking of one particular site, but I just didn't know cost wise
what was most cost effective to do.
So I had to just ask.
Right.
Well, and thank you, Judy, for bringing that up, because this,
unlike other projects that we brought to you before,
this is starting with Warehouse with us from the very beginning planning stages.
So I answered that question very, very quickly.
If we went through and all the information we found
was, you can't build here, you need to go somewhere else.
That's part of this process that we're going through.
So they broken it down into two phases.
Part one, which they provided the proposal for,
would help us go through
meeting with us, determining those needs and helping
from that bigger picture standpoint, not necessarily what we have to go through
and then developing essentially concepts.
So they'll they'll provide conceptual drawings, conceptual
architect plans, some narratives.
But also what we get out of that process
is, is a really good budget
estimates on, well, we want to do this, we want to do that.
So we're sticking everything up against the wall.
And then sometimes when you see that price tag,
you're like, well, that maybe I didn't
get as much bang for the buck as that is, so maybe we don't need that as much.
That's what this process will help us get to.
There will be then a part two after those decisions are made
in which will have to contract with warehouse
for addition for those services is to actually do the bidding drawings
and all those things that we would need to then
make that project happen.
So this is split up a little differently.
Normally we bring to you
a proposition from warehouse that gets us to billable documents.
That's not what this is doing.
This is is breaking this down
into two parts with this part being essentially that planning phase
that will
help us kind of those eyes outside of what we're thinking.
That kind of help is what they'll be providing.
And like I said, at the end, having those
those budget numbers, so then you can make further decisions on
how we would like to move forward, how we're going to pay for the project.
Once we figure out what the cost is and those types of things
to actually get this accomplished.
Additionally is looking at instructional needs.
Obviously we have one large group room dedicated for music,
but we have two very large ensembles, orchestra and band,
and they don't they can't operate at the same time.
So looking at large group spaces, looking at instructional spaces,
looking at needs that have increased for our special needs population.
So they're looking at it,
the whole picture, like Mike said, and then they'll come back to us with
what that might look like, what our offer.
So it sounds like
there could even be a possibility of just better utilization of space
to make more room.
And somewhat I mean,
utilizing the space we have better and I know there might be further building
that's needed, but that might even help too, as well as what you're saying.
Right.
We have parking issues, we have something like this is
this would be to get a an idea of what
the possibilities would be
to restructure the space and new space, correct?
Correct.
A little over 300,000.
And what over what time period?
It's in there. It's
it didn't jump out at me.
I just usually it. Does have a timeline.
It is in there. I know it is full on.
Oh, we can come back to that six to.
Eight months from the time that we start now, some of that there's
he builds in a lot of time for that we may need for internal meetings
and things where we will we'll say okay we have all these things we need to
to go in by ourselves and really figure out what what works best for us.
So the quicker that that that process moves, the better.
How have we done this
with any other buildings since you've been here?
So and that's part of the issue,
Terry, is why we want to do it comprehensive like this, right?
Because we've gone piecemeal.
Maybe in this I have no clue what a reasonable price is.
So there are architect of record.
So you know, right in your in spirit, is there anything we can look at to.
Well market against.
I know one of the things that I looked
back from that to convince me that this was a full renovation
is because we were starting with the HVAC system being
probably the worst part of that building.
And so to replace that or to do anything like that, we're tearing
walls, ceilings, you know, everything's got to essentially come out.
Well, if we're doing that, let's make sure we're putting back things
that are useful and taking advantage of it from that standpoint.
Having said that, you know, those things.
I've gone through an entire building project
at Anvil, Cliona, and then some smaller portions of that.
So I have an idea.
But, you know, we're looking at a tens of millions of dollars
in terms of a renovation project when this is when this is said and done.
So you're comfortable with the price? Yes.
Now we can talk a lot of that's because of our our debt structure.
So, you know, it's this project starts in three years.
We're five years away from being debt free.
So adding another year or two doesn't doesn't concern me whatsoever.
And I'm just curious, I am not going to remember the exact
specifics of this, but we were contemplating or we're
about to commit to a firm to
sort of
lay out a blueprint.
Of everything we have everywhere.
You know, our electric.
