Heating system working again at Muscogee County school 2 days after breaking
Spencer High's heating system is working again, two days after it broke.
Muscogee County School District operations chief David Goldberg notified the Ledger-Enquirer in an email at 1:51 p.m. Thursday, “The heat is back on at Spencer HS.”
The heating system went down Tuesday when the boiler unit that supplies hot water for the system failed, MCSD superintendent David Lewis explained Wednesday in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer. “It was determined that due to its age, it could no longer be repaired so a temporary replacement boiler will be installed tomorrow. It is expected to be functioning tomorrow afternoon,” he said.
And that’s what happened.
MCSD is renting this boiler for $16,470 the first month, including delivery and setup, and for $11,404 subsequent months, Goldberg said.
The district is constructing a new facility to replace Spencer’s 39-year-old building, which has chronic structural problems. The school off Victory Drive in south Columbus and adjacent to Fort Benning was built on what is known as "plastic soil," which is predominantly clay. It expands and contracts. The movement, officials have said, continues to crack Spencer's foundation, floors and walls.
The $56 million project to construct a new Spencer, on land comprising the closed Cusseta Road and Muscogee elementary schools, where a sports complex also will be developed, is the most expensive of the 24 capital projects totaling an estimated $192,185,000 approved by Columbus voters in a March 2015 referendum. That renewed the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to help fund MCSD’s capital projects.
The new Spencer is scheduled to be finished in time for the start of next school year, according to the construction status reports on this month’s Muscogee County School Board agenda. Lewis confirmed that status Wednesday.
Mark Rice: 706-576-6272, @markricele
This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Heating system working again at Muscogee County school 2 days after breaking."