Add-ons to the heating and cooling system at the new Tinton Falls municipal complex (seen here last April) will further boost the project’s cost, which is already well over budget.
Through gritted teeth, apparently, the Tinton Falls Borough Council last night approved another change order to the design of the new municipal center, which at last count was already more than 70 percent over budget.
The Asbury Park Press reports today that the council OK’d the installation of a $125,000 computerized monitoring package for the heating and air-conditioning system to help pinpoint problems in the equipment when they arise.
The monitoring system had previously been eliminated from the $6.8 million budget for the center, where costs have now swollen to about $11.6 million.
From the story:
The council for more than a month had discussed the merits of the new system following a host of problems that arose just after the new building opened in June. Each problem required an on-site visit by a technician to diagnose each time there was a glitch. And finding the source of a problem with the current system was akin to “finding a needle in a haystack,” Borough Administrator W. Bryan Dempsey has said.
The Press reports that both Council President Michael Skudera and Councilman Paul Ford each said they weren’t pleased by the change, but were confident that the system would save on diagnostic fees in the future.
Councilman Brendan Tobin cast the lone vote against the expense, citing concerns about the way the project was bid, the Press says.
Email this story
