001Good evening. This is the building grounds and transportation committee meeting Tuesday April 21st. We have Mrs. Payne, Mr. Payne, Anthony Lehman, Mr. Marazzi, Mr. Miranda, and Mr. Marker. And we also have Honeywell representatives here today who will be doing a presentation giving us an a project update on our ESaC projects. All right, starting with that. Let me introduce some of you that I haven't met yet. We have Mr. Carl Jackson here at Honeywell. He has a PowerPoint presentation he's going to go through and update you on what's been done today. We're going to have Mr. Carl on the floor with you. All right, thank you. Thankful to be here. I also have Matt who's the project supervisor. So he's also here to support. Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be back.
002Things are moving along. I know you've been getting weekly or bi-weekly updates and this is going to be similar information. But we will you know we're going to go through some pictures and information. All right, so I'm going to go through each of the ECMs. So because that's what you see on your progress report. A little different than we did the presentations earlier. So the lighting is right on track. We're at the we're complete in the majority of the schools and then just finishing up punch list items in some order to get exterior fixtures on the on the to finish that to get that 100% complete in the next couple months. The new LED lighting I'm sure you've seen. I feel like this room got so much bigger since the last time I was here.
003It looks great. So there's a lot of improvements. I have some you know before this small picture some after and I'm sure you've seen it as you've been in the buildings. There was one in the high school art room we did destratification fan. It was something to help improve comfort and energy savings there. That's complete. I just wanted to set the baseline here and remind you guys. Again I know you can't see this but you know I can provide it to you maybe have it already. All the equipment that we focused on and replaced as part of this project was 25 26 years old. So like as you see the different things we're going through just remember I don't have before's for everything but they were old. So there's new boiler systems installed in the
004middle and Barkley school. I guess this way. And they are 98% complete. There's some final final balancing and checkout with the pumps and there's you know the punch list items there. Looking at the new boilers here's a couple of pictures. We basically have you did have very similar boilers they were just really old and costing a lot to maintain. There's the new rooftop unit new roof section and air handling units that are going on at the middle school. The rooftop unit replacement is 85% and the air handlers are about 40. Two out of the five are complete. We still have to insulate duct work duct work to balancing finish the final controls hookups to your building management system and then the three remaining air handling units that are left will be done during the summer
005because it's a little more disruptive. So you can see some pictures here. Again when you see the air handling units I think it's interesting to know why you're replacing that. It's like a duct work box right? I don't know whether you can see it's a little gray in here. But the air handling units have a lot of components in them and they were 25 30 years old. Replacing those will help make sure your ventilation is correct and then there's less emergencies with systems. The rooftop unit at the high school at the middle school was quite an extensive operation. We changed the roof there. There were there were big cranes and the rooftop unit. It was you know a big installation. The boilers get new pumps. The chillers get new pumps. Again all that we Jerry
006was very specific and we really worked to like when we touched a system replaced we'll care all of it who's old. So you're going to be in really good shape with those systems. They're 98% final controls checkout balancing punch list items on the box. Here's some samples of some pump pictures so you can see. New chillers installed at Woodlawn and Barkley Brook schools. We still have to do 5 M&P controls work. And the building new fence at Woodlawn is is upcoming. New chillers at Barkley Brook. You can kind of see the the old and the new. Again it doesn't look like much from the outside but inside there's a lot of components a lot of things over the years that can go wrong. But you guys are getting ahead of it making sure these older
007piece of equipment are replaced. New condensing units are on site. Things will be done in the summer and they at the Woodlawn and Barkley Brook property schools. So they're not there in progress. And then the building management system there's your controls replacement and building management retro commissioning going through. Primarily the middle school and high school will help will help in influence all your control schedules and technologies kind of make sure you're on track. But the middle school had the major major controls done. We didn't have a picture of like cuz they're still in the works. But controls those are the brains of the system on the left. But we'll get into each and every unit and change the controls because they were obsolete. So as they broke they were going to have to be probably
008replaced. So now they'll all be up-to-date newest technology and communication. Every single piece of equipment basically at the middle school that's done. Building envelope this is where we tightened up your buildings. The roof and between the roof and the wall sections insulation around different doors and ceiling and that was completed last summer. Combined heat and power the design is complete. The years were procured and the work is getting to start in May. If you weren't here in the beginning this is a green technology and this basically takes a less expensive natural gas makes electricity and that electricity then feeds your school. But the heat from that process will then supplement your hot water in the school to use less energy heat your hot water. Solar [clears throat] PPA a lot of things here but a
009lot has happened but you haven't seen anything. So basically the last spring we did a PPA for solar. You had six respondents I think it was. Past solar was awarded. They completed electrical civil and structural studies for all the buildings depending if it's ground or roof panel or canopy. Submitted their interconnection to JCP&L and the utility company got their studies back. The upgrade there's some upgrades to the grid part of the high school because it's a larger solar system. So the plan will be done in a one and two approach so that some of the solar can come and be beneficial to you. Utilities will have a little time to do the upgrades you need to the grid to accommodate such a large system and then they'll come back and do the rest of the
010solar here. There will be some contract amendments to reflect the final sizes. As they do all the studies and they see possibly shading and different things each of the sizes is tweaked a little so you'll get an amendment for the sizes and then amendment to reflect that phase one two approach so you can benefit now but have the you know get the upgrades done the utility needs and then do the phase two. So the construction schedule is being developed. Final designs have been submitted for review and that's moving forward. Utility rebates we've done all the applications. We're always looking for warrants and sometimes submitting additional for you so you'll be getting that information back soon. As the work is completed post inspections will be done and then you'll be notified that utility rebates are coming.