Or plumbing or this or that relative to our safety plan.
I think. Correct.
So with this, how does this fit into that?
Absolutely necessary that that would have to happen
for the elementary building for this to continue the reason it's
not in here is because we we said we're going to take everything,
all buildings, and we're going to do it this way so.
As to make it redundant, then. Absolutely.
No, they would have to be the price on this would be more
if we weren't doing that project.
That information will be used
to do some of this.
Okay.
But the structure
structure may change.
Yes. Got to know where where you're starting from before
you can talk about how you're going to change it, though.
So that's what they're getting to, is that they would have to come in
and do that entire facility.
That's one of the discussions
we had when we started talking to them about these different projects we have.
That's when they came forward and said, look,
we keep coming back to you don't have these these four plans, right?
They're going to be useful in the safety and security in the building redesign.
Can we just look at that as a project to get that out of the way?
All right, Thank you.
The question regarding the phrase
order of magnitude budget
generally in science.
Order of magnitude of power of ten, So a preliminary order of magnitude
budget of 12 million, it came in 110 million
and would be considered within and within an order of magnitude.
Is there an architectural and design definition for order of magnitude?
That was my maybe in improper use of that term.
Essentially
prioritizing is maybe what I should have used differently.
And just and that
and just this is General, just a question formative for myself.
So given given
in this document, two pages of exclusions,
is that a general reason?
Not specifically related to this?
Is that a general reason why
budgets or why estimates are.
So. Far off is because there are so many exclusions for the preliminary budget?
And then when you add in all the exclusions,
all of a sudden you're double your estimate.
Keppra you're referring to that our
our recent history or just based on your work?
Well, you know, in in general, I mean it just because it jumped out,
I mean, there were two pages of exclusions.
I'm saying we had all those in naturally again the cost is going to.
A lot of that is because of splitting this into two parts.
So these exclusions
are would
be things in because some of these just note it's kind of that
general exclusion that is if I didn't put it in here, then it's excluded.
So I think they're just covering some of those issues to make it
clear to us that this is being split into two parts.
One of the issues
there's a couple of things driving prices
currently and Mark alluded to this is
there is a huge need
for skilled laborers in our workforce that's not there.
So people can say, well, this is what this is going to cost if you need it done.
Those that is driving up prices because there is more work.
Our economy is busting,
but we're in a place where there's less people to do that actual work.
The other thing that we've encountered
is we did go through that process where
we had different architects that I don't know,
their budgets weren't worked, put together very well.
Thank you.
Anything else?
So what we're looking for, we're seeking the approval to bring this forth
to the June 24th meeting for approval
or to the full board seeking approval.
So you make a motion to move
to bring the elementary facility, study forward to the school.
Services.
Group, a services forward to the full board for approval tonight.
It's a fourth meeting, so move.
Second.
All those in favor.
I thank you.
Okay.
Focus areas for 2019, 2020.
Are we done with that? I'm sorry. Okay.
I wasn't helping you now.
So as we were looking at
the focus areas
for general services, obviously we just spent a lot of time
and moved taking the next step forward with elementary facility study.
We are recommending that one of the large focus areas for this committee
next year is the to continue the work and moving forward
with the elementary facility study.
Additionally, if we have time to get to it, Mr.
Bell has provided some information
regarding regarding transportation needs, future needs
with our expansion of propane
bussing as well as other needs in transportation.
So we were recommending the transport, the transportation focus and needs
be an area for general services next year
and then also the 2021 capital plan.
So those were the three that we were recommending
moving forward
for next year.
With this include.
I mean, I know we need to do this facility studies with elementary.
I'm in agreement with that 100%.
But I do know there's a building that's up for sale.
That's a school that might also need to be a possibility.
Maybe at some point.
Would this also include possibly just thinking about that idea
or investigating others if this plan for the SCC ends up
being like 20 million or, you know, just so outrageous and something else available
is like half the cost or whatever?
I mean.
Is it we have some short discussions about maybe that's what's going to meet
our transfer transportation
for the facilities and space that we're going to need for that.
But that may be a site that is right.
So the big.
Picture it is a big picture because as Mr.
Bell can can share that we don't have space on our.
