W-MU talks HVAC options

By Karyn Spory, Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? The Winfield-Mt. Union Community School District has a couple of options when it comes to installing a new HVAC system, but Superintendent Jeff Maeder says there?s one that he feels is a clear advantage.

Last Wednesday, Brandon Pierson, a representative of KJWW (IMEG Corp.) a Quad-Cities based engineering firm, met with the school board to discuss the best way to proceed with installing a new HVAC system.

In February, the school district held a bond referendum for a $9.5 million school improvement project. Part of the project was to add a new heating and cooling system to the school. The approximate $2.3 million portion of the project was to be paid for not using borrowed funds, but through SAVE, or money earned from the state?s penny sales tax.

Despite the referendum failing, the district said they would fund the HVAC system regardless.

?There are a couple of different options if we want to move forward and there are some advantages in terms of just getting the process started with or without the bond referendum happening,? said Maeder.

The district does plan to present the proposed building project to voters once again next winter. Maeder said Pierson also presented an option that would postpone the project until the 2018 bond referendum vote.

?There are also some advantages to waiting to see if the bond referendum were to pass. Then you can bundle this work in with the work being done with the other parts of the facility,? he added.

Of the three options the board members heard ? waiting for the next bond issue, air conditioning the whole school and air conditioning just a portion of the building ? Maeder said he feels the third one might be the best bet.

?It gave us a scenario where we could move forward this fall with all of the design and bid work,? he said.

The plan would be two-fold. First, the boilers would be replaced in the 1923 portion of the building. Then, during the summer of 2018, the district would move ahead with installing air conditioning in the 1923 part of the school. That portion, Maeder said, is roughly half the square footage of the district?s total complex.

Maeder said he personally feels this would be the best route forward as it keeps the district?s promise to move forward with the HVAC system regardless of the bond vote, but it also keeps construction to a minimum should the referendum be passed next year. Most of the proposed school upgrades ? the industrial arts classrooms, band/choir, the cafeteria and bringing in the kindergarten and pre-K rooms ? are largely outside of the purview of the 1923 building.

Maeder said the school board members would further discuss the options at the next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, July 12.