The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Various expenditure items approved at U-46 meeting

By Seth Hancock
  School District U-46’s face mask policy appears to have contributed to costing the taxpayers $137,499, from the operations and maintenance fund, thanks to an emergency plumbing issue at Elgin’s Lowrie Elementary School.
  The item was part of $383,260 in expenditure items approved with a 7-0 vote by the Board of Education on Monday, Oct. 4.
  The plumbing was completed by Diemer Plumbing and Excavating on Aug. 31. The proposal stated Lowrie “suffered a catastrophic pipe collapse on the sanitation line” just two days after school started. The district had contracted with an on-call plumber who was unable to complete the work after a rod broke because of blockage caused by face masks.
  “We have experienced a lot of unique plumbing issues with the introduction of masks,” said Sheila Downs, director of plant operations. “So, we often find masks in the plumbing and so they’re being flushed. This was kind of a perfect storm just because we did have a blockage…. I do not think this is necessarily representative of an overarching plumbing issues at Lowrie.”
  The board approved $27,345 (operations and maintenance fund) with EHC Industries for removal of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) from sinks at six elementary schools.
  The district is in the process of replacing drinking fountains, called bubblers, on sinks at 14 schools, and the ACMs were found at six of those schools during the inspection process. The proposal states: “In order to facilitate the work, the ACMs need to be removed by a licensed environmental contractor per county, state, and federal regulations.”
  The board approved $218,416 (education fund) for replacement of VMware servers through Dell Technologies.
  Also approved 7-0 was $6.4 million in itemized bills.