Right.
On our site for the transportation needs.
So it could encompass all of that.
I mean, whatever we decide.
And that's why
I think it's
why we're recommending the elementary facility, the transportation all together,
because we're looking at it from a global picture versus now.
I think it's good.
So we just need to know
if that's from the committee's standpoint, if those three focus areas,
I guess the only
the only question I have never asked this before in the Finance Committee meeting
is if we do the vendor
fair in the fall and we,
as was discussed, can we possibly put something
up on a website that would live there to provide those interested?
Seeing what we're doing on a business purchasing side, you're comfortable
with the Finance Committee continuing to move those forward without the
General Services Committee being involved?
Yes. Okay.
Yes, I am.
Yeah, I think it really just started there because we were we started
the Finance Committee this year and really didn't know
what we were getting into as we were going through that.
I think it's much more beneficial with some of those things
that we're meeting monthly to to deal with some of those there versus, Okay.
I think
an emotional. Mr..
It would be nice to know, yes,
sorry, I'd make a motion that the priority areas
as recommended by the administration be adopted
for 20 22,019 20.
So moved
second.
Of all, those in favor.
All those. In favor.
I think
if we do that more often, I might get this part down.
I'm not like KIPP on that front.
Okay.
Future transportation needs.
To be handed out again.
Thank you.
No, I'm good.
Thanks, Joe.
I was
as Joe said,
I kind of opened up this discussion a little bit with Joe and with Mike
just looking in the future.
As you know, we started purchasing propane
powered school busses in 2015 and we started off slow in it.
A lot of districts decided to replace their whole fleet.
We did not because. Our fleet
is is historically in good shape.
We keep up on a replacement schedule and our vehicles were in too good
a shape to even think about doing that.
So we kind of went into it slow, but
we just received four more new ones today.
That brings us up to 18 propane units.
It currently takes 28
I'm sorry, 33 school busses to take the high school
middle school students to and from school and 28 at the elementary.
So we're steadily approaching almost half of our fleet here.
Before too long.
That will be propane powered.
And the problem that we're going to be facing here and just looking at
at our predictions for our usage are gallon usage
and for the amount of vehicles that will have powered by this alternative fuel.
It's not going to be too far in a distant future that we're going to have
to be looking to upgrade our our propane fueling station.
We have upgraded once so far,
but I've tried
to keep it within a manageable means that we can also remove it
in the event we have flooding, which we've had numerous times
at the township location
and our next job
that's going to be the best efficiency wise and economically
is going to be to go to an 18,000 gallon station with storage.
Obviously, that poses a little bit of an issue.
Definitely.
I have concerns about putting something that size in the location
that we're currently at because there won't be any moving it.
There's no way I can move it.
So we had discussion, we had meetings
looking into the possibility of any areas around here.
But obviously, just from the discussion that I'm hearing, we're having major
growing pains as it is and try and find any kind of a location
on campus that
doesn't interfere with somebody else's livelihood,
whether it be athletics or storage or what have you
possibly could be posing some problems.
So we're just trying to get ahead of this a little bit, looking at, you know, 21,
22 school years when really we should be trying to make a move by that point.
But these things take time. It takes planning.
And I didn't want to wait to the last minute to bring this
to the board's attention and to my supervisor's attention.
Something to be thinking about.
So that kind of that kind of pose some other discussion, you know?
Well, are
as our current location really a good location, you know, for the future?
Is it is it suiting our needs, things like that.
So the handouts that I gave you, I kind of was asked to look at some pros
and cons and some and then some kind of just some logical thinking about it.
So my main goal from this just being invited here
tonight is just to is just to make you aware of what we're facing.
Look at some of the things that that I've kind of brought up
that I'm bringing to your attention.
And I'm open to any kind of brainstorming
or whatever any any ideas anybody has.
But I just know that,
you know, from many colleagues of mine contacts
I have in the same industry that have switched to propane and
what has to be done in order to make it the most efficient
for the district and for our operation.
And so I know that this is the next step, the next logical next step.
It's just a matter of where and how do we do it.
And I
and I don't expect anybody I know there's a lot of material
there to read over more than willing to answer any any questions from that
when you get a chance or if you have any questions
now, I'm willing to try and answer anything that I can.
