About $85,000 worth of Berg fixes approved

Much discussion has taken place among Newton Community School District’s Board of Education members within the past few years about maintenance and equipment issues at the Berg Complex. Those discussions have even led to the district pushing for a $26 million bond for a new school.

In the meantime, the building’s components continue to age, and at Monday’s NCSD board meeting, two major HVAC-related items at the complex at a combined cost of about $85,000.

The board unanimously awarded a bid contract to Warnick & Reeves Mechanical of Newton to supply and install three new condensing units and evaporator coils at a cost of about $48,000 and an automation system from Siemens for $37,000.

Maintenance Supervisor Jack Suttek described both as essential “band-aid fixes,” though the condensers are not built-in, and could be moved to another building later if the Berg Complex is torn down and replaced.

“We should be able to move the condensing units and coils to another building as needed, once the bond passes,” Suttek said. “But the control systems are hard-wired into a specific building. We might be able to salvage a few parts, but 90 percent of the controls we will not be able to recoup.”

The public is set to vote on a bond issue in September to replace the facility with an all-new, modern building on the same site, with Suttek’s staff continuing to tinker with and replace hardware at the school while new construction would be taking place. The projects approved this week are part of what has been an ongoing struggle to keep up with a difficult building to maintain.

While the Berg Complex, built in 1963, is far from being the oldest structure among Newton’s seven buildings that will house students next year, the additions and other modifications through the years to the single-story facility have stretched it to its limits in many ways. The long, tube-like duct work and electrical systems weren’t built to sustain the demands of modern electricity needs or the staff and student expectations of temperature control.

The condensers were installed in 1984 and don’t have an infinite life, Suttek said.

“We have three condenser units that are all dead in the water,” Suttek told the board. “We’ve talked about this a few times throughout the school year, trying to get as much as we could out of the old machinery. They only have a shelf life of 15 to 20 years.”

Suttek said the automation system services the main furnace unit, which is not being replaced at this time. The system is not a large, heavy unit, but rather a series of sensors, thermostat controls, dampers and activators that would look like dozens of small parts if set out all at once.

Mold wasn’t the first thing Suttek mentioned, but he did volunteer at Monday’s meeting that maintaining air quality in the complex is certainly part of preventing the mold that’s been found in a Berg classroom as recently as last summer.

“I don’t want to have incidents with mold again,” Suttek said. “It’s already a safe building, but this purchase will help maintain safety and comfort with all the students and new faculty that are going into the complex.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com