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Date: 6/27/2022
LUDLOW – After a discussion about a feasibility study for the Town Hall and public safety complex HVAC system during a previous meeting, the Ludlow Board of Selectmen met with representatives from Tighe and Bond to discuss the next steps for both studies.
To start the discussion, Antonio da Silva, a vice president with Tighe and Bond, detailed what a study into the HVAC systems at the two town buildings would entail.
“Both of them are similar in nature in that they are an evaluation of your existing systems and then prioritizing the improvements needed and coming up with options. At the end of the day what you have is not functioning and gutting it completely may be the end result but in the interim, what is the biggest bang for your buck,” he said.
Da Silva added that patchwork would likely not be enough to repair the HVAC systems.
“These are 40-plus-year-old systems that have completely outlived their useful life, the town has gotten proposals for in kind replacement of equipment from your maintenance contractor, but the reality is replacing the existing equipment is not going to solve the functionality of the system,” he said. “Replacing it in kind, I don’t think the town is going to get what it needs, and it might not be money well spent.”
Jason Curtis, a senior project manager with Tighe and Bond, said a part of the study would include a deep dive into the systems to see how much work is required to bring them up to code.
“In both of these studies one of the things we would be acutely focused on is reviewing the ventilation side of the systems because the Town Hall was original to 1973, the public safety complex underwent a renovation in 1992, but that’s still 30 years ago and what was code then for ventilation has changed,” he said.
Curtis added that the HVAC systems at the public safety complex have a typical life span of about 20 years.
Police Chief Daniel Valadas also detailed some of the problems with the system, including potentially not meeting the requirements for holding cell inspections.
“What they do is the look at the physical structure of the cell and take the temperature of the water and the air. They expect a certain climate in there or they won’t certify them,” he said. “If we ever lost that inspection, we would have a problem.”
Valadas added that there are also issues with heating multiple parts of the building because of the way different parts of the building heat up.
“If it’s a winter day, everybody in the admin wing has to have space heaters because at night it gets hot in the front areas, so they’ll turn off the heat and you come on in the admin wing and there’s either no air exchange or it’s on but not on adequately,” he said.
In those instances, Valadas said he has to go to the front of the building to change the settings which can affect other parts of the building. “It’s a constant battle of manually doing it,” he said.
Board member Bill Rosenblum said he was on board with a complete repair and overhaul of the HVAC systems.
“To retro or Band-Aid is obviously out of the question. It needs to be done right. This is the study portion, obviously we’re going to see it later, it is what it is, and it needs to be done,” he said. “It’s 40 years on that unit that’s supposed to be 20 years and we’ve done this before with East Street School.”
Curtis added that as a part of the study Tighe and Bond would also provide information about potential grant funding for any of the repairs.
“We would identify based on the alternatives what potential utility incentives there would be for funding assistance. Mass Save has rebate programs for specific types of equipment, whether it is high-efficiency boilers or heat pump equipment, there are some financial support options we would bring to the table,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to move forward with both studies. The public safety complex study will set the town back $27,530 out of American Rescue Plan Act funds while the Town Hall study will cost $36,500, with a funding source to be determined at a later date.
The Ludlow Board of Selectmen next meets on July 12 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the July 21 edition of The Reminder.