011These these pro these rebates will be then used to pay down the debt that you took for this project in in addition to the purchase price. All right, and then the next thing we're going to be looking toward that's you know new we we've met and spoke with these school show is getting into the STEM career workshops maybe a solar ribbon cutting ceremony. We can learn about the measures that we've done with your STEM team. So we just need to have a have a conversation and decide what's the best way that we can utilize the skill sets we have at Honeywell and share them with students that might be interested in STEM career paths. There's a lot of decarbonization that's a big keyword now. That's kind of interesting to learn. Energy saving people can understand
012decarbonization is a couple more steps that might be interesting as well. So every week you do get the update that I know Jerry does share with the committee and you can see we're moving toward complete and I think we're moving along well. Do you have any questions or anything that I could have mentioned for you? I have a question. Back on slide 18 it says for the kilowatt per hour it's 0.123 kilowatts and then the solar is 0.059. Can you explain what that is? >> Oh yeah, good good catch. I put that there and I forget that I put those things there. So originally when we when we did the baseline your average utility rate for all the schools was 12 cents per kWh. The solar is going to is going to be a portion
013of the energy at each site but the energy you're going to get from the solar is going to be at 0.059 cents per kWh. So, that kind of shows what your savings is. That was That's the benefit that's coming to us part of this project. Oh, okay. So, that's we're not paying um 0.123 per less an hour. Right. You're paying like 12.3. Did I read it wrong? It was a It says 0.123. Yeah. All right, 12.3. Okay. cents. I'm sorry. I apologize for that. I apologize for that. I apologize for that. Yeah, that's when I do things without my glasses on. This is a dust ball. Sorry. Oh, yeah, cuz I was like, this is a bigger number than this number. >> Yeah, yeah. No, you're totally right. >> All right, so we're saving we're
014saving a lot so it's not a >> it's So, I just wanted like for anyone who had a question, which I made more questions, to let you know that there is is a you know, reduced cost for the solar that's going to be generated. And you know, and that is also on a reduced very good 1.5% inflate in increase every year. So, like you told me the cost were going up. One of the reasons is So, you are going to be locked in for that portion that you're making um solar on the site. Mhm. So, that's going to take a lot of the risk away from the escalation we're seeing in energy throughout. And I have a question. What is the amount of time this whole project will take, an estimate? Yeah, so I think
015>> I know you're developing the schedule, but I'm just >> Yeah, yeah, so I think we estimated about a year and 18 months. Okay. Um I think I think the team is hoping to finish up the middle of next fall. Um most of the work that's left will be done over the summer. Are there any updates to that? I don't know. Okay, so most of the work will be finished up during the summer and then maybe we'll see some punch list in the fall. But we will um you know, every time that we have a meeting or talk to Jerry, we kind of update him on where we are. We don't foresee anything going much past that. Mhm. Okay. And thank you very much for this presentation. And also it's nice to see that there's
016nothing that's behind schedule. Everything is in progress, on schedule. So, thank you very much. >> Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. Does anybody else have questions for Mr. Jack? So, just to further on what Karen was saying, so the board has contracted with Honeywell for all the items that were mentioned. Board has a separate contract or power purchase agreement, that's the PPA with Tesla Solar, that was bid separately. So, the solar work is going to start very soon. They have received all of their local building permits from Manalapan Township construction office. They have a few questions to answer on the electrical permits, those will be released at which solar installation can start. As indicated, all of the solar that was planned for the high school, currently JCP&L's grid cannot handle the full capacity. Okay. >> So,
017they've advised, build this out. As we ramp up our grid, you'll then build the second phase. Mhm. So, currently board legal counsel, Bob Blackman from Busch Law Group, is working with Tesla attorney for making a contract amendment, which will extend the project for phase two. So, phase two might not start for 18 months to 2 years possibly. Um When that starts, then you start savings on that. In aggregate, your net positive cash flow because of that delay increases by about $400,000 over the life of the project. So, that delay pushes it out. So, you will receive um you'll have a resolution for Monday night's board meeting for the board to act on the contract amendment to allow phase two to be pushed out. It's imperative that we get that pushed through now. Because what is
