PEABODY — The city will bond $2.7 million to replace the 31-year-old heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at the main branch of the Peabody Institute Library.
The City Council gave the green light on the bond Thursday, supplementing the final cost with $494,200 in federal stimulus funds from an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant.
Library Director Martha Holden said the controls for the existing HVAC system were not completely functional.
"Most of the equipment is beyond its useful life," she said.
Without a new system, she faced certain equipment failures at different areas of the mechanism.
"I need a system that is integrated," Holden said.
Ward 2 Councilor Arthur Athas, the only councilor to object, suggested the project be done in steps to avoid borrowing so much at once. Ward 3 Councilor Rico Mello did not attend the meeting.
Peabody would be shouldering multimillion-dollar bonds for the Higgins Middle School renovation and the regional vocational technical high school, Athas said.
"We feel it would be more effective and more efficient to go forward with this as a single project," Holden responded.
The city would otherwise be forced to pay startup costs at each part of a multistage project, elevating the final cost of the replacement, she said.
City Purchasing Agent Dan Doucette also said the ideal way to do the project was all at once. By going out to bid for each stage, the city could feasibly have three different contractors work on the project, complicating the overall system, Doucette said.
Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne said the library is among the most used buildings in the city and supported bonding for the HVAC project.
"I think it needs it," he said.
The project is expected to start in spring 2010, with heating in place by winter, Holden told councilors. The air conditioning — and the entire system overall — is scheduled to be complete by spring 2011.
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