NEW MILFORD – A decision for the Board of Education to foot the bill for improvements to the HVAC system at the high school was the source of debate between members of two town board who felt the town should have shared the costs.
After a fire at the high school last December, the New Milford Public Works looked at the air-handling system in the New Milford High School wood shop and found the air returned from the wood shop was “through an open duct into other parts of the building,” Public Works Director Jack
The HVAC system doesn’t meet current building codes and needs to be modified, Healy said. He said the town’s Municipal Building Committee asked the firm Silver Petrecelli to do a study of needed repairs in the wood shop’s HVAC system.
The Board of Education submitted a request to the Town Council and Board of Finance to use $233,980 from the school board’s capital reserve account to fund the proposed HVAC improvements. At the Town Council’s Nov. 28 meeting, New Milford Mayor Pete Bass said this amount would bring the project “up to where it was, so students can use the wood shop.”
Councilwoman Alexandra Thomas voiced concerns about the school board taking this amount from its capital reserve instead of sharing the expense with the town.
“I was under the impression that there was going to be an attempt to begin a relationship of sharing some things,” Thomas said.
Bass said the town has already shared the responsibility of capital needs for the high school as well as repairing the roof at Sarah Noble Intermediate School and at the high school roof after the fire in July; installing a new track and field at the high school; and purchasing new athletic and band equipment.
“I think we’ve done a great job collaborating with our Board of Education and making sure we try as best we can to provide the capital that’s needed for these buildings,” Bass said.
“We all need to partner up,” he said. “We all need to put money into this building to make it so that it is safe and habitable and something that we can be proud of.”
The Town Council approved the funding request from the school board for the wood shop’s HVAC system in a vote of 5-2 with one abstention. Council members Sal Rynkiewicz, Paul Murphy, Katy Francis, Doug Skelly and Tom Esposito voted in favor, while Alexandra Thomas and Hilary Ram voted against it, and Mary Jane Lundgren abstained.
At the school board’s Nov. 11 meeting, board member Tom O’Brien said he was uncomfortable that the expense of funding the wood shop’s HVAC improvements had fallen “entirely on the shoulders of the Board of Education.”
“It was the town that built the school – the town owns all of the buildings. … I would like to see the town step up to help us with this.” O’Brien said.
The need for the capital improvement was caused by collateral damage from the fire, board member Pete Helmus said. The school had a “functioning workshop” before the fire, he said.
However, Helmus said, “It’s time for the board to move forward. Whatever the town does is the right thing for our students. … It’s an improved HVAC situation for the wood shop; it’s actually safer to bring it up to code today than it was back then.”
Helmus added that he believes the town has culpability in the project since “the roof fire was under town direction.”
Board Chairperson Wendy Faulenbach told the school board that it had no other funding options because the capital reserve fund “is the only budget the board has to work with.”
“I’m disappointed that nothing’s been done up to this point, but I think it’s imperative we move now so we have a wood shop functioning in the next school year,” Helmus said.