What's the approximate space requirement
for the fueling station, the new the 18,000 gallons?
Actually, I have I have the measurements back and work, but
it's it's approximately like
65 feet long and probably probably
about with barrier protection and everything else.
Yeah.
Like you're looking you need a quarter of an acre half acre.
I mean with, with all of the best gas.
More than an acre. Less than an acre.
I mean, I mean right now with fueling the way we do
now I'd say we probably do you have a bus there and everything else.
You're probably looking at about a quarter of an acre. Okay.
But we can only fuel one vehicle at that station at this point.
So if you know, when you when you're talking about, you know, a fleet
till we get to, you know, we get the 26 busses by that time frame,
you certainly are going to want to be able to have dual fueling capabilities
and be able to be able to dispense
from both sides of a filling station or fuel two vehicles at the same. It's
just it's it's not going to be efficient trying to fuel with one dispenser.
So if I were to guess
that you're not being promised by so if I were to guess somewhere between
eventually with very protection all the buffer zone that somewhere
between a half an acre and an acre, that wouldn't be an outrageous guess.
No, I wouldn't think so.
Because right now where where we sit right now with our fleet parking,
with the propane filling station
and with our our drivers trailer, I,
I mean, I did an estimate on their surveyor,
so I just basically took rough measurements, but I over there
I think we're looking at right around two and a quarter to two and a half acres
of what what we're sitting on right now.
That does not include the maintenance.
No, no, no garages or anything.
Just this just down and a lot.
Of does to park our fleet.
We but our propane station and have our drivers trailer.
Would you be moving them maintenance as well or would you keep it there.
How would you do that.
Well I have thoughts on that.
Too, because aren't we piggybacking off. Where we are?
And and I mean, maybe that's another time for another discussion, but,
you know, this is a 20 year old agreement we have with the township.
Obviously, things change,
staff change,
the whole dynamics have changed.
And, you know, we pay for what we pay for.
Essentially, we pay for everything having to do with two township mechanics
to service our equipment and maintain our equipment.
Right now,
I would love to propose
that we take those possessions back
and make them school district employees again.
Because I think. For I can give numerous.
Reasons, but I think one of the thoughts was that
there would be downtime for some of these mechanics.
And if they're not working on school
busses, they can be working on when in reality it is it is
two separate shops to the people that are working on the school.
Busses are experts in that and really is no,
we're getting no bang for the buck by by combining it
because we're just really operating two different two different shop.
And is it also fair to say that part of the drive to move
it is the flooding and we've run into that, right?
No, no doubt.
You know, I've been around since this death, you know, since the the talks
started, the original negotiations about this started.
I've been there from the time we moved over there.
And I've been through this every single time.
And I've physically had to move things over there.
And I know I know what's involved.
And, you know, we've been fortunate enough
that up to this point it hasn't
it hasn't really hurt us too bad during the during the school year.
But that also was when we were running all diesel powered vehicles, too.
If we were to be flooded down there and cut off our propane
for fuel supply, even what we have now, it's
not that it we couldn't accommodate it and we couldn't figure things out,
but it certainly is isn't going to be the easiest thing
or the most efficient thing either.
And when you say we have a 20 year agreement, are we in a 20 year?
What they've been we've.
Had we've had to go we've had 210 year agreements with the town.
So the agreement currently is in flux.
It is it the last tenure agreement expired
and we are we were kind of, I think all of us
pausing a little bit to take a look back to see what
and especially with the township, with a new new township manager.
So we've been talking about
how do we improve the agreement we have.
So that's still somewhat on the table, but
yeah, I have to mention that
in the time that I've been here, not only the times that it has flooded,
but seeing the work that goes into if we think it's going to flood
is a lot of resources that we're doing there.
And also, you know, when when it did flood, fortunately it was the summer
so that that's what woke me up to
this process is looking what we went through and then saying,
well, wow, what if that happened September 27th instead of July 27th,
how crippled we would be in terms of getting our
our kids out in and doing those types of things.
So looking at where it it was, it's a was a great thing to share and get through.
I just don't know if anybody looked at that as a long term solution down there.
