Oswego SD 308 OKs $448,000 contract for school building projects

Oswego School District 308 Director of Operations Rob Allison

OSWEGO – Oswego SD 308 is pushing ahead with a program to catch up on school building repairs and the replacement of mechanical systems.

The Oswego School Board on June 6 approved a contract for replacing the cooling towers at The Wheatlands Elementary School and Thompson Junior High School, along with refurbishing the existing cooling tower support framing at Bednarcik Junior High School.

The contract for the work was awarded to C. Acitelli Heating Co. of Villa Park, the low bidder at $448,000.

The projects are just the latest in an ambitious six-year capital improvement program designed to deal with deferred maintenance of school buildings.

In January, the school board authorized an $18 million bond issue for the work.

With the latest contract award, the board has approved nearly $5 million in expenditures for the various projects, including replacement of the roof at Oswego High School and new boilers and chillers at both OHS and Oswego East High School.

The work approved by the board June 6 focuses on cooling towers, which are essentially heat-exchangers that remove heat from the water that is discharged from a condenser.

The cooling tower at Thompson is 24 years old and was last refurbished in 2009, district Director of Operations Rob Allison told the board.

The Wheatlands tower is 20 years old and received maintenance work in 2015, Allison said, noting that the average life expectancy of a cooling tower is 20 years.

At Bednarcik, the cooling tower’s support structure elements are to be rebuilt.

Board member Alison Swanson noted that the other six contractors submitted bids considerably higher than Acitelli’s. Three were for more than $600,000, with the high bid surpassing the winning bid by $200,000.

Swanson asked Allison if the contractor might run into problems and seek change orders that would increase the cost.

Allison indicated that this is unlikely because the work involves primarily the straightforward replacement of the cooling towers and that the cost of these mechanical systems are known. However, he said supply-chain issues remain a concern.

Swanson also asked Allison about the cooling tower at Boulder Hill Elementary School. Allison responded that replacement of the tower at that school is next on the district’s list.

District 308 Chief Financial Officer John Petzke said that the district is required to spend 85% of the $18 million in bond revenue within three years and all of the rest after six years.

For the typical home valued at $300,000, the bond sale will result in an additional $54 a year on the owner’s property tax bill over the life of the six-year repayment period, Petzke said.