Hiwassee Dam – An ongoing issue over the chiller system at Hiwassee Dam School shows just how chilly relations are between Cherokee County commissioners and school board members.
County commissioners have grown increasingly impatient with the school board over its decision to shut down middle schools in Martins Creek and Ranger without a public hearing, as well as school board members dragging their feet over meeting with the commissioners to discuss long-range plans. A series of bills coming in for the chiller system at Hiwassee Dam School over the last 18 months has punctuated the growing animosity between the two boards.
Commissioners are evicting the school district’s Central Office from the county-owned building at 911 Andrews Road effective Aug. 2, and redirecting Article 46 quarter-cent sales taxes from schools to the county – a $1.2 million hit annually to the school district’s budget.
Meanwhile, Cherokee County taxpayers have been paying more than $200,000 in rental fees while the school district works to replace a broken chiller at Hiwassee Dam.
“Chiller” is another word for air conditioner. Entering the summer months and summer school, the school district needs to keep up rental payments on a temporary system until a new system is delivered and installed.
The school district requested the board of commissioners approve another $101,858 to rent a temporary unit for one more year. This follows a continuing trickle of bills coming in for Hiwassee Dam’s chiller system.
Commissioners have the final say on large expenditures by the school district.
A cold month
The chiller froze during rolling blackouts in December 2022.
“When the rolling blackouts occurred and the power turned off to the unit, the freeze protection devices quit working because there was no electricity to work the heat tape, and the unit froze and bused in the heat exchange,” Stephani Hass, chief financial officer with Cherokee County Schools, explained in an email responding to questions from Commissioner Jan Griggs.
The school district initiated the rental in March and April 2023, but the rental blew up on April 15 a year later. Two maintenance workers suffered minor injuries in the explosion.
The vendor, short on staff, requested that the school district winterize the rental chiller unit earlier this year. Per technical instructions, school maintenance staff shut the unit off, unhooked the system, drained the water, replaced antifreeze and hooked the hoses together to keep anything from infiltrating the heat exchanger, Hass said.
When the system was re-pressurized with refrigerant, the pipes exploded, injuring the workers.
“The rental company maintains that we let the unit freeze and bust,” Hass wrote, “however, we maintain there had to have been a small leak in the heat exchanger, thus compromising the unit itself that would not have been due to our improper care.”
School maintenance workers say the unit would often shut off due to low oil readings most of summer 2023, requiring multiple trips to reset the unit.
Insurance claims are pending and a replacement has been ordered, but delivery was expected to take 18 months, forcing the school district to rent a temporary system. Schools Superintendent Keevin Woody said delivery of the new chiller system is expected by fall, but there are no guarantees.
The new system will cost $175,000, he said. The county has already dedicated more than $200,000 just for rentals. Officials hope the cost will be covered by insurance.
In May, the board of commissioners approved more than $51,000 for four maintenance expenditures – $10,800 for an HVAC unit at Central Office, $19,046 to recondition the water tank at Hiwassee Dam School, $17,538 for asphalt seal coat for the Andrews High School student parking lot and $3,745 to recondition the water tank at Hiwassee Dam.
However, the board rejected the school district’s request for the $101,858 for the rental chiller for Hiwassee Dam and followed up with questions about the situation.
Funds come from a schools-dedicated Article 40/42 half-cent sales tax that requires approval from the board of commissioners.
Commissioner Cal Stiles described the process as “convoluted.” He said he supported approving the expense with the caveat that any insurance settlement go back into the Article 40/42 fund or, absent insurance money, that the school district pay the money back out of its own fund balance.
Still trying
Randy Phillips, chair of the board of commissioners, appeared before the school board Thursday once again asking for a joint meeting between the two boards so they can “get on the same page” about long-range plans for school construction.
He said he would like the meeting to happen before the end of September and offered the school board several options to fit its schedule. Phillips spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting and did not receive an immediate response.
However, school board members Jeff Tatham and Jason Murphy were warm to the idea. Tatham later said the school board ought to work with the board of commissioners, with Murphy calling such a meeting “an olive branch.”