A change in project scope and price has Palmerton Area School District planning to revise a grant application for heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades at its high school weight and wrestling room.

Palmerton had previously been approved for $110,000 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money for the project, but when a proposal from The McClure Company came in Wednesday night, the cost had nearly doubled to $214,299.

“We applied for the money a long time ago,” Dr. Jodi Frankelli, Palmerton superintendent, said. “The district can go back and do a funding adjustment. We made our best guess at the time and $110,000 seemed like a good number. Because of the scope of the project and how it has changed, there were a number of items we didn’t have at the time.”

Joe Faenza, district facilities director, said the footprint of the renovated weight room was largely unknown at the time of the grant application and now things have come into greater focus.

While the HVAC work has always been separate because the district planned to fund it with grant money, the overall renovation will include a team locker room for wrestling and separate boys and girls shower facilities, among other improvements.

“Now we know where the locker rooms will go so that duct work can be factored in and we’ve gone from 5 showers to 15 showers so we know the exhaust fans that need to be included,” Faenza said. “McClure also had to have a structural engineer look at the roof to make sure it could support the HVAC unit, which had more weight and size than we originally thought.”

The original HVAC estimate includes historical averages, Faenza added, while the total presented Wednesday night included 2023 prices for final equipment, labor, material and subcontractor costs.

“Everything went up,” Faenza said.

Director Earl Paules cast the lone no vote on accepting the McClure proposal, citing the increased cost.

Others, however, favored moving forward with the project to stay on schedule.

District officials currently anticipate the weight room renovations could be completed by February 2024.

“We should move forward,” director Stacey Connell said on Wednesday. “I think we have to in order to keep the timeline in some kind of check.”