Chilmark School HVAC project costs nearly doubled

Updated March 17

Chilmark School’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system project will be going before voters during the annual town meeting at a higher price than expected, and the Chilmark Select Board unanimously voted it will move on without the generator portion of the project on Tuesday. 

Public officials said a new system was needed. “We definitely have to do something,” board member Jim Malkin said. “I know last week parents wound up bringing plug-in heaters into the school to heat the school on a very cold day, which I think is an unfortunate situation for the town to be in.”

The Up-Island Regional School District ratified an intermunicipal agreement two years ago in which Chilmark agreed to borrow the $950,000 needed to fill in the school’s funding gap. The school district would pay back this amount with interest to the town over a 10-year period. The town had also pledged $126,000 from its Massachusetts Green Communities Designation and Grant Program funds. However, additional details showed the cost of the project will be higher than anticipated. 

The entire project was budgeted, as of March 8, at $1.27 million, but the only bid that came in for the HVAC project, from Abington-based Apex Corp., came in at $2.15 million. Including other fees and the generator project — expected to cost $617,500 — the entire project was expected to cost $3.09 million. 

Before Tuesday’s meeting, the school committee on Monday had unanimously approved to offset some of the costs with $120,400 in excess and deficiencies funding. The committee also recommended moving the project’s generator portion forward, although it would side with whatever the board determined. 

“We did so with the understanding that we are stuck,” committee member Robert Lionette said. “The systems are not going to be functional moving forward, and this work has to be done … because it’s taken so darn long, we’ve not been able to maintain and update the building systems.”

Lionette said a new generator would be great for various reasons, but considering the costs, the committee felt the select board should have a say in its addition. “It’s important, but it’s not essential to the completion of the project,” Lionette said. 

The board was not thrilled to hear about the nearly $2 million addition to project costs. 

Board chair Bill Rossi said Chilmark total debt to its budget is “right up against” the 10 percent threshold considered acceptable by the town. He said this was the threshold that made Chilmark a “fiscally responsible” municipality throughout his time on the board, which the town would surpass if more debt was taken. “That’s a big threshold for me,” Rossi said. 

Malkin acknowledged that the price of “everything” had ballooned, but the project places the town’s credit rating in “jeopardy.” He also pointed out a discussion that took place of potentially replacing the boiler for heating issues in the short term. He said perhaps a simpler approach is needed, like installing mini-splits or buying plug-in heaters, for now. 

He added that $3 million was not far from how much it cost to build the school. 

Board member Warren Doty agreed with Malkin. “This amount of money, $3 million over 10 years, is going to add more than $300,000 a year in the Up-Island Regional School District budget,” Doty said.

Doty said he was aware that the project was the right path for a “low-carbon future,” but the costs showed a “stunning amount” for the town to spend. 

Michael Owen, the owner’s project manager from CHA, pointed out there are ventilation requirements to meet, on top of providing a heat source, because of state codes. “It’s a little bit more complicated than just plugging in a unit here,” he said. “The energy recovery units currently, that are installed in the school, are not operational. So you don’t have the necessary air changes that are required for a school of that size.” 

Owen said considering the continued supply-chain issues, delaying the school project could make it difficult to find the “necessary, certified contractors” to do the needed work. Currently, electric switchgears are affected by supply-chain issues, which Owen said can take 62 weeks to be delivered. 

Malkin later said it was difficult not to take action, despite the costs, knowing that the town may not be in compliance with the law. 

When asked by Rossi, Chilmark energy committee chair Robert Hannemann, who spoke as an individual, said, “I’ve arrived at a point that says, basically, I would not do the generator part of this project. I believe it’s not needed at the present time, but in addition, we are going to be engaged in a variety of energy resilience projects in the town over the next 10 or 12 years and, in fact, we can revisit the generator issue at the school.” Hannemann added that there is a “high probability” of a renovation of the school’s energy systems at some point after completing the solar and resilience project for the town hall and new fire station, likely a couple of years from now. Hannemann later told the Times in an email renovations to the school’s overall energy systems are not expected until years in the future.

“Who knows what the prices are going to be like at that point in time, to basically have a first-class school building?” Hannemann said. 

Chilmark School Principal Susan Stevens said she can do without a generator for now, since the Chilmark Community Center and Chilmark Free Public Library were nearby locations with generators. “If we lost electricity, I think we could share spaces for that day,” she said. 

After further discussion, the board unanimously voted to recommend the project to voters without the generator, for a total of $2.48 million. Chilmark town administrator Tim Carroll said the approval of West Tisbury and Aquinnah will also be needed, because they are covering 10 percent of the project each through the intermunicipal agreement.

Updated with a clarification from Robert Hannemann.