I want to apologize first for a mistake in the information I gave out last week. It seems I misunderstood something I was told early on. The line to the cooling tower had not failed and dumped debris in the system; rather, it had visibly deteriorated and clearly needed replacing. Had the cooling tower been put into use, that line could have failed and not only damaged the system, but released large quantities of water into the floors below potentially causing a whole cascade of serious issues. The result was the same—repairs had to be made before it was safe to run the tower—but my description was in error.
As for the current status of the system, here’s is the latest info:
Grinnell will be on site tomorrow at 7:00 AM to start working on the cooling tower. This is what is supposed to happen:
Tomorrow (Wednesday) a crew will be working on the 8” pipe on the roof, returning Thursday to work on the 8” pipe on the first floor. While a crew is working on the piping, another crew will be here prepping for the start up. All of this should take approximately two days to complete (fingers crossed) if they all adhere to the schedule.
Residents are reminded that they should not run their air conditioning while the cooling tower is out of order. This will only wear on the unit pumps and raise the electric bill without cooling the unit. If you are a landlord with tenants in the building, please make sure they are also aware of this; it’s possible there are gaps in the email list used for the notice that went out.
Speaking for me personally, and in no official capacity at all, I’d like to say that I’m aware that this situation has been difficult for a lot of residents, and breakdowns in communication haven’t helped, but please understand that there are multiple contractors involved, a dedicated but new-to-the-building manager, and a board working hard to get it right but new to much of this process themselves. Some problems were unavoidable; others have been learning experiences—and believe me, I’ve done a lot of learning this past week!
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for the update! Fingers crossed
Thank you for keeping us up to date!
Why isn’t there an update yet? It’s 12:00pm the day before the hottest weekend of the year. I have a dog and the interior temperatures will be beyond dangerous. I need to know if I need to leave the building for the weekend and I can’t just do it on a whim. “Summer snuck up on us” and “we are really sorry” are not acceptable answers. The powers that be need to be held responsible.