With recent approval of an additional $70,000 from school district coffers, the Haines Borough is going ahead with a $350,000 replacement of three air-handling units in the ceiling of the Haines School art room.
The work will be completed during summer and is expected to reduce noise in the art room that makes it hard for students and the art teacher to hear each other. Art teacher Linnus Danner said the machines have gotten noisier in the past two years, forcing her to yell. “They’re getting older.”
Three bids for replacing the existing system came in above a $250,000 estimate of the job by Murray and Associates engineers of Juneau. The low bid of $320,000 was submitted by Behrends Mechanical of Juneau.
The school is providing $210,000, and the Haines Borough, $110,000. The school board last week approved the additional funding.
The units provide air heating and circulation for the east end of the high school and for Karl Ward Gym.
Replacing the units became an issue when the art program, sited in a specially built room as part of the school rebuild, was moved two years ago into the former woodshop room. Borough facilities chief Carlos Jimenez said there was discussion of replacing the aging units prior to the rebuild.
Similar units on the high school’s east side were replaced during the rebuild, Jimenez said.