posted by Mike Madison at 10:42 AM /
Every taxpayer and future taxpayer in Mt. Lebanon should be paying attention to conversations about the renovation, reconstruction, and/or replacement of Mt. Lebanon High School.
There is a blog maintained by the School Board that is dedicated to the topic, though the blog isn't quite up-to-the-minute with news and updates.
Two School Board members, Jo Posti and James Fraasch, have personal blogs, and they have more detailed and recent notes (and opinions) about the renovation process.
James Fraasch's post from Thursday, August 14. It begins:
There is a blog maintained by the School Board that is dedicated to the topic, though the blog isn't quite up-to-the-minute with news and updates.
Two School Board members, Jo Posti and James Fraasch, have personal blogs, and they have more detailed and recent notes (and opinions) about the renovation process.
James Fraasch's post from Thursday, August 14. It begins:
On Monday the Board heard an update from the architects about the progress being made on the high school renovation project. We also heard from a number of residents regarding the project. One resident's comments in particular hit home with me. One of the things I have been wondering about is how the costs for certain options of this project seem to be out of touch with what was presented to us by Dejong during their research just over 18 months ago (Dejong final summary was released in January 2007).Jo Posti's post from Tuesday, August 12. A snippet:
A public comment by Rob Papke, PTA Chair of Environmental Concerns, led to an interesting discussion about solar energy, an option currently down-played in the architects' options available. While there may be issues surrounding solar energy for a building whose lowest usage is during sunny months, this, along with many other options, is one that the master design team has discussed and will continue to investigate. Mr. Remely stated that his goal is to cut our current utility cost by 40 percent, a number that would be significant with the high school's utility bills representing the largest share of the pie among our ten buildings. The feasibility of wind turbines, solar energy, geothermal energy and energy credits is still yet to be determined but should not, in my opinion, delay our decision-making regarding a concept. As we were reminded last night, there will be much refinement and many iterations of the final plan for the high school before we actually break ground. The task before us is to choose one and work with our architect, CM and master design team to refine the plan, address any issues and "value engineer" the concept to a plan acceptable in terms of final scope and price.
Labels: high school renovation
3 Comments:
With respect to Jo Posti's commentary on environmental options, two points come to mind:
(1)Has the school board and architects considered the impact of net metering? In Jo's post she noted that the high school is not in use during the sunniest months. However, if the high school building was utilizing solar panels and net metering, it would essentially be reducing the buildings energy bill year-round, or even generating a net credit on the energy bill.
(2)Why not make it a design requirement to make the building environmentally smart? I am distressed to hear that the architechts are downplaying the idea. If we make it a design requirement we could be looking at significant energy savings for many years to come.
Given that energy costs are projected to rise as much as 60% in PA next year, shouldn't we make the use of solar a design requirement rather than just a consideration? We are talking about a way to save tax payers $$ over the long term.
Mr. Nolan,
Mr. Remely has brought up the subject of roof solar panels used to generate extra electricity in the summer. The PDE provides extra financial incentives to implement green designs based on LEED certification and Green Globes. Look into the cost savings, based on:
Extra cost of solar panels +
Financing charges of the costs +
Energy Savings -
Extra PDE reimbursement -
The HS renovation makes me think of the Rolling Stones ---
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You get what you need
Post a Comment
<< Home