New Haven’s school board thought it was nearing the finish line on repairs to Conte West Hills School’s long-shuttered pool. Instead, it learned last week that getting the pool back online will require another $343,847 — more than doubling the cost of the original repair contract. The additional work, recommended last Tuesday by the Board of Education Finance Operations committee, would bring the total cost of the pool’s mechanical repairs to $594,034. District leaders said in recent months they discovered that the pool’s dehumidification system also needs to be replaced. That additional bill for Conte’s pool will take at least 20 weeks to complete. The amended contract will next head to the full Board of Education for a final vote Monday. That’s the latest with Conte’s pool, one of two city-school pools that has been offline for years. The other pool unusable to students and the community is at Wilbur Cross High School. The school district has a total of five pools; three were active this summer. The Finance Operations Committee recommended the latest pool-repair contract change order at meeting on Zoom on Tuesday. The change order is for the removal of the existing dehumidification and condenser, installation of a new Desert Aire Swim Aire unit and condenser, replacement of the pneumatic hot water coil control valve, installation of a new heat exchanger and related valve components, piping extensions, window removal and reinstallation, and associated rigging, concrete, ductwork, controls, electrical, plumbing and roof flashing work. That additional work will bring the original contract of $250,187.00 by Ruotolo Mechanical to repair the balance tanks and filtration systems to a total of $594,034 — a 137 percent increase. The change order will be funded by facilities capital accounts. The original contract was approved by the full school board at its April 27 meeting. The board then approved a non-financial change order for the project at its May 26 meeting to extend the project end date into the 2026-2027 fiscal year. In a memo provided to the committee Tuesday, Chief of School Operations Paul Whyte wrote, “As the pool project progressed, it was determined the pool’s dehumidification system requires replacement; and was not included in the original scope.” “Ruotolo Mechanical, Inc. is already under contract for the Conte School Pool project and is performing mechanical work within the same project space,” Whyte continued. “Processing the HVAC replacement through the existing contract allows the additional work to be coordinated with the pool improvements already underway without further delays.” Conte West Hills School Building Manager Dennis Tondalo, who served as New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) director of facilities for two days in August before deciding to return to the building manager role, urged the school board in April to add to the project’s scope of work to ensure the job is done correctly to ensure a safe swimming space for students and the community. Tondalo, a certified pool operator, called at the time for adding replacement of the filtration system and balance tank, locker room renovations, and the repair or replacement of the HVAC and dehumidification systems to Ruotolo’s scope of work. As a result of Tondalo’s testimony, Whyte said Tuesday, “we got that scoped out so that this could be a complete job instead of having to start and stop, start using it, then stop its use again.” Board of Education member Andrea Downer asked whether the district’s previous vendor that did work on Conte’s pool before Ruotolo identified all of the repairs needed, like the broken dehumidification system, in past scopes of work. “So the initial assessment was done by this previous company, but did they identify any of this?” Downer asked. “We need to know what was in that first contract, because technically, if we paid these folks, then somebody needs to go back and get some of this money.” Whyte said he would have to search past documents for an answer. He also said “these mechanics were not in the work that was done by Chem-Aqua. I’ll go back and look over that, but this was additional work that needed to be done.” Downer concluded by asking, “Is this the actual total expected cost to reopen this pool?” Whyte responded that Ruotolo’s job will complete “all the mechanical pieces to make the pool swimmable and active” though some locker room repairs will be needed, which a different company would do. “But for the mechanicals of the working pool, yes,” this is the final step. Before the full board votes on the latest change order on Monday, Downer and committee Chair Matt Wilcox requested that Whyte prepare a memo explaining what previous work was done on the pool to confirm that the district did not pay a past vendor for doing this work if it wasn’t actually done. Wilcox also asked when the pool would open after the work is complete. Whyte estimated the project has at least a 20-week lead time but said he will offer a project timeline from the purchase order process to installation at a later date. “So spring, hopefully?” Wilcox said. “Yes,” Whyte responded. The post $343K Change Order Advances For Conte School Pool Repairs appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less