The Fox C-6 School District is taking steps to fix deteriorating asphalt at the Seckman schools campus and at Rickman Auditorium and to improve energy efficiency at Lone Dell Elementary School.
Board of Education members voted 6-0 Jan. 16 to spend a total of $1,002,476 on the capital improvement projects. Board member Kenneth Woolsey was absent from the meeting.
The district will pay $832,000 to Ford Asphalt Co. in Bridgeton to replace asphalt at Rickman Auditorium, 747 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold and at the Seckman campus, 2800 Seckman Road, in Imperial, which is home to a high school, middle school and elementary school.
“I have gotten questions when I go out in the community, and we know we have a lot of asphalt needs,” Fox Superintendent Paul Fregeau. “We’ve gone through and we’ve looked at the things that are the worst, and we are trying to attack those first. We will go through and do what we can. We have millions and millions of dollars of asphalt needs throughout the district.”
The board also agreed to pay Automatic Controls Equipment Systems in Fenton $170,476 to install an HVAC control system at Lone Dell Elementary, 2500 Tomahawk Drive, in the Arnold area with the possibility of the district receiving up to $150,000 in energy rebates to offset the cost, officials reported.
“We did an analysis of our school buildings, and Lone Dell is the least efficient,” Fregeau said. “It is using the most energy per square foot.”
Asphalt
Fregeau said the asphalt work is scheduled to begin after the end of this school year and be completed before the start of the next school year.
Kevin Piel, the Fox district’s director of maintenance, said depending on weather conditions, work at the Seckman campus should be completed in seven to 10 days and work at Rickman is expected to be completed in two to four days.
He said the district does not have a record of the last time the asphalt was replaced at the Seckman campus or Rickman, but it has been at least 15 years.
“There are a lot of deep potholes throughout the (Seckman) campus,” Piel said. “There are a lot of large potholes throughout the (Rickman) lot.”
He said after the asphalt is replaced at Seckman, it will be like “driving on a cloud.”
“This will be a major improvement for the campus,” Piel said. “Parking spots, direction arrows, etc. will be repainted as well.”
He said the Rickman lot will be greatly improved as well.
Piel said his department will work with building administrators to limit disruptions for any summer programs scheduled at the Seckman campus and at Rickman.
According to school board documents, the district was able to add the Rickman asphalt replacement to this summer’s list of projects because the cost for the Seckman project was less than anticipated.
Lone Dell
Piel said installation of the HVAC controls may start by mid-February.
He said Lone Dell’s HVAC system was installed in 2013 with four more units installed in 2019 and a system installed in the new library in 2023.
Adam Rustige, Automatic Controls energy engineer, said the controls may be transferred to any new system that might later replace the existing system.
He also said the potential incentive of up to $150,000 could be collected in less than five months.
Fregeau said the district will have the option of paying Automatic Controls for the installation up front and receive reimbursements based on energy rebates earned or wait until the rebate funds are earned and pay the company the difference.
Rustige said after the rebates, the district might only have to pay $20,476.
Fregeau said if the control system generates significant savings and rebates, the district may look into installing similar controls elsewhere.
“My goal is to have all of our buildings before I leave here Energy Star rated, so we can tell our public we are using those tax dollars as efficiently as possible in each building to pay for utilities,” he said.
Rustige told the board the energy-efficiency measures will not impact the comfort level of those at the school. “If we are doing it correctly, no one knows that the savings are taking place,” he said.