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HomeMy WebLinkAbout120991December 9, 1991 . PORT TOWNSEND LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES Continuation of Meeting held November 25, 1991. Committee Reports: BUDGET-- Report of the City Council Budget Hearings will be on the 12/16/91 Board Meeting Agenda. COMMUNITY RELATIONS -- At the November meeting Phyllis Davidson attended to discuss the Books -on -Tape fund raising project. Possibility - to use the garage sale for books -on -tape purchases and make the sale a part of the campaign. Phyllis Davidson is proposing a Valentine's Day party to kick -off the campaign. The draft display policy will be on the December meeting agenda. The Friends of the Library Newsletter will be brought out this December (it is currently ready for distribution) . There will be a campaign for a tile sale this Christmas organized by Bev Shelton and the Friends of the Library. PERSONNEL -- C. Silverblatt proposed a job share between Dahti Blanchard and Lynn Ring for the position being vacated by Isobelle Manley. Each staffer will work 16 hours per week (2 more than currently worked) , The $$ saved through health benefits will be used to supply on -call staffing assistance throughout the year for vacation and sick leave of current staff members. The Board thought this a sensible way to handle several staffing problems. MBUILDING -- Reimbursement for the insulation efforts has come from Puget Power. Money is held in the Building Fund. Moved and seconded to accept Eric Frederickson's generous gift of free :installiation of lights in the study table. Building Committee recommends approval of Myron Lewis' suggestion to hire Ralph Baum to investigate the HV system problems. Board approved the acceptance of the summary provided by Building Committee Chair Mortenson ( see attached documents) . INTERIOR FURNISHINGS -- The chairs to be purchased for the YA corner were found in town at a very good price. Committee will meet when Beth returns to decide on fabric, etc. AD HOC COMMITTEE ON CARNEGIE ROOM POLICY -- Committee composed of Anne Steurer, Mike Mortenson, Carol Cahill and Cheryl Silverblatt will meet on 1/7/92 at 9:30 A.M. to discuss issues and concerns regarding the current policy. Submitted by C. Silverblatt 12/9/91 November 27, 1991 Port Townsend Public Library Tonkin /Hoyne Inc. Architects and Planners 204 First Avenue South Seattle, WA 98104 Dear Les, 1220 Lawrence Street, Port Townsend, WA. 98368 We have reviewed the changes to our heating and ventilating system that you and Ed Sider have proposed- We also have had many people look at the existing installation and the proposed changes, including heating contractors and general contractors. The consensus of all those who have seen the system is that it is a seriously flawed design. Not only is the system uncomfortably noisy when operating, but also it is unable to provide reasonably uniform and draft -free heat throughout the building. • Considerable doubt was also expressed about the effectiveness of the proposed changes. Given the inadequacies of the original design, we have no confidence that your proposed changes will be cost - effective. We feel that now is the time to seek the opinion and advice of another mechanical engineer. Can you recommend two or three for our consideration? From one of them, or others we may consider, we will solicit an independent evaluation of the existing system and a plan for reducing the noise and improving the overall performance. Please write or call me (385 - 1626). or Cheryl Silverblatt (385- 3181), our new director. �Syi�n c ear e�lyyy�, M� keMMoortenson Port Townsend Library Board Building Committee cc Myron Lewis Lewis /Nelson Architects 2800 Northrup Way Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98004 0 ((-% (206) 385 -3181 • Tonldn/Hoyne,c. Ps ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS Leslie Provenzano Tonkin Barry S. Hoyne December 6, 1991 Mike Mortenson Port Townsend Library Board Building Committee 1220 Lawrence Street Port Townsend, WA. 98368 Dear Mike: This is to follow up on our conversation of December 3, 1991 concerning the proposed HVAC changes in the library. There seems to be three problems with the heating and ventilating systems: 1. The second floor system is noisy due to the fact that the air return grille is too close to the main fan in the mechanical room. 2. A similar noise problem exists in the workroom where the return air grille is located in the ceiling and again is too close to the main . squirrel cage fan. 3. The heat in the staff lounge is insufficient when the outside temperatures are extremely low. We apologize for the inconveniences the HVAC system has caused the staff. I think the systems designs should have functioned better, even though we had an extremely low budget to work with for this project. All that I can say is that it is very difficult to foresee all of the potential design problems that will crop up during the restoration and expansion of old buildings. Also, it is