Inman Addition Hits Punch List: Kitchen Alarm and HVAC Still Open

Inman Addition Hits Punch List: Kitchen Alarm and HVAC Still Open

The Inman Elementary project is far enough along that Superintendent Ron Lorenz is talking about punch lists instead of groundbreaking. The two items still eating the day are both in the mechanical rooms people do not see until they fail.

One is a kitchen fire-alarm heat sensor that keeps going off. The working theory is heat from equipment sitting outside the exhaust hood, not a detector that has simply gone bad. The fix might be as small as sliding appliances back under the hood. It might be the sensor. Lorenz said smart people are on it.

The other is the HVAC. It is not working the way the plan said it would. On Wednesday a crew from the manufacturer, the startup team, and factory technicians were in the building trying to name the problem before the weather turns. The district has already been down this road. An August 12 special meeting approved replacing an Inman HVAC compressor. Cool September air is buying time. Lorenz does not want to cancel school again because the building cannot keep air.

The rest of the Inman report was loose ends — the ordinary last five percent of a job that looks finished from the parking lot. Lorenz did not use the administrative report to promise more classrooms. When Aaron heard enrollment talk and jumped to expansion, Lorenz shut it down. Cautiously optimistic. No big bump. Please not another hit. Plus or minus five students would be joyous. Iowa now averages a fall count and a January 15 count for next year’s per-pupil aid. That is a headcount problem, not a wing-addition announcement.