Walter Miller Elementary last Neshaminy school to get energy upgrades – Bucks County Courier Times

Walter Miller Elementary School is the next and last school in the Neshaminy School District that will get major energy system overhauls designed to make the building's heating, cooling and electrical systems operate more efficiently.

The school board recently awarded Harrisburg-based Reynolds Solutions a $3 million contract for the work.

Walter Miller, at 10 Cobalt Ridge Drive South in the Levittown part of Middletown, will have air conditioning installed in all its classrooms, said Reynolds vice president Damion Spahr. The school previously had air conditioning in some offices and other areas but not in the classrooms, he said.

Improvements also will be made to the electrical and other mechanical systems, said Spahr. A lot of the work involves installing controls on the systems that make them run in a way to save energy, he added.

In addition, Reynolds workers, as part of their last phase of work on Neshaminy schools, will install security vestibules at both Walter Miller and Pearl Buck Elementary, also in the Levittown part of Middletown.

Security vestibules involve structural and technological changes to the schools' main entrances that make visitors first enter the main office and have their driver's licenses checked against a criminal database before they are cleared to enter the rest of the building.

This last phase of upgrades at Miller will be similar to work Reynolds alreadyhas done at Albert Schweitzer, Herbert Hoover and Joseph Ferderbar elementary schools, and Carl Sandburg and Poquessing middle schools, said Spahr.

The Miller project should start around mid May and be done by the end of summer, he added.

The entire package of Reynolds' work at the schools will cost $34.89 million. It is being funded with $27.4 million from a $57.9 million bond issue approved in 2015 and $7.4 million in capital reserve funds, said school district business administrator Barbara Markowitz.

The other part of the bond issue paid for Neshaminy's new Tawanka Elementary School in Lower Southampton, she added.

"We've gotten a lot done on time and on budget," said school board member Steve Pirritano of all the upgrades.

"I think we've created a great environment for our children to learn in," he added.

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Walter Miller Elementary last Neshaminy school to get energy upgrades - Bucks County Courier Times