J-M board rejects offer from energy company
JEFFERSON – An energy program that company officials claim could have saved the Jefferson-Morgan School District more than $54,000 annually in utility bills failed to garner enough votes Monday, though directors may get a second crack at it next month. Chris Fisher of TAC presented the board with three options for the district to become more energy efficient, each with its own pricetag. He said the company did a feasibility analysis and an energy audit to determine the district’s needs along with exploring where savings could be realized.
The district is spending approximately $154,000 annually on utility costs and Fisher proposed that by using plans developed by TAC, the district could save $54,780 from that total. To do so, the board would have to approve an option, only one of which would not cost the district extra.
The first plan would have taken 85.65 percent of the projected savings and guaranteed the district would save $46,919 annually. Fisher said that the $46,919 would then be spent instead on a program that would pay for the cost of upgrading the utility management systems at both schools, retrofitting the light fixtures, retrofitting the boiler and adding air conditioning systems to the junior-senior high school library and adult education classrooms.
The district would pay that rate annually plus 5.94 percent in interest to cover the 10-year municipal lease/purchase that Fisher proposed. The other two options would include all of the work proposed in the first option, but would include adding air conditioning to the upper east wing of the high school or both the upper east and west wings of the high school. Option B would cost the district a total of $70,092.28 annually and Option C would cost $98,788.73 every year, according to Fisher.
Fisher said the sooner the district selected an option and executed a contract, the sooner more of the work could be completed before the start of the school year.
Superintendent Dr. Charles Rembold inquired why costs for retrofitting the lights and boiler were not separated from the options to give the board another choice in making the decision. Fisher said the project would have to be re-engineered to give the board those totals.
“I know it was engineered this way, but it can be re-engineered and redesigned,” Rembold said. “I would rather see something done than nothing, and I would rather give this board as many options as possible.”
Board President Ellen Hildebrand said the board was not thinking seriously about Options B or C because air conditioning the high school could be reimbursed by the state when a renovation to the high school occurs, an action the district hopes will take place in 2005.
Fisher said the company has a 120-day “substantial completion” requirement in its contract, so the sooner the board acted, he said, the sooner work could begin.
When it came time for a vote, a motion made to accept Option A, failed because only four votes came in favor of the expenditure. Directors Mark Grimes, Donna Shaffer and Mark Pochron voted against the measure, while Donna Brown and Cecil Burton were absent Monday.
Pochron said he voted against the contract because he felt the work could be done in-house and for less cost.
“I believe where the district is financially, it would be more prudent for us to entertain doing the lighting in-house without the borrowing of money,” he said.
“We have over $900,000 in a money market account and our staff is qualified to do the project. The district would realize savings immediately, not 10 years from now.”
He said it “doesn’t make financial sense” for the district to borrow the money and pay 6 percent interest while the money market account is earning 3 percent interest.
Though the motion failed, Director Remo Bertugli asked that the motion be re-examined next month and asked maintenance supervisor Allen Grimm to attend the August legislative meeting.
In other matters, directors voted to reopen the 2002-03 budget and agreed to call a budget committee meeting to discuss how the extra revenue from the state will be spent.
Business manager Michael Conte said the district received almost $100,000 more from the state than had been budgeted, and that money could be spent on lowering the millage rate, restoring programs that had been cut or payment of debt service.
He did not give directors a recommendation as to which of the three options the district should choose, but reminded them that the budget must be resubmitted to the state Department of Education within 60 days. Directors approved a budget that kept the tax rate at 89.6 mills last month.
Hildebrand said the meeting of the budget committee will be advertised and the revised spending plan should be up for board approval at their Aug. 19 meeting.