not uncommon to have to make these type of adjust- ments to the HVAC systems even in brand new buildings. Your letter mentions seeking an opinion from another engineer. I really don't think more opinions are going to help, but I could suggest another contractor who is very experienced at trouble shooting and could price and install any recommended changes that involve the ductwork or heating units. However, before calling in other engineers or contractors please consider my recommendations. First, let's take the second floor return air grille recommendation was to simply just move the grille up wall, and use the mechanical room as a duct or plenui the earlier proposed costly ductwork running through this will accomplish the same thing and I am willing Saturday and help make this relatively simple change noise. My original higher on the same n. This will eliminate the attic. I believe to come over on a 204 FIRST AVENUE SOUTH SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98104 (206) 624 -7880 Fax 622 -1766 Mike Mortenson v December 6, 1991 Page 2 • The second problem in the workroom is more complex to fix, however, our original suggestion to build a duct at the ceiling to move the return air grille intake further away from the fan is still a good plan. To make the system work better, I suggest that the duct be made of gypsum wallboard formed around steel studding dropped from the roof framing. The duct intake wood or grille can be moved to the library wall behind the circulation desk. A second opening could be in the workroom near the outside wall. The filters could be placed directly behind the grilles for ease of changing. This should be provided by an experienced tradesperson or carpenter. The final problem we discussed was the lack of heat in the staff lounge. Unfortunately, we did not have the budget at the time to fully insulate the exterior walls and existing windows in the old building. The staff lounge has an unusually high amount of heat loss because of its corner location and extent of uninsulated walls and single pane and unweatherstripped windows and high ceilings. You said that recently storm windows have been installed in this area and this should cut the heat loss by one third. The other recommendation we have is to install strip electric baseboard heat at one south exterior wall near the corner. The feeling of coldness of the room is due in part to the location of the overhead heat duct supply grille which is in the middle of the ceiling. This location was necessitated due to the limited places where we could run ducts through the existing ceiling /floor joists. Because the duct supply is in the middle of the room and the heat loss is at the exterior walls, someone standing between the heat source and the cold wall will always feel cold, even if the temperature of the room is 80 degrees. The high ceilings in this small room also contribute to its inefficiency because the heat tends to accumulate at the ceiling. It is common to design new spaces in highrise buildings, which have extensive glass at exterior walls, using exterior baseboard strip heaters under cold walls and windows. A small baseboard heater of 750 to 1000 watts will eliminate this problem. Again, I extend my offer to assist with the grille relocation at the up- stairs mechanical room and we will also provide a drawing for our suggested workroom changes, all at no cost. I am looking forward to meeting your new library director as I was raised in Belmont /San Mateo area of California. Please let me know what we can do. Si ely, ss Tonki n U Response to letter to Les Tonkin V i 1. Les Tonkin called me 12 -2 -91, responding to my letter to him (11/27) a. He offered to redesign and redraw a scheme to reduce noise in the staff workroom. I accepted his offer. He hoped to complete this work by 12/9. b He reiterated an earlier suggestion re meeting room noise, that the return air intake should be moved up closer to the ceiling, thus creating an offset from direct fan noise. He volunteered to do the work himself some weekend. I neither accepted nor rejected his offer. c. He also reiterated an earlier suggestion, re lack of sufficient heat in the staff lounge and workroom in the old building, that one or more baseboard heaters should be installed in the staff lounge and perhaps the workroom. 2. Myron Lewis called 12 -3 -91 a. He was unaware of our heating noise problem until he received my letter (copy of 11/27 letter to Les Tonkin) b. He suggested we have Ralph Baum, a mechanical engineer, look at our problem. Myron said he has often worked with him and respects his judgement. Baum did the mechanical design for the new addition to the Jeffco Library. 3. I called Ralph Baum on 12 -4-91 a. He is scheduled to be at Jeffco Library 12- 17 -91. b. He is willing to meet with us that day and investigate our problems. c. Estimated cost: two or three hours at $72 per hour. This will include a letter reporting his recommendations. 4. The Building Committee recommends we engage Ralph Baum to do 3b and 3c.