Lorenz: Inman Addition Is Done Except the Air

Lorenz: Inman Addition Is Done Except the Air

 

 

The Inman Elementary addition is down to a punch list, Superintendent Ron Lorenz told KCSI on Monday. The piece still open is the HVAC system. He said it will not cost the district extra. It has been an inconvenience.

Lorenz hopes stage one, the building’s primary cooling, is running Monday. Stage two, the unit that takes over when it is very hot, is hoped online by Wednesday. Temperatures this week are expected back into the 70s and 80s.

What broke

The district had been quoted a 16-week lead time on the unit. It arrived sooner than expected, and the district pushed to get air on before school. There was no air conditioning in the building all summer. Windows were open. The air was heavy.

Lorenz said the install was hurried. He said some piping may have been misconfigured, and that some of the trouble looks like ordinary mechanical failure. He also said the older backup system, the one they were counting on, lost a compressor. The building was without air at the point they needed it most.

Crews were on site last week. On Wednesday they replaced condensers and a cooling coil. Lorenz credited Bruce Construction and Johnson Controls, including work in the rain. With the equipment and piping in, the remaining work is to evacuate the system, pressure-test it, charge it, and run the startup so the controls read the components.

The part that is working

Take the air out of it, Lorenz said, and the project is what they wanted. The cafeteria is larger. The noise is down. Students are not sitting on top of one another. Discipline referrals are down.

The secure entry is in. Visitors come to the office first. The office area is more welcoming, with room to meet. The district had been saving for that entry for a long time.

“The building itself, beautiful,” Lorenz said. “I don’t think people have had an opportunity to really sit back and enjoy it.” Staff and students have been hot. He credited them for getting through it, and said the building will look different once the air is on.

Town & Country Sanitation sponsored Monday’s conversation.