Asbestos removal one of two major projects to be completed at New Jersey school
According to the Town Journal, removing asbestos from the basement of the Brookside School is one of two significant projects that will be undertaken this summer in the Allendale School District in New Jersey.
The other project will be to replace the HVAC in the all-purpose room located in the Hillside School, according to the news provider.
Fortunately for local residents, taxpayers will not be on the hook for the entire costs of these projects, as the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) recently announced that it will give more than $69,000 for the asbestos project through a state grant.
At a meeting on January 11, members of the Allendale Board of Education voted to have Environetics Group Architects and its environmental firm, Karl & Associates, work in conjunction to hammer out bid specifications for the asbestos abatement. The district expects the project to begin taking bids in the beginning of March, Interim Business Administrator Ruthann Quinn told the news provider.
According to board member Lynn Barsamian, the asbestos in the Brookside School has been "contained."
The total cost of the project, including the work conducted by the architect and environment company, is expected to be close to $175,000, according to Quinn. The district will reportedly use the SDA grant to fund approximately 40 percent of the project, with the district's capital reserve account providing the rest, Quinn told the news source.
The asbestos abatement project at the Brookside School follows work completed in November to repair the encapsulation material on pipes in the area. Quinn told the Town Journal that the material, which is designed to keep the asbestos on the pipes, had been falling off.
It is important that asbestos is handled with care, as the deadly mineral fibers can become airborne when the material is disturbed. The inhalation of these fibers has been proven to cause a range of serious illnesses including asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 107,000 people die each year around the world as a result of such asbestos-related diseases.
Barsamian told the news provider that the HVAC replacement in the Hillside School was originally scheduled to take place in 2012, but that date was moved up after the system's coils froze during the blizzard that occurred in late December.
For now, a heating unit has been replaced in the room as a temporary fix, and district officials are scheduled to meet with Environetics in the coming days to talk about the HVAC project, Quinn said. She added that the HVAC project would be completed using money from the capital reserve.
"We'll meet with the architect and we'll look at what we're going to do," Quinn said. "Plans need to be drawn up, specifications need to be written, we need to go out to bid, we need to see if we can get money from the state of New Jersey."
As a result of the major projects, district officials are reportedly in the process of looking for other locations for summer programs that take place at the Brookside School, according to the news provider. Barsamian said that Quinn had contacted officials at Northern Highlands to see if the facility could potentially host the Allendale Enrichment and Opportunity Program and the Brookside Summer Arts Academy.
In addition, Barsamian told the news source that replacing the wooden bleachers at Brookside and repairing the roof in the school's fifth-grade wing were two other projects that are being considered for next year. Quinn called the roof repairs "normal maintenance," the news source said.