Three separate change order requests yielded three different responses Tuesday from the Palmerton Area School District board of directors.

All three change orders, totaling $47,873.94, were requested by Myco Mechanical related to upgrades this past summer at Palmerton’s junior high complex.

First change order

The first change order, totaling $17,130.48, included a relocated acid waste line and relocated plumbing lines.

According to Tim Sisock, project manager for Barry Isett and Associates, the acid waste lines coming down from the school’s chemistry room were not located where drawings from 1985 indicated they should have been done.

“When the contractor took out a wall, the lines were in that wall and not in the neighboring wall where they were supposed to be,” Sisock said. “That is a glass pipe that is very fragile, so it needed to be relocated.”

Palmerton director Earl Paules questioned why the location of the waste lines were not discovered during walk-throughs.

“We didn’t do any kind of invasive investigation prior to design,” Sisock said. “The district doesn’t want to pay for that. That is a lot of time to open up all of the ceilings.”

The relocated plumbing lines stemmed from a conflict between heating, ventilation and air conditioning ductwork and plumbing lines.

“It was cheaper to move the plumbing around rather than send back ductwork you already paid for, order new ductwork and redesign everything,” Sisock said.

The work, as part of the change orders, was already done in the summer while the contractor was on site and prepared to complete it.

Paules asked what happens if the school board does not approve payment for the change order work.

“Then we go back to the contractor and tell them the board didn’t approve it and wait to hear from them,” Sisock answered. “The problem with summer work is if there is an issue, if we waited for the next board meeting, we’ll never meet the project schedule. A lot of money is invested on the contractor’s part to keep things moving so that ceilings can get back in and school can start on time.”

The board voted 6-2 to approve the change order payment, with Paules and Charles Gildner voting no.

“I don’t think it’s the district’s responsibility to do the job they should have done from the beginning,” Paules said. “Change orders just cost everyone money, because they missed something or they missed something somewhere else and they’re trying to make it up here.”

Second change order

The second change order, totaling $7,267.30, added circuit setters, which are valves throughout the plumbing system to regulate the flow of water.

Sisock said the locations for the circuit setters were not shown on the plan, and called it an oversight on his design team’s part.

“We were able to negotiate a fair price, but that fall backs on us,” he said. “You would have more issues down the line if you didn’t have the circuit setters.”

Also, Sisock said his team missed the fact that a rooftop air handling unit was gas and not electric.

“In order to have a fully functional building, we had to do it,” Sisock said. “Without it, you wouldn’t have had air conditioning or heating in the kitchen.”

The board voted down that change order 5-3. Gildner, Paules, Josh Smale, Kathy Fallow and Sherry Haas voted against the payment.

Third change order

The final change order, totaling $23,476.16, included the rerouting of stormwater from the junior high.

According to Sisock, when the existing junior high was built, it had all internal downspouts.

“All rain water collected from the roof went down underneath a slab and out to the courtyard to pick up a stormwater line that would take it around the high school and to the north,” Sisock said.

During the most recent project, the contractor found a disconnected pipe leading to water underneath the slab never making it any further.

“To avoid any future issues, it made sense to run those downspouts overhead, outside of the building, and do away with routing it underneath the building,” Sisock said.

Also, a fresh air intake vent needed to be added to comply with the fire pump manufacturer.

“Our design didn’t think it was needed, but the manufacturer wouldn’t give us a certificate for the fire pump without it,” Sisock said. “We should have known that.”

The board unanimously voted to table the change order so the two items could be split and voted on separately.