018driving the whole solar project and the profitability is from the previous Biden administration, that the Inflation Reduction Act, which offered great tax incentives to developers for solar. And that is what Tesla has based things on. That expires and it doesn't appear that the current administration will be renewing those um environmental subsidies. Therefore, we have to move on now. We have to modify the contract now. And the the net positive is the board will receive an excess of $400,000 in additional savings over the extended life of phase two. So, if we modify the contract now and that expires, we're still good because we modified it before it expires, correct? Correct. So, that's why it's going to be imperative that we get that resolution pushed through on Okay, understood. Yeah, and I tried to summarize the solar
019as best I could, but thank you Jared for for adding that. Thank you. So, Karen, thank you very much. And just so you know, you know, Karen talked about the scope of work. It's been happening at nights, holidays, weekends. Kudos to our own Dave and Sue, working with Matt and uh Catherine from Honeywell. They're here every night. Chris is working, staying on top of everything. It's going really well. So, kudos to you guys. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, it was nice to see everybody. And we'll be in touch about this to to stand the next step of that. And is there any >> You just put it on the table. Thank you, ma'am. All right, thank you. Okay, um the next item on the agenda is district trash and recycling bid. Yes,
020so exciting. Trash exciting. So, the contract that expired, we rebid the contract. Uh you have before you a resolution we presented at the last board meeting with the bid results. You'll see we received two bids. The low bid is Waste Management. Mhm. Uh approximately $97,900. That's what you're looking at. Now, we did not receive bids. None of the bidders bid on the compost thing, which is something we were looking at for the pilot programs for here at the high school and the middle school food service program. Um we have the ability to attempt to get prices outside of this. Uh Waste Management indicated that uh it just hasn't proven profitable for them and they weren't interested nor were the other bidders. Uh we've spoken with other school districts who have uh this program in place
021and there are some vendors who can provide us pricing for that. So, we may come back to the committee again to handle the compost thing separately. Okay. Is there a reason there's only uh just two bids? So, in the public environment, we advertise to the public and it allows anyone who is in this industry to to bid. So, I believe we had there were six or eight bidders pick up, but only two submitted. All right. And we still have and I know this has been a We still have to take the low bid. Yeah, as long as it is a qualified bid. >> Yeah, you have to take the low bid out of whatever bid comes comes in. Is it like a smaller industry? Like I I I would think that if there's a lot
022of I I I can think of you know, like Republic and you know, just off the top of my head. Yeah, so Republic is Waste Management. >> Oh, they're they're part A lot of these have combined. You don't have a lot of players left in this industry, yeah. You know, Waste Management is probably the biggest out there. Um but as you see, they came in with 15 to 20% lower than uh next bidder initially. I will tell you it is a significant increase over the previous contract. So, this previously bid in 2023. Um and the contract uh Ironically, the trash cost has gone down modestly. It's the recycling cost that has gone up significantly. Yeah. Um and talking to some of them, what they said there used to be a profitable market for them with
023recycling cardboard where they had a resale value to it. But they said now it costs them more to pick up and process cardboard than they do. That's pain. Yeah. I know that for me personally, like we always have to switch between these two companies too cuz they don't want to start raising the prices and the other ones wants you back. So, that's why Yeah. It seems like these are the two major ones for the our area. Mhm. Any other questions? Any additional questions? No. All right, moving along. Okay, the next The next one, district grounds care contract renewal. Yes, so we have a contract with Boss Landscaping. We have the ability to renew with them, so we last year we permitted to do a renewal with them. Um They are permitted to have a 2%
024increase to their base contract per year. And I will tell you they have not had an increase uh at all in the contract since 2023. Uh they are requesting the 2% increase this year as they're just starting with their fuel costs and so on. Mhm. Um So, we'll go ahead and renew with Boss Landscaping. Next year we will have to put this out again to public bid. Uh Boss has serviced the district well over the past 3 years. Good performance. They've been very responsive. And still very good price. Are they also the snow contractor? No, they're not. No, that's separate. Okay. Do they do snow? They um they bid on it, I believe, when we bid last time, but they were not successful. There's another landscaper, Custom Landscaping, who's the one who won the snow
025removal contract last time. I was wondering if if they did snow, like I would think that maybe they would give us like a a break, you know. When it was snow, it was >> I think we have a separate snow contract. Very good. I just don't think that Boss is big enough to handle magnitude of what we have. Um to get at the level some of the stuff we have, you need some real heavy equipment. A lot of these landscape contractors will do small driveways and residential homes, but for the bigger stuff, it's a little more challenging. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? No. All right, the next item is the Apple Garth bond grant budget update. Okay, so work there is proceeding well. Again, kudos to Dave cuz he's here uh they're every single
