By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Old buildings require maintenance. The USD 428 Board of Education approved $761,342 in repairs to Great Bend High School and Great Bend Middle School during its meeting Monday night. Assistant Superintendent John Popp said the majority of that will be spent to replace an air handler in the middle hallway of the middle school.
"That air handler is really at end of life," he said. "I think it's 25-plus years in operation. It has a lot of complexities to it to allow it to be able to service each and every room along there."
Wichita-based Innovative Groups submitted the winning bid on the projects. The air handler work will cost the district $467,806, and the board also opted to pay $143,668 to replace the ceiling and lights in that wing of the school.
"It's going to completely change how the ducting and everything works," Popp said. "They're going to be up in the ceiling a ton. It's either do a patchwork to get the ceiling to match back in, or you replace all of the ceiling and lighting - you put high-efficiency lighting, which is something we want to do in all of the buildings anyway."
The other project approved by the board is the replacement of a large boiler between the GBHS gymnasium and woodshop building. That carries a price tag of $149,850.
"It's a boiler that provides hot water to every shower and every faucet in almost all of Great Bend High School," said Popp. "You have to have a certain amount of storage and flow rate based on the number of nozzles you have."
Popp said the current boiler is always in disrepair and is inefficient for providing hot water to the school. The old boiler will be replaced by two smaller boilers.