The Wellington City Council approved $1.18 million in revenue bonds to pay for improvements to Sumner Regional Medical Center.
SRMC President and CEO Bob Bean told the council the chiller is the most pressing issue for the hospital and that getting revenue bonds to fund the need was paramount.
“We are working at a facility that has a lot of needs, and a lot of wear and tear,” he said. But the primary need for the hospital is a new chiller.
Since SRMC was opened 40 years ago, the same chiller has been used to cool all of the hospital. At times the task has been almost impossible for the nearly antique piece of equipment.
The 325-ton chiller — which is undersized for the facility and running without a backup, as was in the original plans — has been on its last leg for a while and without a new one, Bean fears if it shuts down, so might the hospital.
“In 2008, that was my most difficult time in my tenure at Sumner Regional because I had to consider evacuating the hospital. The chiller had shut down, which was on a hot, late summer day and we were struggling to get it on and get any kind of cooling in the facility,” Bean said. “It was a real eye-opener for us in 2008.”
Had it not been for the nurses and maintenance facility workers and the usually cooler temperatures, SRMC may of had to shut its doors, Bean said. The biggest fear are the yet to be predicted summer temperatures for 2010.
After getting “sticker shock” from bids for the chiller, an engineering firm was called in to look at the problem and their costs were even higher, Bean said. No stimulus funds could be used for the hospital and Bean said revenue bonds through the Public Building Commission were the best option.
The Public Building Commission was created in 2007 and can issue revenue bonds at the request of the council for city facilities, City Manager Gus Collins said.
The bid from Schneider Electric in Lenexa for more than $1 million will be performance-based, Bean explained, meaning the energy savings will help pay for the costs of the repairs.
“The energy savings changes made with the maintenance savings will largely offset the cost of the new equipment,” Bean said.
The bid will include the addition of a new primary chiller with increased tonnage to the facility. Cooling towers will be replaced to better cycle water through the cooler, saving the hospital money. An existing hot water storage tank will be replaced as well as a new air-conditioning unit for the Server Room, which is “grossly under served.”
“They were the only company to look at our needs and scale it back and didn’t try to sell us everything and the kitchen sink and just focused on our need of a chiller,” Bean said of Schneider.
The council voted unanimously in favor of the project.
Wellington, Kan. —
