The Oak Hills Park Authority voted unanimously at its November meeting to raise the park authority’s capital budget to pay for replacement of two failed HVAC units.

Chair Alan Dutton proposed the increase during the old-business portion of the meeting, saying the authority had three main HVAC units and two additional failures required replacement. "I would like to propose that we would increase the capital budget," Dutton said when he moved the measure. The board discussed available contingency and identified roughly $115,000 in bids for the two HVAC projects.

Controller Mark told members the authority’s capital budget for the fiscal year was $344,500 and that approving the motion would increase that figure to $386,000. The board discussed trade-offs, including postponing other capital items, and staff noted they had already realized some savings elsewhere in the capital plan.

CJ Trimboli seconded the motion. Chair Dutton called the roll for the motion; members recorded vocal yes votes and the motion passed unanimously. The board did not attach a separate timetable for completion at the vote; general manager James Holiday said equipment delays have already affected scheduling and that staff would proceed with contracting and deposits as soon as practicable.

The increase is intended to ensure the authority can move forward on replacing the kitchen/dining HVAC systems and related work this winter; staff said one of the deposits being prepared for Air Solutions Inc. would be issued once administrative approvals were completed.

Next steps: staff will finalize contracts and schedule work; the authority will monitor expenditures against the revised CapEx total.