The Harlan County Board of Education met in special session on Friday, taking action to correct problems which have plagued the cooling system at Harlan County High School.

“We’ve fought with that system for years,” said Superintendent Brent Roark. “We want the issue resolved. We’ve tried repeatedly to fix the existing system. It is time we take the steps necessary to eliminate the problem. Our students and staff deserve an environment that can be maintained at an acceptable temperature.”

Roark received approval from the board to change the cooling system to eliminate the use of river water, which is creating major issues in system operations.

“We pull river water to cool our loop,” he said of the current system. “You (the board) had to put a boiler on the system a few years ago. The river water would get too cold and we couldn’t extract heat out of it. We eliminated the issues with the heating. The issues that still plague us are the cooling.”

The system, now 11 years old, has forced early dismissal at least once this year already and forced teachers to move classes to cooler classrooms due to rising temperatures.

By declaring the air conditioning problem an emergency, Roark said it expedites the process to prevent future problems.

“All the issues we are having right now are being caused by the fact that we use river water to actually come in and cool our inner loop,” he said. “With that river water, we have droughts, so we don’t have a sufficient flow. At one point about a week and half ago we were down to about 18 inches outside the trap. It is just not sufficient. The river itself has changed over the years. The area where we pull water is shallower than it used to be.”

During the hotter months of the year, the river water does not give enough discrepancy in the temperature of the water with the loop cooling the building, said Roark.

“We are talking about a four or five degree discrepancy,” he said. “So, it is just not there to keep the building cool.”

He further noted it had become expensive to continue repairing and replacing parts which are damaged as a result by using the river water.

“We have repaired parts after parts after parts over the summer,” he said. “I have the last installation of parts scheduled for the first week of October. I had hoped that we could just repair our current system and not change what we are doing. But every time I’ve spoken with engineers… they say they don’t understand why we are using the river water the way we are without a cooling tower. If we do a cooling tower we can eliminate completely our reliance on the river.”

He said the expensive back up pump recently bid has not been purchased and now won’t be necessary.

“We can do a cooling tower. It is self-contained… We don’t use the river water. We use municipal water in that tower,” he said.

Roark pointed out the district has towers at three other schools, noting those systems work well.

“They work fine. We don’t have issues with them. If we do, it is a small issue like a pump that is $500 or a $1,000 to fix instead of $50,000 for a pump placed in the river,” he said.

Again he emphasized the river water has been the major factor in cooling issues at the school.

“One of the reasons our system is really run down is that we are running unfiltered river water through the system. Every engineer from every group I’ve brought in, their one suggestion is to get off the river, to quit using the river water,” he said.

The board granted Roark permission to move forward with necessary actions for installation of the tower. It will be placed in the location of where the pumps currently pull water from the river. It eliminates the need for installation of new piping. Municipal water will be used instead of that pulled from the river.

“This will get us out of the business of ‘I can’t cool the gym, I can’t cool the cafeteria… I’m having my loops overheating where I’m having to shut down…’ It is not just this year. We’ve fought the issue for years,” he said.

Compounding the problem this year has been damage to the parts of the system.

The gymnasium has been extremely difficult to cool. Efforts to funnel air to the gym for extracurricular functions recently were unsuccessful because the temperature began to climb in other areas of the building.

Kenny Davis, executive project manager for Codell Construction, was in attendance and agreed with Roark’s comments. He was accompanied by Ralph Whitley, a professional engineer with Shrout, Tate and Wilson Mechanical Engineers of Lexington. He recommended the board take the action after hearing details of the issues.

“We are prepared to move forward with this emergency action that KDE will allow us to do,” said Davis. “We have a game plan and how we want to do that.”

Whitley said that basically the river water is coming into the system, clogging pumps and creating flow issues. This results in heat transfer issues in the system.

“A cooling tower is one of the most robust components you can have for the type the system you have (in place),” said Whitley. “They are very stable.”

Whitley said the towers, when properly maintained, last for 20 to 30 years. He said they are installed at schools, hospitals and many other buildings.

“It is definitely the right call,” said Whitley. “It is the right call… The part that is inside the building is a closed loop. The part on the outside is an open loop and will evaporate water to get the heat out of your building.”

It was reported that there would be no issue with pressure from the municipal water supply. Basically, if a water fountain works, the cooling tower system will work, he said.

“The river water was acting like a buffer,” said Whitley. “It was trying to bring heat out. With the cooling tower you are setting up a method to generate heat with the boiler for the winter. Then you will have the tower, which will get heat out of the building in the summer, late spring and early fall. In the in between, on the boiler and tower, you’re getting the best of both worlds. Some system are going to put heat in the loop and some are going to pull it out.”

The boiler and tower complement each other, he said.

The board also authorized District Finance Director Jody Gilliam to begin preparing the BG-1 for KDE approval based on estimates for the project.

While the estimates vary, Roark said the project should be under $300,000. District construction funds will be utilized.

“It will save the district money,” he said, noting repairs have been expensive and time consuming for the district as well as interrupting the educational setting.