BELLE — An HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) project at Belle Elementary School (BES) that began in May 2022 has been delayed until summer 2024 due to the scarcity of parts and products, according to the Maries R-2 School District’s engineer Terris Cates.

Cates, with Integrity Engineering in Rolla, said on Feb. 28 he found out about the extended timeline after he sent bids out for the project. Parts are scarce now.

“You have two bids,” Cates said. “Bales Construction Company out of Waynesville came in at $1,428,000 and United Mechanical Services LLC out of Jefferson City came in at $1,169,718 total.”

Cates said his company is working with them on change orders about other material and labor options.

“Those are good bids, very competitive bids, and is what we were expecting it to be,” Cates said. “The way supply and demand is, though, we cannot do the project this summer. We were hoping that we could. We were optimistic, at the same time realistic, but we just found out today that the fan units won’t be available until September.”

Board President Joey Butler II asked if neither brand would have the parts, and Cates confirmed neither brand would have the parts available.

“I just got that confirmed tonight,” Cates said.

He continued that they found some chillers that could be in the district by late July or October but without the fan quills, they wouldn’t be any good.

“What we would need to do for them to get the equipment on order is to accept the bids,” Cates said. “If you want to do that, and then give notice of award if the board authorizes, that we are going to go with United Mechanical. Then United Mechanical has 10 days to get their performance bond and payment bond 100 percent for the project. They also have to give us a certificate of insurance liability.”

Cates said on March 10 the school could then officially enter into a contract with Bales Construction Company after he reviews the bonds and insurance. Then the company would be given the notice to proceed.

“The notice that I have given to you says 570 calendar days,” Cates continued. “It will not take 570 calendar days to do this job, however, because of the lead time on the equipment, it is going to take that kind of time.”

United Mechanical says the school can lay the concrete pad for the chiller so that when it becomes available in either July or October it can be set in place because it should not be moved a lot.

“Then there is the question when we get the fan quills and the boiler if the school might have a facility that we could put those here,” Cates said. “We will need to work that out because we don’t want that stuff sitting outside somewhere. Either that or United Mechanical is going to have to rent something and we don’t want them trying to charge us for storage.”

Cates said the project is a go and is very much within reasonable bids. The board just needs to issue a notice to proceed if they want to move forward.

Butler asked when the equipment could be in. Cates said he is expecting 12 of the fan quells around late September and the chiller, they were told would be around 43 weeks unless they increased the size.

“We are not paying any extra to do that,” Cates said. “There will not be an increased charge. That was just what was in stock and bit bigger than what was specified and could be here sooner.”

Cates said the piping, ductwork and about 12 fan quills will need to be stored.

Maintenance Director Tony Gieck said he has a couple of places.

Cates assured the board it would be for sure completed buy August 2024.

“What they can do, United Mechanical won’t want to make a bunch of small trips,” Cates said. “Once they get down here they will want to get going. They will want to make sure all of the parts are here and ready. So when he comes in, he will get started right away.”

Cates said around next May they will have the boiler installed. It is just a matter of waiting until school is out.

Gieck said there are things they can do this summer as well, such as building the firewall in the boiler room.

“The thing that is holding us back the most is that so much water pipe has to be run throughout the summer and we can’t do that yet or we won’t have air conditioning for the fall when the kids come back to school,” Gieck said. “We will try to get the outside work and what we can get done upfront. Then next year whenever they come in we just take the ceilings down.”

Cates added that when the building was built all the soffits were supposed to be insulated, but it was hard so they didn’t do it. Once the ceilings are down to replace the piping, they are going to insulate. However, it is a fair time expense and the insulation for the soffits is between $250,000-$350,000.

“There are so many different variables,” Cates. “Equipment will be between $350,000-$450,000. The rest is labor intensive.”

Butler asked if the companies that bid weren’t going to go out of business in three years and be unable to provide maintenance services. Cates said they asked for reputable equipment bids and they were provided by reputable companies that had been around a long time.

“I don’t see a problem with any of the equipment that is being provided,” Cates said.

Director Garret Bialczyk asked about the change orders Cates mentioned in the beginning because in his experience that meant the district would need more money. Was the additional cost already factored into the budget?

“What we are looking at with the chiller piping, it is just as expensive to run copper as PVC, so United Mechanical asked if they could use 80 PVC instead of steel and copper, mainly because of labor,” Cates said. “The cost of the material is almost identical, but because of manpower, it would save us $14,000 to go with plastic.”

Cates was asked about the warranty if the product is here now but not installed for a year. He said the warranty wouldn’t take effect until after installation.

“This kind of equipment, whether a year or 10 years, is going to be good equipment,” Cates said. “They will have a warranty bond afterward too.”

Bialczyk made a motion to accept the bid from United Mechanical Services and Director Amy Kiso seconded. The board began their discussion.

Cates estimated the work would be complete by the beginning of September.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham said that it has to be done by the end of September.

“The grant we received says Sept. 30, 2024, all the funds have to be spent by then,” Basham said.

“It looks like we are about $349,000 short of what the ESSER funds are going to cover,” Butler said.

Basham said she had offset about $300,000 out of the budget last year in preparation for the grant funds being short of the entire project.

“I offset about $300,000 last year out of our ESSER2 funds, knowing this wouldn’t fully fund it,” Basham said.

Butler confirmed that about $49,000 would need to be taken from the district’s general fund. Basham said she may be able to offset a little more before the project is ready because some of the maintenance salaries were offset from the ESSER2 funds.

“Yeah, it is a sticker shock to say, ‘oh, it’s a million dollars for an air conditioner’ but at the same time it is out of ESSER2 money that can’t be spent anywhere else, and once it is all done it cost us $49,000 or less,” Butler said.

The board expects they could recoup those funds by not accumulating the maintenance bills on the current system, which is outdated, plus time.

“We spend between $50,000 and $60,000 a year right now on maintenance,” Gieck said.

He added that keeping the parts off of the old units coming out of the classrooms in Belle will offset the cost to repair the 22 or so units in the high school.

“A condenser fan when I first started was $350 now it is $1,750,” Gieck said. “We can start changing some of the parts out ourselves.”

Director Aaron Vandegriff said any maintenance or work that needs to be completed after school starts in August 2024 should be done on Mondays or after hours to not inconvenience teachers or students. Basham said there is a liquid damages clause to the contractor if the work is not completed by a certain time.

“It is $800 a day if they don’t complete it when they are supposed to,” Cates said. “But United Mechanical is an excellent, reputable company. They have already started working with Tony and have been out on Mondays and weekends.”

The board approved the vote with a 7-0 vote.