JOHNSTOWN - The Greater Johnstown School District will spend more than $50,000 to fix a groundwater seepage problem that is still being rectified.
The Board of Education Thursday night at Johnstown High School voted 7-0 to declare an emergency capital project.
The board awarded the $51,006 project to Valley Petroleum Services of Schenectady.
A resolution approved by the board indicated the State Education Department's Facilities Planning office determined that recent remediation of seepage of groundwater into the fuel oil tank supply lines and sump at JHS and Warren Street Elementary School constitutes capital reconstruction on an emergency basis.
District officials said a vendor approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation provided the district with a scope of work.
"In early February, there was an alarm malfunction in the tank," said district School Business Manager Alice Dillenbeck.
She said DEC did an inspection and the alarm was fixed last week, but now there is more remediation work that needs to be done.
Lease negotiations
In other business, Superintendent Katherine Sullivan reported that the district has been negotiating with Crossroads Incubator Corp. Executive Vice President Peter Sciocchetti regarding lease of CIC property on Crescendoe Road. The district leases property for its transportation department and storage of buses.
"We've been in negotiations with Peter Sciocchetti to extend our lease," Sullivan said.
The district voters last May extended the CIC lease for the district's transportation facility on Crescendoe Road for one year, but the district may need it extended further until its new bus garage is built.
Business consultant Ralph Acquaro said the building on Crescendoe Road has to be refinanced, so the price of the lease may be rising sharply.
In another transportation-related matter, the board authorized the district's purchasing agent to issue a letter of intent to Leonard Bus Sales of Deposit, Broome County, for the lease of two new 66-passenger buses, pending voter approval May 18. The cost to the district will be $16,260 per year per bus for five years, plus a one-time documentation fee of $400 per bus.