The center has been reborn with daily senior activities and is booking special occasion events to fund further senior activities.
But keeping large building at a uniformly comfortable temperature has been a challenge for the city maintenance staff, according to Acting City Manager Nathan Cahall.
When the city took it over some wondered about portable air conditioning units in some areas of the building.
The problem is the air handlers that push the heat/cool air through the duct work, according to maintenance workers.
The Event Center’s current air handlers for the HVAC system are undersized for the building. The current equipment is approximately half the size of the original system that was installed when the building was constructed. As a result, the system is unable to properly cool and heat the building, which leads to costly maintenance and repair costs, according to a city staff report.
Council members indicated they want to look at alternatives before approving an expenditure of $318,890 from the city’s property development fund.
“I have reservations about putting this amount of money in to that project at this time,” said Councilman Paul Lolli. He noted there decisions that have to be made soon about downtown properties the city owns including the Manchester Inn, which is vacant.
Councilman Paul Horn, an electrician, said he is “shocked” that the commercial building was built without the proper air handler size.
Cahall said he shares Horn’s shock. The staff determined the air handlers currently in place were installed in 2015.
“Someone saved some money and now we are being punished for it,” Horn said.
Council asked staff to explore getting a mechanical engineer to review the situation with a recommendation for possible alternatives.
Another concern is the time it will take to purchase the machinery to repair the issue, which is estimated to be 14 weeks. Cahall said the center is beginning to see bookings for events into summer 2025.
“The problem we are running in to is equalizing temperature and humidity in the building,” Cahall said. But the staff is in the process of finding a firm to do a comprehensive assessment to “either confirm or deny things or maybe come up with some alternatives.
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