WESTFIELD – The project manager for energy improvements to schools and municipal buildings reported to the School Committee last night that work has already begun at several school buildings, as contractors get a jump-start to complete as much of the upgrades during the summer months as possible.
Dan Pallotta of P3, the city’s project manager, said that the district relocated Westfield Vocational Technical High School students from the upper campus, the old high school, to allow contractors to begin replacing windows, perform asbestos remediation needed to allow the boiler contractors to begin their replacement effort, and initiate other work rood and brick wall repairs.
The city has been awarded a $12 million Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) green energy grant to replace boilers, windows and roofs at five school buildings. The city has also initiated a $17 million energy program which complements the MSBA work at school buildings and also includes improvements to other municipal buildings.
The MSBA grant, which reimburses the city at a 62 percent rate, includes the installation of 13 boilers in five school buildings, as well as replacement of windows and two sections of the roof of Westfield Vocational-Technical High School.
The city hired P3 to serve as its project manager, a MSBA requirement; Siemens, was hired to conduct an energy audit and proposed options to increase energy efficiency and reduce the municipal energy footprint; and Tighe & Bond was hired to serve as the city’s engineering consultant for the MSBA Green Energy grant program, linking the $12 million Green Energy project with the work to be completed through the proposed $17 million bond.
Siemens has recommended switching most of the boilers from steam systems to hot water systems because the energy required to heat water to 140 degrees is much lower than the energy required to convert water to steam.
That conversion will require additional work, such as replacing pipe lines and installing ventilation systems with individual climate control systems for each classroom, work that is not covered by the MSBA grant program.
Pallotta said the windows being removed this week will be covered with plywood until the replacement windows arrive at the end of July or early August.
“Contractors are also taking out the steam lines that were installed when the school was built in the 1930’s and are doing asbestos mitigation at the upper campus,” he said.
Contractors have already removed the boilers at Paper Mill Elementary School, Pallotta said. That school was constructed in 1990 and is asbestos-free.
“They will be able to install the new boilers at Paper Mill next week because there is no asbestos remediation required,” Pallotta said. “We ordered the boilers last February. There will be between 80 and 100 people working in the buildings. We’re tackling all of the low hanging fruit this summer.”
Pallotta said that there are nine EMS projects on the municipal side of the project that will be addressed over the next five years.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said that funds remaining in a bond sold to replace roofs at Highland and Southampton Road elementary schools last summer will be used to being the design and engineering effort for roof replacement at the sister schools of Paper Mill and Munger Hill, with the actual roof reconstruction slated for next summer.
Knapik said that the city will be selling $14.5 million for the combined MSBA and EMS work.
“We’re getting a very favorable rate because of the health of the city’s finances,” Knapik said.
Pallotta said the only buzz so far encountered by the contractors was the discovery of a large honey bee hive in the copula of the old high school building. The Italian bees are endangered and the hive had to be relocated.
