By Branden LaCroix
Several major renovation and renewal projects are scheduled to take place over summer 2022.
The projects to take place include repairs to the McCarthy Center roof, replacement of the rubber flooring in May Hall’s stairways, installation of A/C units on Dwight Hall’s third floor, and replacement of the CASA building’s windows.
Projects were selected through a “ranking exercise” given to FSU executive staff, faculty, SGA, and the Budget and Planning Committee to determine which were prioritized for funding.
Dale Hamel, executive vice president, said the results of the “ranking exercises” are provided to the University’s executive staff, who make the final decisions for funding, and can make changes to project prioritization. However, he added, “In most cases, [they] go with the rankings.
“There’s times when a project just won’t rank high because it’s not very exciting, but it needs to get done,” he said.
According to Hamel, the University has a “tentative budget” of $220,000, but reductions had to be made, which decreased the budget to $200,000.
He said low enrollment is a factor in the decrease in the capital-planning budget, which is “obviously less than we’ve had budgeted for in prior years.”
FSU receives funding from the state through the Division of Capital Asset Management and
Maintenance for its capital-planning budget, but the University can also receive funding from other sources, including grants from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Hamel said FSU has also applied for funding through FEMA’s Disaster Relief Program. He added, although FSU and “other campuses” have applied for funding through FEMA, “Nobody’s seen any funding yet,” but the University has extra projects lined up for funding if the funds are received.
Patricia Whitney, assistant vice president of Facilities and Capital Planning, said funding for projects runs on a yearly cycle starting July 1 to June 30 of the following year.
Repairs to the McCarthy Center roof above the Student Services Center, which has “on-again off-again leaks,” were prioritized, according to Whitney.
She said there have been several previous attempts to try to Qx the leaks, but the problem has persisted, so a designer was brought in to “put together a larger repair project.”
She added the repairs will begin after finals because such a large project “can be a little disruptive.”
The roof repairs were not included in the “ranking exercise” as it was funded with the current year’s budget.
Whitney said the A/C project for Dwight Hall’s third floor classrooms will start during the summer, but might run into the start of the fall 2022 semester due to requiring a “longer lead time” for the project’s design.
The rubber flooring in May Hall’s stairwells will also be replaced during the summer.
Whitney said the current flooring “is long since past its useful life,” adding there are areas with asbestos under the flooring.
She said, “It would be nice to get those spruced up a bit.”
Another project is the replacement of the windows in the CASA building.
“Those windows are just very old,” Whitney said. “They’re drafty and we really want to get a better environment over there for the students who go to CASA and the staff who work there.”
She said this is another project that may continue into the fall 2022 semester due to supply issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extra repairs to the Henry Whittemore Library’s ceilings will be performed over the summer.
Whitney said although there is no hazardous material, the ceilings are “decaying.” She added the repairs have been an ongoing project.
“We’ve done about $150,000 of ceiling replacements in the last couple of years, and we just want to continue that to help the environment over there,” she said.
Whitney added there are other maintenance projects that take place every summer, including work and upgrades to FSU’s power plant facility, and other “maintenance-only projects we do that are kind of invisible to [students] but keep things rolling.”