ThisWeek CW 06/05/2014
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/06/02/city-township-schools-plan-calls-for-joint-project-to-build-fueling-station.html
{Co-authored story}
The Canal Winchester school district wants to join forces with the city of Canal Winchester and Madison Township to build a new fueling station at the north end of the high school parking lot near the tennis courts.
The school board approved the joint project May 19.
Canal Winchester City Council was scheduled to hear the first reading of legislation for the project at its June 2 meeting, after ThisWeek‘s press time.
Mike Bruning, director of operations for the Canal Winchester school district, said the overall cost of the project is estimated at $90,000. If the city — the last of the three entities to consider the plan — approves, construction is expected to take place this month.
Officials said the school district’s share of the costs will be approximately $67,000 with the city kicking in $15,000 and the township paying around $8,800. Each entity will pay for its own fuel purchases.
“Right now, the plan is to provide gas and diesel fuel only,” Canal Winchester Public Works Director Matt Peoples said. “But we have allocated space for a compressed natural gas tank in the future.”
Madison Township trustees approved the joint venture at their May 21 meeting.
“The township will utilize the facility for Fire Station 182 vehicles, and only as a backup for our other equipment, should our pumps at the main complex be out of service,” Township Administrator Susan Brobst said.
Bruning said relocation of the current fueling station has been under consideration for many years, but site preparation costs proved to be too high.
“The first set of bids that we got from one of our local vendors was immediately about $50,000 less than what we had in the original location,” Bruning said.
“We now have had an opportunity to partner with the city and Madison Township,” he said. “The city brought forth an opportunity to utilize the paving vendor they are using for the Beech Road project. They have given us an excellent price, provided they can tack it on to the project they’re doing on Beech Road.”
According to Bruning, the current fuel tanks do not meet today’s standards, but are permitted because they were in place before the new guidelines were enacted.
Once the new fueling station is in operation, he said, “We will have lower maintenance costs. We will have a lower fuel premium that we pay and our labor costs will go down significantly.”