CHENEY – Cheney Public School officials thought they had a good plan for installation of new boilers at the district’s high school this month — until a freakish winter storm arrived about three months too early.
The snow and cold that invaded the Inland Northwest this weekend and lingered into Monday forced district officials to advise parents Sunday night to have their high school students dress warmly as the building was without heat for the first part of this week. Superintendent Rob Roettger said the original plan was to have the new boilers operational by Oct. 7, a plan that even then was considered a bit risky.
“Of course you want it to be ready by the start of school, but it wasn’t,” he said.
Roettger said district officials and representatives from Lydig Construction, the contractor on the high school expansion and remodeling project, sat down and figured a way to expedite the boiler replacement. Roettger said the mechanical contractor was set to prime the system on Tuesday, Oct. 1, in order to check for leaks and any other problems that might arise, with a hoped-for operational date of Wednesday, Oct. 2 or Thursday, Oct. 3.
In the meantime it’s extra coats, gloves and hats, with any radiant heat from sun-facing windows and walls welcome. While disappointing, Roettger said it’s not unusual for schools to experience delays in starting their heating systems, noting he’s been in districts where they would lucky to have boilers running by Sept. 30 under the best of circumstances.
“Normally, that’s OK, but then we had the 100-year cold and snow,” he said. “We just can’t catch a break.”
UPDATE
In an email at press time Tuesday evening,Superintendent Rob Roettger said the contractor had been able to start the boilers and test the system Tuesday afternoon. The high school was expected to have heat when students arrived Wednesday morning.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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