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12/20/2016 01:45 PMWinter temperatures have settled in, increasing the need for adequate heating systems in town buildings, particularly the Community Center, which serves as an emergency shelter. As of last week, two components of the Community Center heating system have failed, prompting the need for emergency repairs.
At the Dec. 19 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, the board approved at $33,252 request to repair and update the HVAC system, which regulates the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning for the Community Center.
Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard said the system is aging, as the Community Center building is now almost 24 years old. Maynard said the HVAC system is made up of four components around the building, which he called modules, that are connected to a central program. Maynard said two of the modules failed and the supplier, TRANE Supply, brought in emergency replacements to heat the building through the weekend.
“I told them we have a cold weekend coming up and we are an emergency shelter and if something happened and we had to be in there, I wanted to make sure there was heat in the building,” he said.
The failed modules need to be permanently replaced and Maynard said a new central program will need to be installed as well. With only two working modules, Maynard said it is difficult to regulate the heat in the building.
“The existing program on the computer can’t communicate with [the new modules] so we have to get a new program,” he said. “The advantage of the new program though is it won’t be computer-based, it will be web-based, so we could access it from any computer or cell phone.”
While only two modules failed, Maynard suggested all four modules be replaced along with the program.
“Either we put money into next year’s budget to replace those or we do it now because who knows when they are going to go down,” he said.
The BOS agreed to replace all four modules now.
Selectman Gary MacElhiney said, “We need heat in that building—no question about it. It is probably more efficient to do all of them at once.”
However, First Selectman Joe Mazza was not pleased there was no warning that the system might go down.
“We are in a tight budget,” he said. “We went through three referenda and now you are hitting me with a $33,000 bill that I didn’t expect and there was no planning for it. Now we have to fix it.”
Mazza said there needs to be a comprehensive assessment of the Community Center to better plan for repairs in the future. For now, he said he will look at the budget to determine how to cover the cost for the project.
“I think the question of where we take the money out—we will have to work that out,” he said.