APPRO-2024-23 : An Appropriation from Free Cash(account # 01-324001) in the amount of $250,000 (Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars) to Public Works Accounts (#402) as set forth herein and for Replacement of the Chiller at Lincoln Elementary School

Transcript (~7 min @ 33:10)

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▶ 33:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, this motion passes and now we have appropriation 2024 dash 23 and appropriation from pre-Cash. Um, account number zero one dash 32 4 0 0 1 in the amount of 250,000 um, dollars to Public Works account number, uh, 402 as four three and four replacement of the chiller at Lincoln Elementary School.

▶ 33:41 Speaker 9: Yes. So this is another critical need, um, from the facilities division.

▶ 33:44 Speaker 10: This is the air conditioning unit at the Lincoln School. So when the Lincoln School was designed, it was designed with, um, the, the actual design intent as a cost cutting measure was to have a chiller that had the capacity to chill a third of the school at a time. And it just rotates through.

▶ 34:01 Speaker 9: It can, it can get to every space that the network gets

▶ 34:04 Speaker 10: to every space in the school, but it only has the capacity for 60 tons and it's 170 ton full capacity building. Um, the chiller failed a few months ago.

▶ 34:19 Speaker 9: Um, and we've been back

▶ 34:20 Speaker 10: and forth with our engineers from imag who we had hired to do the, um, the school HVAC study. So they've been studying all the schools HVAC. Um, so luckily we had them on board and we were able to ask them to look in more detail at this issue. Um, what they recommended was that rather than just an in-kind replacement, well, first of all, so the, the unit is over 20 years old and it's at the end of its useful life. What failed was two of the four compressors in the unit. So my first question was, can't we just put new compressors in and get it going again? And they said, no, it's beyond its useful life. You could replace those and then the other two will fail and there's other motors and other components that will fail. So there's no sort of quick and cheap solution.

▶ 35:04 Speaker 10: Um, the next thought was let's just replace it with another 60 ton unit, or maybe an 80 ton unit of the same style. And they said, well, you can do that,

▶ 35:12 Speaker 9: but your, you know, your long-term plan is to move toward electrification

▶ 35:19 Speaker 10: and it would be a real, um, miss to replace it with another fossil fuel, uh, chilling unit that only does chilling. So instead they've proposed that we replace it

▶ 35:32 Speaker 9: with a, I wanna make sure I get it right.

▶ 35:34 Speaker 10: It's a heat pump chiller. I guess the current wasn't one is an air cooled chiller. This is a heat pump chiller that will have the ability to do heating as well as cooling. Um, it will have a little bit more capacity than the current one for the cooling, but it will also, it should also run more efficiently than the old unit. And, um, we are looking at whether some of the other air handlers can also be converted with these LEV kits to heat pumps. At the same time. That'll be a cost driven decision, but at a minimum, the, the chiller will be replaced with a heat pump chiller that can during sort of the swing seasons, the spring and the fall. We can use that to provide some degree of heating in addition to the cooling. And then it moves us toward our electrification goal. So this will be a fully electric unit. Um, so I know a little bit more about it, but I'll stop there so I don't bore anybody.

▶ 36:32 Speaker 9: And if you have any questions,

▶ 36:33 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. And I have, uh, vice Chair Williams.

▶ 36:37 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Um, you guys buried the lead a little bit. That doesn't say heat pump anywhere in here. That's fantastic news that you guys are moving to a big commercial heat pump for that space. With regard to this study of HVAC at the other schools, um, do all of the other elementary schools have some capacity for building wide cooling?

▶ 37:01 Speaker 10: So the issue is the electrical systems. Mm. In almost all cases at the older schools, they don't have the electrical capacity to add cooling. Um, we have report, we have draft reports from Imeg

▶ 37:10 Speaker 9: for every one of the school buildings now.

▶ 37:14 Speaker 10: And they did them all As every building has its own report, it's a lot of repetitive information. So now we're working on having them aggregate it into one report that we can share with folks. Okay. Um, I didn't feel the format they gave it to us in is really appropriate to share with the community quite yet.

▶ 37:30 Speaker 9: So, um, but they are recommending both how do we, um, upgrade the systems to meet modern demands,

▶ 37:36 Speaker 10: and then also how do we electrify all the systems over the long term. Um, so there's a lot of detail in there and it comes down to electrical for most of them.

▶ 37:48 Speaker 6: Um, okay. Thank you. Okay.

▶ 37:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Any, um, vice Chair Williams? Are you all set? I'm done. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Um, Councillor Vandiver. Thank

▶ 38:05 Kimberly Vandiver: You. Um, just a quick question. As we're evaluating the HVAC systems at the schools, um, are we, are we at or considering being at the highest level of Merv filters as far as air quality and things like that? Or where does that fit into the picture?

▶ 38:19 Speaker 9: Yeah, so we moved to the highest filters

▶ 38:21 Speaker 10: that we could during covid. Right at the beginning of covid, we actually swapped out in all of our HVC units.

▶ 38:29 Speaker 10: Um, but I think it's Merv 13 was the desired, uh, filter for covid. But in a lot of cases, the units can't function with that high of a filtration, you know, that sort of dense of a filter. So we were, I believe we were at elevens in most units at thirteens and sums, and maybe it was at nines, I wanna say, in others. So we did sort of, we upgraded to the maximum that every particular unit could handle, but some units just can't handle, um, that much resistance through the filter.

▶ 39:00 Kimberly Vandiver: Right. Um, and I, I, this has likely been considered, but, um, someone in the family is an HVAC technician. Um, and, uh, there are, there are some low flow filters as well that, um, that are able to support some, some systems that have a lot of resistance. I'm not sure if that's been looked at, but something to, to consider. Okay.

▶ 39:23 Speaker 5: Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 39:27 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, any other question comes Vice Chair Williams. If

▶ 39:31 Ryan Williams: No one else goes for the first time, I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the full board.

▶ 39:36 Maya Jamaleddine: Second, We have a motion, uh, to recommend made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Councilor Karen Shetty.

▶ 39:45 Speaker 5: And Mr. Clark

▶ 39:46 Speaker 4: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty? Yes. Councillor Reky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councilor naca? Yes. President GL Yes. And Chair Aldine? Yes. Here, Ms. Vote?

▶ 40:05 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes. Thank you. Um, next, uh, appropriation 2024 dash 24 and appropriation from free cash account number zero one dash 32 4 0 0 1 in the amount of $100,000 to Public Works account number, uh, 4 0 2 as set forth a hearing, uh, at for roof replacement and localized repairs to Milano Senior Center.