Roger Bartz and Dave King took about a minute to swap seats between the Olentangy Board of Education’s organizational and regular business meetings Thursday night.
The move came after Bartz was elected board president for 2017 by the other members.
He said it was an honor to serve the community and its students and thanked the board for their conference and “Mr. King for his leadership.”
Mindy Patrick, who was elected to the board in November 2015, was elected vice president. She thanked King for his “mentorship.”
During the regular meeting, the school approved the financing of $7.3 million from Delaware County Bank for school energy performance contract. The state established the program in 1985 to allow school districts to make energy efficiency improvements to their buildings and use the cost savings to pay for those improvements.
This allows districts to borrow funds without having to pass a ballot issue for the authority to borrow, according to Ohio Facilities Construction Commission website. The district selects a vendor to provide a complete turnkey project to analyze existing utility bills, conduct an energy audit, propose energy conservation measures and pricing and complete the construction.
The OFCC provides a technical review and approval of proposed projects and reviews post-construction annual savings reports.
As part of the project, the board approved a $7,280,998-contract with Columbus-based H.E.A.T Total Facility Solutions to install energy conservation measures of the district’s facilities and HVAC controls.
The project’s expected annual savings in gas, electric and maintenance combined is about $1.07 million.
The board has the right to stop installation of the controls after the completion of six buildings if savings are not realized after the first three are completed.
Additionally, H.E.A.T. will pay any savings shortfalls within the first three years.
Emily Hatfield, Olentangy treasurer, said the district is not obligated the spend the full amount of money loaned from DCB and can increase payments without additional fees starting on the seventh year.
Jeff Gordon, Olentangy’s director of business management and facilities, said the project will take about two years to complete.
