11/12 BOE Planning Committee Meeting

BOE Planning Committee Meeting

Friday 11/12/2010 7:30am Humiston Building 

AGENDA

1.      Current Projects Update

·        Cheshire High School Auditorium

·        Dodd Kitchen

·        Norton Windows

2.      Review of Capital Budget Funds

3.      Locker Room Project*

4.      Track Replacement and Synthetic Turf Project*

5.      Technology Update

Some thoughts about the CHS Boys' Locker Room:

The planning committee has been researching what's needed to resolve the issues at the CHS Boy's locker room. Two months ago, the planning committee took a tour of the CHS Boys' Locker room with Vincent Masciana and Steve Trifone. My regret during that tour was that I didn't have my camera with me...pictures definitely tell a better story. My initial reaction to the condition of the locker room: simply disgusting. My reaction after our visiting the locker room: Why has it taken so long to get moving on this project? I plan on revisiting the locker room again, taking pictures this time, and posting them here.

In my opinion, the CHS Boy's locker room issues consist of the following:

• No ventilation is in place either exhaust/intake. There's no air circulation and certainly no fresh air making it's way into the locker room. I think that installing a rudimentary fan exhaust system in the existing glass block windows would make a world of difference in ventilation. We need to exhaust the damp, humid, hot air out of the locker room at a minimum especially during the late spring/summer and early fall months.

• Small confined space. There's just not enough space to accommodate the lockers needed. The locker room is located under ground, basement, at CHS. There's a set of stairs that leads in/out of the locker room from one of the outside parking areas. My initial thought was to tunnel out into the parking lot, sacrificing a few of the parking spots in order to increase the size of the locker room. But Vincent reminded me that we don't know what's lurking in or behind the foundation that may pose problems for us such as the location of sewer and electrical lines. It could end up being a costly option.

• Drainage pipe issue. Perhaps the major issue is the size of the drainage pipe utilized by the shower area in the locker room. Engineers, administration and various members of the TC such as Jimmy Sima have told me the pipe is too small in diameter because it's shared between the boy's locker room showers/sewer and upstairs showers.

• Lockers: The lockers are in terrible disrepair if not beyond repair. In addition to there not being enough lockers, we need lockers that will hold up over time.

• Configuration: The coaches desk/office is wide open and sits in between the entrance, locker and shower areas. However, there's no space for a true coaches office without either sacrificing locker room space or making the area bigger.

• Regarding the ceiling...there are numerous missing ceiling tiles, stained ceiling tiles and very clear view of all of the concrete, steel, electrical lines and plumbing running over head. I'm not certain if ceiling height is an issue but the upkeep of the ceiling needs to be addressed. Ceiling tiles come down after accumulating moisture/humidity and not necessarily related to student vandalism.

• ADA Compliance: We don't have ramps for ADA compliance. More than likely, ramps will need to be installed in lieu of the stairs in the parking lot entrance. It's unclear if we need additional ramps on the side of the locker room leading into the high school although we have stairs there too.

The administration believes that capital money approved for the project is not enough to cover the upgrade. This may very well be true, however, we don't have specs or a floor plan for the renovation. Without this, it's difficult to estimate the true cost of the project.

My advice to the team was to determine the issues with the locker room, prioritize them and come up with a plan/spec based on the funding we do have in place. Some want a field house installed, as an alternative to renovating the locker room, among other benefits. However, I don't think that the taxpayers have an appetite for building a field house at CHS in the near future. It may be a great idea but the cost/benefit & long term cost estimates/savings analysis never happened. I'm hesitant to put forth anything that hasn't had the proper due diligence performed on it. Plus, it can easily be a $1M+ effort.

And while our options and funding is limited for the boys locker room I think it's prudent that we clearly define the issues, how to resolve them and...specs with the approach that we need to make the locker room work based on the capital we do have in place.