Energy Switcheroos Start With The Boiler

The Harp administration is looking to change the way it heats and powers government buildings from City Hall to the new police academy — at less cost to both taxpayers and the ozone layer.

The ambitious quest is laid out in a request for proposals (RFP) for a five-facility ​“design-build program.” (Click here to view the RFP.)

Firms have until Oct. 7 (make that 11 a.m. on Oct. 7) to put in their bid to oversee the remaking of heating and cooling system for City Hall and the 200 Orange St. government office building and the construction of solar panels on the roofs of the Goffe Street firehouse, the old Goffe Street Armory, and the new police training academy and soundproof indoor shooting range planned for the West Rock neighborhood.

The winning construction firm would use both architects and engineers to draw up a ​“design-build” plan to carry out the whole combined operation. That’s a trend in modern contracting, unlike in older days where a city would first pay architects or engineers to draw up plans, then hire a construction firm separately, often paying extra unforeseen dollars before a job gets finished.

Right now Chase Enterprises owns and runs a basement heating and cooling system for both 200 Orange St. and City Hall; the city pays for the energy. Its 20-year contract has technically expired. (The company refused to allow the Independent inside to view and photograph the operation, which is in a public space; city officials said they have no power to force them to.) City Controller Daryl Jones and William MacMullen, a city engineer working with him on the project, said they’re confident that a new operator can run the system more efficiently and charge the city less than the $400,000 it pays now every year. They envision an arrangement under which a private operator would have a 20 to 30-year lease for new equipment, with the city having an option to buy it at any time.

Meanwhile, the armory and Dixwell firehouse need new roofs. Under the plan, a private operator would install solar panels on part of those roofs, as well as the roof to go up over the new academy and shooting range. The city would buy the power, which would have to cost at least 30 percent less than it does now, Jones said. ​“That’s the win-win. That has to be achieved, or the deal won’t happen.” Unused electricity would be sold back to the grid for additional savings.

The armory sits empty right now. As part of the plan, Jones said, the city would prepare the first floor to serve as storage space for old files from the city health, education, and public works department. The city now spends around $600,000 a year to lease space for storage for those files as well as other items, said MacMullen (pictured). ​“We’ve had this armory sitting there for four years with nothing going on” while shelling out all the storage money. He estimated it would cost around $28,000 to prepare to use the armory space instead. (The top floors would remain available for public uses.)

In an ideal world the city would make those improvements and own the equipment itself. But the city has lots of deferred maintenance to catch up on, and lots of roads and bridges to fix, Jones noted. It already has $48 million budgeted next year for capital projects. It can’t afford to bond more money, so it needs to find these kinds of creative alternatives that don’t add to indebtedness or contribute to tax increases, Jones said.

MacMullen said he anticipates the city would save $200,000 a year in energy costs just at City Hall/200 Orange complex, and a total of at least $400,000 a year under the entire plan. ​“It depends how far we go with solar” and other energy-saving measures like caulking windows.

The current RFP is part of a broader rethinking of how use that strategy to fix all the city’s deteriorating 1960s-‘70s-era firehouses, for instance, and other neglected buildings. ​“I’ve been proactive, looking for ways to solve problems before they become acute” and cost more, MacMullen said. In some cases, such as with some crumbling public-works property, it might make more sense to build replacements rather than renovate, he said.

It’s also part of the Harp administration’s vow to spread ​“clean” power to more public buildings, said Giovanni Zinn, whom the mayor just named as her new city engineer. Working originally with former city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, Zinn has helped the city cut energy costs and institute ​“greener” systems, including installing solar panels on five buildings so far, with many more to come, he said.

“We are looking at all the buildings in the city,” to ​“improve our carbon footprint,” Jones said.

The issuance of the RFP last week sent tremors through preservationist circles. Members at a Preservation Trust committee meeting, for instance, concluded based on the language in the RFP that the city is surreptitiously planning to sell all those public buildings and lease them back to generate quick cash to stem a fiscal crisis. The RFP doesn’t say that. It does require bidders to have $3 billion in assets, a fact that helped spur that speculation.

Mayor Harp and Jones assured the Independent that they have absolutely no plan of the sort in the works. MacMullen did say the $3 billion was a typo, and will be changed to $3.1 million.

Note to bidders looking to take Chase Enterprises’ place as a private company operating on public property on a public job: The RFP also states: ​“The proposals received shall become the property of the City and are subject to public disclosure. … Proposers who indiscriminately and without justification identify most or their entire proposal as exempt from disclosure may be deemed nonresponsive. Proposals, excluding confidential information, will be available for review after contract award.”

Meanwhile, MacMullen is moving on to his next green cost-saving idea: installing Kalwall brand reinforced translucent building panels in roofs at buildings like the skating rink, to keep heat (or in that case cold) inside the building while letting in as much as 70 percent of the needed interior light. Click on the video to watch him explain the panels’ virtues, including their ​“puck” testing.