School Building - 10-26-22 DPW Response (with 22-1417, 22-1418, 22-1715, 22-1716,22-2962, 22-3892 — File 22-0186

CITY OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS KATJANA BALLANTYNE MAYOR JILL LATHAN ERIC WEISMAN DPW COMMISSIONER DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS 1 Date: October 26, 2022 RE: SBM Committee Meeting School Buildings - Maintenance Order 22-1715 That the director of Infrastructure and Asset Management and the Commissioner of Public Works provide an update on preventive maintenance plans for all school buildings. This work is in progress between the two departments. An update will be provided once available. Order 22-1716 That the Commissioner of Public Works and the Chief Information Officer provide an update on ongoing issues with Wi-Fi services for all schools This falls under IT and is not in the purview of DPW. Order 22-1417 That the Commissioner of Public Works provide quarterly reports to this Council’s School Building Facilities and Maintenance Special Committee on any major repairs and 311 work orders pertaining to structural, building envelope, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection or fire alarm systems in school buildings. All Schools: • Boiler inspections completed last week of September. • During the colder months we anticipate receiving multiple “too hot / too cold” 311’s. DPW will address those as they come in. SHS: • Installed new electronic gas control valves in boiler room Brown: • Completion of new water bubbler installation • Replaced bathroom faucet controls with push button style which will conserve resources.

CITY OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS KATJANA BALLANTYNE MAYOR 2 WHCS: • Rewired and installed additional circuits to support the needs of the lab. Healey: • Repaired 10 Unit Ventilators before the start of heat season. • Replaced and installed two fire tubes on one of the boilers. WSNS: • Repaired 4 pneumatic Unit Ventilators in preparation of the heating season. • One boiler is currently (temporarily) down while a hole in the sidewall of the door is repaired. The other boiler is running as designed and provides sufficient heat for the school. Kennedy: • Removed the temporary chiller. Order 22-1418 Ongoing That the Commissioner of Public Works report on planned repairs for the East Somerville Community School facade failures. Additional information on the planned repairs will be available subsequent to the repair quote being received. Order 21-2962 That the Commissioner of Public Works report on all school building deferred maintenance projects completed following the ventilation system assessment, proposed completion dates, and strategies to assess needs for future deferred maintenance projects This request will require coordination with IAM. Additional time is needed for DPW and IAM to jointly respond to this request. Resolution 21-3892 That the Administration respond to educator and parent concerns regarding building maintenance and capital improvements for the Winter Hill School. The concerns expressed in this letter were addressed and resolved by DPW. Below is additional information to expand on what happened then and how DPW is addressing the issue moving forward:

CITY OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS KATJANA BALLANTYNE MAYOR 3 The Winter Hill Chiller had a leak that was apparently ignored or overlooked by the previous HVAC contractor. Their method of dealing with this was to simply add more refrigerant and oil at the beginning of each cooling season. Our new contractor JCC, makes proper repairs to our equipment. This project was expected to take one week to complete, which would have kept us on schedule for our normal June 1st cooling season start up. JCC started recharging the system only to discover another leak. This time in the shaft seal. This was undoubtedly the major cause of the delay as the part was not readily available and was a “long lead time item”. In the meantime, DPW installed more than 18 indoor air conditioners and modified windows to allow for proper exhaust. We also strategically placed box and post mounted fans throughout. This provided relief in most areas, but certainly not all. The DPW has reacted to this by starting the turnover process a month earlier than normal. For instance, this year we will start prepping our systems in April.