026night with um teams of ECM, who's the HEC sub contractor. They're still there working. Mhm. Uh what we're going through now as we enter into cooling season, so we'll be we're starting up the air conditioning system there. So, we went through the heating season with the new heating system over there. Um So, they're working on commissioning, punch list, and so on for that. Um Work is progressing well. The roof work, um the roof renewal approved by the committee, remember we had an issue during construction with uh the the structural section of the roof that was failing on us and we had to do some modifications. Well, that structural modification has affected the surface of the roof. You may recall we discussed this previously that we would come back when the weather was better and we
027revisit it so. About a week ago we had a site meeting and brought up the architect, the roofing contractor, and the roof manufacturer, the warranty representative who spent some time out there and we came up with a plan on how to address the roof surface drainage that has been modified by the structural thing. So, the architect is working up a sketch. We're going to add a roof drain, what are called crickets, pitching, and so on. All of this uh will be handled with an allowance on the project. Uh so, all of this will be covered under the allowance so it's not an increase to the base contract. >> Okay. Um and then the contractor and I shortly to do that and he was completely wrapped up. As we've discussed in the past, the electrical contractor
028has a legal settlement before considering so that will be at the upcoming uh meeting for resolution to close out that contract. And then we'll close out the HVAC contract and plumbing contracts. Okay. Anyone have questions on that? All right. Uh the next item is the Mill Lake school facade cleaning. I want to say that I did walk by. I guess where I go on my walk. It looks much, much better. I did notice the uh difference You got some facade for you. Um So, these are this is before and after pictures. That's before you can see kind of the dirt that's on there. That's the after I cleaned it. That's your before. >> Yes, before. Yeah. That's what it looks like on there. Side view of the ground maintenance office before. That's the other section
029right there. See this is our staff. Mhm. There. That was extremely long. Shane and Hayden and Anthony over there. Uh Shane's the one I told you about the one in the snow storm who came in Yes, Shane's here. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah, he spearheaded the operation over there with Timmy and uh Sebastian. So, both of them are maintenance guys. They had a lot of pride in the two guys and then you know, they worked over spring break so kudos to them. They really went the thousands off and uh made a difference out there. I think it it does look much, much better. Absolutely. Yeah, I I noticed it right away as soon as it was done. Like I my kids go there so and I walk to pick them up and that's the first
030thing I noticed. So, it looks it looks way, way, way, way better. It's nice and all right. Are we are we thinking about maybe doing a different color that hides the dirt a little bit better or that's not being discussed? Well, so as we talked before, we there was a proposal to do the roof. So, the roof over there is well beyond warranty and that's something next up on the roof. Okay. >> Those get uh affected or replaced. Oh, okay. >> That's why we kind of hadn't put the effort into doing some stuff that would be torn out there. But since that project has been delayed, uh you know, you can consider painting them if you want, but they will be coming out when the roof and the HVAC is done there. Okay. So. All
031right. Any questions, comments on that? No. All right. So, the last item on the agenda is our transportation update. How are we doing? We're doing well. Um we have a lot of drivers coming back that have been out. That's good. >> spring break. Um thank you by the way. They repainted the mirror gray. So, it helps with the drivers being able to make sure that they're lined up properly before they go on the road. It's been helping them out a great deal. Um I have had a few phone calls. Some people that are interested in coming on as drivers. So, I do know some of the drivers that will be retiring. So, I told them to check back with us in July. We should have small openings. And other than that, everything seems to be
032going smoothly. We're going to be doing the pilot program uh with the middle school by a few routes. In the near future, we haven't set up a date to start that. But we will be running that um bus app with the few middle school routes. Okay. So, that bus app is being piloted or not yet? >> is. Uh we just wrapped up at the elementary level and uh parents should be receiving middle school parents we selected a few routes at the middle school uh that we're going to continue to pilot with into the spring and those parents should be receiving emails uh within the next day or so about how they can uh download the app and examine uh the product uh in real time beginning um very shortly. Okay. That's good to know. Thank
033you. Any questions regarding transportation? No? All right. So, that concludes our annual annual, monthly PGT meeting. Thank you, everyone. >> Thanks. Thank you.