NEVC's remodeling project to begin soon

An Overland Park engineering company expects to start work by the end of July and finish refurbishing Northeast Vernon County Schools by the resumption of classes Sept. 1.

The NEVC School Board recently told Energy Solutions Professionals to seek bids for installing new school building and gymnasium lights and programmable thermostats and for insulating buildings and caulking or filtering windows in the schools in Walker and Schell City.

Board Secretary Jeanne Hoagland said Tuesday that ESP Marketing Director Tim O'Kane was asked June 30 to use as many Vernon County area contractors as possible. "We are not obligated to exercise every option," Hoagland said.

"We provided them several years' worth of data on our peak consumption demands on electricity and propane and if it followed typical trends.

"The upgrades will reduce costs and improve operations, which we desperately need."

Hoagland said O'Kane proffered an investment grade audit summary of existing energy consuming systems and sketched parameters within which the desired savings can be achieved. "They looked at the entire picture," she said.

"They will come back with bids and we'll take it from there. We hope to get started within 30 days. They have contractors they've worked with, but we have made suggestions for area contractors and would like to keep the work as local as we can."

NEVC Superintendent Charles Naas has said the panel hopes to get the debt retired within 15 years by financing it with a Kansas City area bank and continuing to pay MFA Oil & Propane of Nevada, the Schell City and Walker city water departments and Kansas City Power & Light during the contract's life.

Naas said the district will give ESP the difference between what it usually spends for energy and if the lesser amounts derived are not enough to pay the debt, ESP will make up the difference. The three-story junior high-high school is in Walker and the one-story elementary school in Schell City.

Naas said in a Tuesday e-mail that the district "will be seeking roof replacement on its own, not as part of the overall ESP project."

ESP CEO Jeff Flathman said last Friday that the cost hadn't been determined, but a plan entailing re-roofing the Walker building put it at about $300,000. "Tim's objective last night was to allow the board to investigate and determine which option they wanted to go forward with," Flathman said.

"We will request proposals from banks we've worked with. We have time to put together a plan for getting it done. We don't do the wrench-turning ourselves. We ask for bids and then ask the contractors to man up and meet the requirements. If they need to add manpower, they do what it takes to get things going."

For example, Flathman said the thermostats and lighting "will be two weeks' work.

"I'm confident we will get it all done this summer," he said.