Norwood School Committee Approves Capital Outlay Project Requests

NORWOOD, MA - The School Committee voted 5-0 at its meeting last week to approve several capital requests from Director of Buildings and Grounds Paul Riccardi so they will be able to move forward to the upcoming Town Meeting as part of the capital outlay plan.

Total project cost estimates come to $2,969,879 for the next two years, with another $2,486,413 for the following three years. This is actually lower than requested in previous years, Riccardi said.

The “big-ticket item” would be the replacement of the high school’s track and field, which already has outlived its projected lifespan of a decade by a year.

“We had to do a lot of work to the field this early spring because there’s some regulations about how hard the field should be,” he said. “When it gets to a certain numerical grade, you can’t play on it.”

Before the renovations, the field was “one point away from failure,” according to Riccardi.

The track also is “in really tough shape,” Riccardi said, with the top layer worn away in several spots.

“People who have come in to look at it said that it looks like the second layer of finishing was never put on it from the beginning,” he added. “It’s 10 years old, but it looks like it’s 20 years old.”

He learned at a meeting earlier that day that the proposed replacement will cost approximately $1,850,000. This includes a new field, a new track and a new lighting and its infrastructure. Schematics should be ready next month. If approved, the project could be done in the spring and “up and running” for the new school year.

An emergency access road also would be requested. Also under consideration for the track and field would be a concession stand, but Riccardi called that “a work in progress” which may be cost prohibitive.

Riccardi also proposed some school renovations to help conserve power usage and benefit the environment.

“What we’re trying to do is still tackle some low-hanging fruit vis-a-vis energy savings,” he explained.

To conserve water, Riccardi proposed the installation of low-flow toilets at four of the district’s elementary schools. Their tanks will hold 1.5 gallons, compared to the current models with contain about twice that much water. Battery-controlled sinks, such as those currently used at the high school, also are planned.

“There’s a considerable financial impact there, and also conserving water,” he said, adding that this is one of three energy projects that he hopes can be completed this fiscal year.

Not included for these modifications were the Balch and Callahan elementary schools because their pipe systems are too old to accommodate the newer model toilets, Riccardi explained.

The second project proposed for this year is to install LED lights in all of the elementary school corridors to replace the old fluorescent lights. The LED lights “can reduce energy usage by about a third,” he said.

“They are probably on in the school longer than any other lights,” Riccardi added, noting they are generally used from about 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

He also noted that some of the solar panels on the high school need to be replaced, at a cost of about $25,000.

“Two and a half years ago we had a tremendous windstorm which almost blew two rows of panels off the roof,” he said. About a year later, the roof membrane failed, necessitating the removal for two additional rows of panels.

“For $25,000, we could reinstate the solar panel farm that’s up there,” Riccardi said. While it may not reduce electric consumption by much, the solar panels are environmentally efficient and had previously been used by engineering students.

The parking lots are in “deplorable condition,” he noted, because many of them have been there since the schools were built. Riccardi hoped that two schools could be resurfaced each year until all are complete.

Also on the horizon will be work on the elementary schools. When the study was being conducted for the proposed new middle school by architectural firm Ai3, a town-wide school building assessment also was completed. Riccardi said there were “a staggering number” of issues that need to be addressed at a projected cost of $46 million over the next several years.

“The School Department is going to be asking the town for a lot of money over the next five to seven years,” Riccardi said. “That’s why this request this year, I think, is pretty modest,” Riccardi said.

To view the entire meeting, go to http://173.13.93.5:1500/Cablec..., provided by Norwood Community Media.