College president warns campus heating plant is failing and asks Montgomery County for $830,000
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Summary
FMCC president Gregory Truckenmiller told the legislature that one campus boiler is beyond repair and the college needs $3.3 million to replace the boiler plant; the state has pledged half and the remainder would be split with Fulton County, leaving Montgomery County’s share near $830,000, with pricing locked through March 8.
Gregory Truckenmiller, president of the county college, told Montgomery County legislators that the campus’s centralized boiler plant — original to the site and roughly 59 years old — is at risk and that one of two large boilers can no longer be safely retubed. He said the college had secured a state commitment for half the project and is seeking the remainder split between Fulton County and Montgomery County; the total project cost presented to the legislature was $3,300,000 and each county’s share would be roughly $830,000.
Truckenmiller said the college commissioned an audit by a vendor (Centrica Business Solutions) and learned that an energy performance contract (EPC) approach could allow the project to include additional upgrades — roughly $1.5 million in lighting, transformers, air handlers and other work — while using guaranteed energy savings to offset costs. He said the boiler-only replacement would be about $3.3 million but that combining the work with an EPC could enable $4.8 million of total improvements without additional county capital beyond the boiler share. “One of the reasons that we’re here tonight … is that we do have pricing locked in,” Truckenmiller said, noting the vendor’s pricing was guaranteed through March 8 if orders are placed in time to fabricate equipment and complete installation ahead of the next heating season.
Legislators probed funding options: applying the county’s committed annual $2.50 capital contribution to the college request over three years; reallocating other capital-plan items; drawing down fund balance; or bonding. County staff (Ken, county treasurer/administrator) and legislators discussed limiting an immediate fund-balance draw to about $200,000 by finding reductions in the capital plan, and the chair said he would ask the college to confer with Fulton County’s finance committee (a meeting was scheduled) and to return with firm cost-sharing proposals. Several members noted emergency replacement after a failure would likely cost more in temporary boilers and emergency labor than a planned procurement.
Truckenmiller described technical options: replacing the central plant with three smaller boilers for redundancy, asbestos abatement required for any boiler work, and installation timing that would place fabrication orders by March and installations during non-heating months. He said some campus components (chillers, steam traps, transformers) are past their expected useful life and that doing the work now would limit future cost escalation.
Next steps: The college will meet with Fulton County finance staff and return to Montgomery County with a recommended funding approach before the legislature’s February–March decision window, and staff will analyze the county capital plan to identify possible reallocations to reduce the immediate draw on fund balance.