LIPA fails to keep date with school — again

There’s still no generator at Shelter Island School since Long Island Power Authority didn’t keep its date with contractors to hook up the new unit the day before Thanksgiving.

While the date for hookup had been schedule months ago, according to Brian McClave of McClave Engineering, when Sandy hit, it diverted LIPA crews to work restoring power throughout Long Island and the Shelter Island project was put on the back burner.

But as of Monday, November 19, Mr. McClave told the Board of Education that LIPA officials had told him it appeared a crew would show up on Wednesday, November 21, to connect and test the new generator.

But on on Tuesday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m., he got a call saying that no LIPA crew would be able to tackle the project .
“It’s difficult under normal circumstances dealing with them,” Mr. McClave said about LIPA. Given the work the utility faces in the aftermath of the storm, the difficulty is compounded, he said.

There’s no new date for installation, but Mr. McClave speculated it would likely be delayed until the Christmas break when there are no classes. To connect the generator is an approximately three-hour process followed by several hours of testing that requires turning power on and off, he said.

That’s why the connection wasn’t made prior to Sandy, resulting in the school being closed for three days during and after the storm.

As for the rest of the construction that took place this summer — asbestos removal, improved ventilation, lighting, new tiling and painting, new bathrooms in the elementary school wing and work on the building’s exterior — the company is now engaged in what Mr. McClave described to the Board of Education at the November 19 meeting as the “punch code” phase. It deals with those items that have been determined to still be troublesome. He described it as “the most difficult part of the project,” but said work was progressing well.

Windows that were to be installed during the winter are being delayed until next summer because there were issues with their design and it was determined they could best be installed with the least disruption during the summer months.

And plans to clean oxidation from the exterior of the building have been abandoned because the contractors were unable to identify a product that would do the job without posing an environmental threat to the Island’s fragile groundwater system, Mr. McClave said.