Sima on schools' capital bgt
A $125,000 project to replace moldy carpet in more than a dozen Doolittle Elementary School classrooms has raised the possibility that the Board of Education might have to seek a special appropriation from the town if any major maintenance emergencies crop up through the remainder of the fiscal year June 30.
District officials had asked for money to be included in the current fiscal year of the town's five-year capital spending plan....
Board member James Sima was critical of the decision not to include the carpet replacement project in the capital spending request. "It's sort of strange... that it got removed." (NHR, by Luther Turmelle)
Tim White
18 comments:
Moldy carpet tells me there's a deficient HVAC system in this building. Obviously the air is too damp
Once again, we need a comprehensive HVAC replacement program for the entire school system
$10,000. per classroom for recarpeting? Are they recarpeting with fine persian wool?!
I seem to recall asbestos being mentioned... and cleaning that up gets expensive.
I'm not positive about that though.
What happened to non-carpetted floors? They are better to clean and safer for the children. Please vote for no carpets.
$125K to replace the "moldy carpets" at Doolittle....replace them with what? I would think they'd replace it with some sort of tile and not carpet, which could just become moldy again. Why not just reallocate $125K from the current capital budget amount of $462K designated for the Humiston upgrade? The Humiston upgrade, according to your numbers, already got $110K. Do they really need $572K?
The Waterbury paper today says that several of the classrooms at Doolittle had their moldy carpeted removed and replaced with tile. But there are still some carpeted hallways and some rooms that will just have cement floors because they didn't have enough money to do the tiles. I find it hard to believe that in that $50 plus million dollar budget, they can't find the money. Didn't the superintendent reallocate a chunk of the medical trust fund money from 06-07 to the 07-08 year to cover future claims? I thought it was something like $250K. Maybe he should have transferred part of it in the current budget to cover the cost of tiles for all the classrooms that needed them. The way he transfers money around, it's a wonder anyone really knows exactly how it's spent.
Does it make sense to put a patch on somthing? If asbestos exists, then it would be to glue. Then we reinstall new carpet - only to have to replace in the future.
Suggestion that an assesment of the entire school system is completed and the town begins to plan for replacements. The High School was renovated (Still has issues and work is still being accomplished) but the other schools are overdue. New buildings should be thought of now as it will take many years to accomplish. (State funding, design, etc.)
I always thought that Cheshire was a "teaching town with the best school system", replacing the carpet and dealing with mold should not be something we are talking about.
Summary - Hire a consultant (Not the pool reviewers) and begin the process now.
replacing the buildings will probably be cost-prohibitive as we are a "rich town" and will get little state reimbursement.
Doing a full review of what needs to be replaced is past due
Hospitals and convalesant homes don't have carpeting. Do they know something?
It makes no sense to replace problem carpeting with more carpeting.
And, it doesn't make sense to hire a consultant. We have a town engineer, he should be able to find the best solution.
My current understanding of the project...
when the carpet was installed, 20-30 yrs ago, it was glued to the asbestos tiles.
Now when the carpet/mold is removed, the tiles come with it... so the asbestos has to be removed too.
So you are saying the asbestos has to be removed whether carpeting or tile replaces the moldy carpeting.
So is the high cost due to the asbestos removal?
One of the reasons for mold at Doolittle is the school was built on swampy land. There is a high water table. Hydrostatic pressure; water pushing up through the earth will eventually work its' way through concrete, just like many basements. moisture filled concrete with carpeting on top, with glue acts a wick. The carpet will hold moisture, germs, allergens etc. Installing tile will not really solve the problem. In a few years the tiles will start to peel up from hydrostatic pressure...then what do we do? The idea of installing a proper HVAC system is one solution, but the installed costs are assumed to be so high. Adding dehumidification would further help to resolve the humidity issues along with mold, mildew and improve overall air quality.
Glad the school's capital budget doesn't include anything for that turf field the dems were pushing for. I heard a report on TV recently that says the new turf releases a chemical that irritates skin and eyes and contains chemicals that can cause cancer. NOT a good thing!
No turf why not we need it!
Synthetic turf for an elementary school? Why is this necessary or even desirable?
I thought it was for the High School?
10:23 I was just generalizing about the schools' capital budget and items that have been discussed in the past. The turf was intended to be for the high school field. The super had written a letter to the state requesting $850K through the bond commission, but I guess it got rejected. Thank God!! The costs would have been much more than that and most reasonable people in town realize that we don't even need it. I recently heard about the chemical irritants that this new kind of turf releases and the possible cancer causing chemicals, so I thought I'd post a comment about it. I guess 8:40 doesn't mind if kids/adults would end up w/skin & eye problems or worse yet, cancer issues. Just in case an attempt is made again to push the turf idea through the "back door", I thought people should know of it's problems.
Natural grass is the best. It has been around for a long time and proven to work. It causes no problems. Fix and replant. Enjoy it's beauty. A little mud is ok.
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