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05/19/2020 12:00 AMThe town approved $1.6 million in bonding for a revamping of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at Baldwin Middle School last week, following a special process as authorized by an executive order by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.
Issues with heating in the school building have at times been severe, and date back at least two years, according to Superintendent Dr. Paul Freeman. The current HVAC system in place is the original that was installed when the school was built in the 1970s, according to Freeman.
The plan is to have the project completed over the summer, town officials said.
Normally, the bonding question would have been voted up or down by residents alongside the annual budget referendum, according to town officials. Due to the cancellation of that referendum, the item was instead approved by the Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Board of Finance (BOF) in separate votes.
A special virtual town meeting was also held specifically to discuss the issue, after legal counsel suggested the town include that step as part of the process, according to BOF Chair Mike Ayles.
The executive order cited by the town specifically allows the town to conduct in-person meetings or voting procedures on such bonding issues, as long the town “first consults with local or state public health officials and conducts such meeting, approval process, or referendum in a way that significantly reduces the risk of transmission of COVID-19.”
First Selectman Matt Hoey cited a letter from Health Director Dennis Johnson that advised against any such meeting as grounds for having the project approved the way it was, by votes of the BOS and BOF.
The special virtual town meeting was added on advice from the town’s bond counsel, Matt Ritter. Ritter also serves as the majority leader in the Connecticut House of Representatives.
The executive order requires any project that is approved in this way to be an urgent matter that through its passing, will “avoid endangering public health and welfare, prevent significant financial loss, or that action is otherwise necessary for the protection of persons and property within the municipality.”
Having the special town meeting showed that Guilford was seeking to “adhere to a normal process” as much as possible, according to Ritter, and also created an opportunity for town officials to lay out their reasoning as to why the Baldwin project met those urgent criteria.
According to Freeman, the Baldwin project is actually in its second phase, with the first having been completed last year. If the second phase was not completed this summer, Freeman said the BOE would anticipate a “significant cost increase” with the project due to losing out on bond commitments.
Two other bonding projects the schools had planned to ask for are being put off until November, or whenever the town is able to hold a vote for residents, according to Freeman.
At the virtual town meeting, Freeman detailed the ordeal of having five consecutive school days without heat in Baldwin during the winter, with students wearing coats, hats, and gloves as maintenance staff tried to repair the aging system.
As recently as this past winter, Baldwin has struggled to heat certain rooms consistently, according to Freeman.
The planned upgrade of the Baldwin system is also part of an overall contract the town signed with HVAC company Johnson Controls in 2018, according to Freeman. That contract, called an Energy Performance Contract, involves the energy company fronting the cash for infrastructure upgrades and being paid by the town through savings created by those upgrades.
Freeman told the Courier that delays to the Baldwin project would push back the date when those savings started coming in for the whole town.
“Especially in what this economy is turning into, we don’t want to lose a year of generating those savings,” he said.
A handful of residents weighed in via email on the bonding project, with at least two expressing concerns about taking on increased debt and expenses in the current time of economic uncertainty, and at least two other comments expressing a similar sentiment during the virtual town meeting.
First Selectman Matt Hoey said that the focus of the BOS was on ensuring that when students get back to regular classes, they will not have to worry about 600 students losing more school time if there had to be a closure due to lack of heating.
“That is the condition that the HVAC system is in,” Hoey said.