Agenda

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City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

10/12/2021

BACKGROUND

The Schertz Civic Center has been providing outstanding rental space for the community since 2006. Recently, the HVAC system in the facility has begun to experience performance and reliability issues. In addition to having the City's on-staff HVAC Technician diagnose the ongoing issues, the City also entered into a task order with M&S Engineering (one of the City's on-call engineering firms) to do a full assessment of the facility's HVAC system and to make recommendations on how the City should move forward with resolving the deficiencies discovered.

The major factors found to be contributing to the performance and reliability issues within the system were the age of the system and excessive outdoor air within the system. The existing units in the facility are split systems which usually have an industry standard life expectancy of 15 years, which matches the current age of the units. While units can operate beyond their life expectancy, the units at the Civic Center use outdated refrigerant (R-22), which has been phased out by the industry making repairs and replacement parts hard to find and expensive. The original system relied on a demand controlled air damper system to balance the outdoor air being supplied to the units. This system was disabled several years ago by former staff and cannot be easily put back in to service. Without the demand controlled damper system active, the system is experiencing high amounts of outdoor air which exceeds the design parameters of the system. When weighing the deficiencies and age of the current HVAC system, M&S Engineering recommended that the current HVAC system be replaced with a new system. City Staff agrees with the recommendation provided by M&S Engineering.

The new system being proposed for the Civic Center is a system that is more conventional for a facility of this size. New package units will be installed on-grade on the exterior of the building. The variable air volume (VAV) units will be distributed to each zone within the facility by VAV terminal units. A large portion of the existing duct work will be able to remain in place allowing for less disruption within the facility during construction.

M&S Engineering has submitted a proposal for design, bid, and construction phase professional services for the Civic Center HVAC Replacement Project, which is detailed in Exhibit A. The proposal has a not-to-exceed value of $85,000, but staff is requesting approval not-to-exceed $93,500 to accommodate any small changes in scope that arise during the project. This ordinance allocates funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax reserves in order to complete the professional services portion of the project.

GOAL

The goal of this ordinance is to amend the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget to provide funding for the design, bid, and construction phase services for the replacement of the HVAC system at the Civic Center by M&S Engineering and to authorize the execution of the agreement with M&S Engineering.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

Replacing the existing HVAC system will allow the Civic Center to continue to provide high-end event rental space to the community.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

Staff recommends that the City Council approve Ordinance 21-T-46 on first reading authorizing the budget adjustment and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a task order agreement with M&S Engineering in an amount not to exceed $93,500.00 for Design, Bid, and Construction Phase services for the Civic Center HVAC Replacement Project.

FISCAL IMPACT

Funding for the design and future construction of the project will be paid for using Hotel Occupancy Tax Funds which are permitted to be used on Capital Improvements at the Civic Center. As of September 30, 2021, the balance in the Hotel Occupancy Tax reserves is $2,246,341.96. After the funding for the professional services contract the balance will be $2,152,841.96.

RECOMMENDATION

Attachments
21-T-46
Exhibit A