Ligonier Valley eyes high school ventilation project, to rebid ball field upgrade

Ligonier Valley School District’s plan to replace outdated high school ventilation units is getting a state funding boost, though not as much as project planners sought.

Meanwhile, the district is rethinking its design for updating the school’s baseball field after an initial round of bids were rejected as too costly.

The school board this week selected East Hills Engineering to provide design and construction oversight services for the ventilation project, at a cost of $58,800.

Business Manager Eric Kocsis said he hopes the project would be ready to bid by late January. “We would start construction once school is out,” he said.

Kocsis said six ventilation units at the building date from 1997 and are outmoded, lacking the ability to dehumidify exterior air drawn in during warmer months.

“It causes a little bit of a humidity problem we’ve been having,” Kocsis said. Fans were used to offset humidity this year, but the new ventilation units will provide a permanent solution, he said.

“The new technology will make it a lot better,” he said.

The school board accepted a $1 million state grant for the project — half the amount the district had requested.

Kocsis suggested seeking a base bid for replacing three ventilation units affecting areas of the school that see the most use: its classrooms, gym and cafeteria. Replacement of remaining units — one in the boiler room and two for the auditorium — could be considered with alternate bids, he said.

The grant requires a 25% district match of $250,000.

“These units were going to be scheduled for replacement anyway, so the money — the 25% match — was already set aside for this improvement at some point,” said school board President Don Gilbert.

Koscis said the local match will be drawn from a fund balance that is committed for use in capital projects and will have no impact on district tax rates.

He said the district has $6.9 million set aside for capital projects, as well as technology initiatives and future cost increases for employee health insurance and teacher retirement obligations.

Field project reassessed

The school board recently rejected bids for the ball field improvement project, which came in more than $2 million over the budget of $2.2 million.

Funding for the project includes a $1.6 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and $600,000 in district dollars.

Original plans called for alleviating a slope at the site, located in front of the school. They also included improvements for the bleachers, bathroom and scoreboard and an additional bullpen and batting cages.

Kocsis said the district is looking to trim the project cost by simplifying the field drainage system and hopes to interest more bidders by extending the original tight March deadline for the project.

Now, he said, “We hope to start construction as early as we can in late spring.”