Borough Hall HVAC system to be automated

TINTON FALLS - The Borough Council decided to move forward with Engineer Bill Birdsall's recommendation that the HVAC system in the new municipal building be improved.

Birdsall, who has been overseeing the Borough Hall construction project, and is a vendor, gave a presentation at the last council meeting in August.

Council President Michael Skudera said the governing body will get prices from other vendors for the new system that will cost around $126,000. He said they estimate that the system will pay for itself in three or four years by saving energy for heating and air conditioning.

Skudera said when the computerized system was first proposed, it is an optional piece of equipment used to automatically regulate and monitor the heating and air-conditioning system. He added that a technician has had to be called several times to configure the system onsite and each visit cost the town money.

Constant calls to the technician prompted Birdsall to report the matter to the Borough Council, he said.

Last week, he explained that the system currently runs unregulated 24 hours a day, wasting energy.

"It is common for a building of this size of have this piece of equipment," he said, adding that the cost includes training and monitoring. And the system will automatically notify by e-mail about issues with the system.

"[It] provides a centralized system to see the overall status of the HVAC [and]

can be controlled, maintained, or adjusted remotely."

Chief Financial Director Stephen Pfeffer said

last month that the money is available for

the additional expense.

Skudera said the

system that they need

was included in the building specs at one time, but was removed.

"I asked the Bryan Dempsey, the borough administrator, who is the person responsible for taking this system out of the building specs and what the justification was. He will look into this," Skudera said.

Pfeffer noted last month, that the total cost of the building, to date is $11,589,000. The additional cost of the HVAC system will bring the total cost up to over $11,700,000.