And once again, that's what we're looking for is is that long term?
And I think that they've been very generous for us with this.
But I do think that the situation does make us vulnerable.
And just from a purely business, just the way that we run our school district.
And I think with the amount of, you know, we have a large number of employees
that are down there, that we're not providing the same level of comfort
that mostly every other employee that works here does. Receive.
So it seems like maybe it might be worth investigating that property
where the Hershey Christian School is.
You have a vested interest and.
I know I'm just saying because there is a big parking lot,
there is a big space there.
And if you're looking for a building to put offices in and stuff,
I'm just saying
it could be a good possibility because you're saying how land is scarce.
You're saying how there's it's hard to find a plot and it's already
has a lot of parking spaces already for busses and all of that.
And I don't know why.
I mean, I don't think
that's such an outrageous idea just to see what that would look like
and if it if you even think that was a possibility with how flooding
and I'm not good at grounds and in what it looks like
but it doesn't seem like there's a whole ton of options in Derry Township
that would provide building space for offices
that you're alluding to, as well as enough space for busses that.
So that was one of the the requirements
that Steve come and start to talk about this is so that when
so we can start to do some of that research
and not at this point to expend a large number of resources but
when that time comes wanted to make sure that the ground was was was ready or,
you know, we had made everybody aware of what was going on
so that when we did need to make some decisions, it wasn't a huge surprise.
So a little bit of this is just is there support to keep moving forward
in doing this research?
And I think, you know, bringing it back to say here's here's what we found
just in terms of, you know, those the overall needs.
I'm just curious,
are there any parcels of land that you thought would
would be suitable or.
I try not to jump ahead that far?
Well, I'd be curious to know.
We're just trying to figure out if we have the support to take the next step.
So we'll we'll explore in greater detail
is there support for us to do that?
Well, I can tell. Steve wants to tell me.
He's got his eyes on a spot somewhere.
I can tell.
You know, I really do.
I honestly,
the things that cross across my mind, if you look around Derry Township,
who owns the most amount of open ground, obviously it's Milton Hershey.
You know, I know the Free Church has some ground that
that they want to get rid of that they haven't utilized.
And obviously the Lancaster Mennonite School
I other than that I honestly couldn't I couldn't tell you.
Okay you know it's
you know, you define that kind of ground
you know open around here is is is difficult I know the
I know the township doesn't really have anywhere else
that I know of that they could that they could move us,
you know, And it hasn't been the greatest for them here.
I mean, they've had issues with their police station flooding,
you know, where their emergency management station is down below.
I can tell you even we've even had when we've had some of our major
flooding over there just from the the water leaching in the ground.
As bad as what it does over there that
I had, you know, I had to, you know, kind of
keep things even our diesel and gasoline pumps for emergency vehicles.
I had to kind of rig up to keep pumping because they were filling those pump
pits, were filling up with water and wanting to shut down our system.
So it's not it's not even just where the water level comes up.
It's there's problems over there with with with water and moisture
as it is that I don't think that anybody ever could foresee.
It's a mess.
So with the approval of the group to continue exploring
and making it a focus area next year, we can keep coming back with next steps.
We really appreciate Steve's forethought and and looking forward on this
so that we're not caught in 20, 20, 21, 22.
With to make a.
Kneejerk quick decision supply guarantee land over there.
Oh my goodness. Do we need to make an official?
I have no idea.
I think the approval is a focus area with with our primary.
This is where we need to to continue to move forward.
So thank you.
Just a general question,
if and maybe you can point me in the right direction
if you don't know the answer offhand.
And this has to do, generally speaking, with loading and off loading of students
at a school, at a public school, not bus stops or anything like that.
Are can general loading and offloading be conducted on a two way street
or is there have to be a separate
pull off or parking lot?
You mean just to discharge students?
Yeah. Yeah.
Loading and offloading at the school.
Can that happen on a two way street.
As long as they if it's a public road,
as long as they operate their school bus lights.
Yeah. Okay.
Thank you. Happens all the time in the city.
Thank you.
No public comment.
Kind of a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second, Terry kept.
A second.
Meeting adjourned.
Thank you.
All. Not
interested.