Jacob Hurla of 360 Energy Engineers — a Lawrence-based engineering firm — appeared with his colleagues before the USD 257 board of education on Monday.
“I know you guys dealt with a school bond issue a few years ago,” said Hurla, understating an issue that galvanized huge portions of the community in the fall of 2014, before eventually being voted down in the November election. “And so what we’re hoping to do is help you figure out how to proceed from here.”
The team from 360 performed a “preliminary engineering analysis” of all of the district’s schools and presented its results — with recommendations and cost estimates — to the board on Monday.
The study focused mainly on the district’s aging heating and cooling systems, but also addressed its need for more efficient lighting and various building envelope improvements (i.e. sealed windows and doors).
The recommendations were, in most cases, for the complete overhaul, upgrade or replacement of the buildings’ HVAC systems as well the installation of new automation programs to control the new temperature systems.
Doug Riat, the company’s vice president of business development, spoke last and encouraged the school board to reach out to a firm “that could help you promote the bond issue, someone who can go out into the community and validate the need for the district. Knowing that you’re going to go out for a bond in order to finance these improvements, I think that’s what the community needs to hear. If they’re going to support a bond issue, what is the community going to get out of these improvements?”
BOWLUS Fine Arts Center executive director Susan Raines announced the award of a $200,000 grant from the Sunderland Foundation (the Sunderland family owns Ash Grove Cement). “We’re thrilled to be able to get that grant,” said Raines. “It’s designated for the Fine Arts Plaza” — a project to beautify and improve accessibility on the Bowlus’s east side — “and so we’ll be able to add it to the funds the Friends [of the Bowlus, Inc.] already have.”
Ken McGuffin, of the Friends committee, updated the board on the plaza’s progress, including a recent scale-back in design ambition concerning the facade of the Bowlus building itself.
“Sometimes when you shoot for a Cadillac and the cost comes in, you maybe start looking for something more affordable,” said McGuffin. “The bids came in on [our original design] and they knocked our socks off. We were looking at $1.5 million. We would love that, but we couldn’t do it.”
By cutting the roofline back from 57 feet to 41 feet — while maintaining all other projected features central to the original design — the group was able to bring the design within budget parameters.
“We’re going to continue to look for money to help us finish this project up in a way that makes Iola proud,” said McGuffin, “and in a way that makes the Bowlus a more attractive and more accessible building for patrons for years to come.”
DONNA HOUSER continues her stop-at-nothing work to improve conditions at the football stadium at Riverside Park. The ongoing, multi-part renovation project has already improved drainage issues around the stadium and executed major overhauls of the two locker rooms.
Houser told the board that she continues to fundraise for the project, and has raised, to date, more than $70,000, and is, of course, on the lookout for more, should any generous residents wish to make themselves known.
“Well, it’s been fun,” said the energetic Houser, hustling toward her next speaking engagement at the Iola city council meeting. “I never dreamed we’d get this far.”
ALLEN COUNTY Farm Bureau coordinator Debbie Bearden received unanimous approval by the board to pursue — with the aid of a $300 matching grant from the Kansas Farm Bureau — an indoor greenhouse project at Lincoln Elementary. “We want to show kids how to plant, how to water, how to make sure the plants receive enough light in order to grow their food.” Typically, said Bearden, kids are finishing the school year just as gardens are flourishing. “This way,” she continued, “students would get to see the process, to see just where it is they get their food.”
