Pettisville hears of grant and wind turbine issues 

PETTISVILLE – Pettisville Local Board of Education met Monday, hearing updates on district issues and a grant, as well as handling personnel matters.

Superintendent Dr. Stephen Switzer shared that the district has submitted a grant application to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for $40,000 matched by about $13,000 in local dollars. This grant, if successful, will be combined with the $100,000 allocation from the OFCC closeout to the building project to fund a security camera upgrade and replacement project, as well as an upgrade to building access. Mike Zimmerman, tech coordinator, has designed and is supervising the projects.

Switzer noted that the wind turbine has been down since July 2. The storm that evening damaged the turbine controller and it needs to be replaced.

“In conjunction with Aeronautica, I made several efforts to restart the turbine, but was unsuccessful,” said Switzer.

Zimmerman was in contact with Aeronautica and involved in trouble shooting to determine the cause. It was determined that the controller was not functioning and requested options to replace it. Switzer said he received a quote on July 18 regarding replacement of the controller and the district committed to a replacement unit on July 22.

Aeronautica was in a transition and the actual ordering was delayed, but the unit was shipped last week and should arrive in the next few days. Zimmerman will install the unit.

In addition, 3M Safety and Security film on entrances and selected windows has been replaced under warranty as some of the original product was faulty.

The playground has had pea gravel installed replacing the wood chips; the pavement cracks have been patched and the play areas were relined. There also was additional work on seeding grass in the play area to the north. The total cost was around $18,000.

The drainage project has been completed as a part of the OFCC closeout. The drainage along the north wall was improved, the wall was recoated and insulated, and landscaping was replaced. The total co-funded cost was about $28,000. The work was completed by JK Excavating – Jay Pursel and PlantsPlus of Archbold.

The board authorized a settlement agreement and release of all claims between the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, Pettisville Local Schools, and two service providers, The Buehrer Group Architecture and Engineering Inc. and SecurCom Inc.

Each company will pay an amount of $10,000 as a compromise of the 14 missing Ohio School Design Manual scope items that should have been included in the security camera and access control specs that were not provided, and 12 work items that were part of the contract but were not included.

These elements surfaced in the close-out and review of the project. These were omissions, or modifications made without the appropriate paperwork. In addition, $100,000 in project (co-funded) dollars will be allocated to the district to complete replacement of and improvements to the security camera and building access system. These elements were not intentional omissions and do not reflect negatively on the two firms involved.

In personnel matters, the board issued a supplemental contract to Duane Beck as assistant play director for the fall play. Michael Short will be play director and set director for the fall play; and Carla Davis was offered a one-year contract as an educational aide.

Additional hires included: Sandra Blackwood, head cook; Alexis King, first-grade teacher; Kisha Genter, intervention teacher; Shelly Schramm, library manager; Jamie Fox, special education teacher; Victoria Jordan, elementary counselor; Dawn McKibben, speech language 3/5 time; Deanna Beck, special education aide; and Gabe Jaramillo, bus driver. Tammy Burkholder was approved as an on-the-bus trainer, while Dr. Rebecca McClarren will administer physicals to bus drivers.

In other business, the board:

• authorized membership in the Ohio Schools Council.

• designated delegates and alternates to the Ohio School Boards Association’s Capital Conference in November.