EM of DPS with some penny wise pound braindead nonsense.

[Honky Tonk]

I agree 100%.

The issue is who gets to decide who 'maintains' these boilers. Who sets the safety standards.

In this debate there are two choices.

1) Building Engineers themselves [[who have their jobs at stake based on the answer)

2) The District Administration [[who are pretty much proven to be idiots and probably couldn't get a job at the Flint Water Department) under the guidelines and laws of the State of Michigan.

There are very specific laws and licenses on boiler operation. Normally, I'd trust the School District to make the best decisions based on student safety, the law, the regulations -- but I have to admin that in this case, I'm less sure.

I've worked closely with people who have done mechanical work on DPS school plants -- and I'm not sure the engineers they've hired nor the district have any idea what they're doing.

Someone posted that Detroit has old plants, and thus needs better building engineers. Well, that's somewhat true. But its also true that many DPS buildings have been upgraded. And the best decision in most cases would be to decommission the boilers and just use electric heat. Stupidly expensive of course -- but very very safe.

And perhaps next time the district spends $1.5 billion, perhaps they'll replace these aged systems.

Also worth noting that many of these schools have hot-water baseboard heat. Yes, they boilers for hot-water are technically boilers -- but they're about the safest boilers in existence. A union engineer just to run a radiant hot-water boiler is, well, just plain stupid.

Guidelines are already in place for boiler inspection, maintenance, and repair, which need to be followed to prevent disaster. Last time I checked, which was a few years ago, Stationary Engineers made close to $40 an hour plus bennies, depending on their skill level. It seems to me, rather than have someone sitting around, waiting for something to happen, a more plausible solution would be to turn the maintenance/repair of these boilers to an outside contracting company. They would do the routine maintenance/repair, start-up and shut-down of the boilers. It would probably be more cost and safety effective in the long run. A lot of big companies are going that route these days.

[Wesley Mouch]

Guidelines are already in place for boiler inspection, maintenance, and repair, which need to be followed to prevent disaster. Last time I checked, which was a few years ago, Stationary Engineers made close to $40 an hour plus bennies, depending on their skill level. It seems to me, rather than have someone sitting around, waiting for something to happen, a more plausible solution would be to turn the maintenance/repair of these boilers to an outside contracting company. They would do the routine maintenance/repair, start-up and shut-down of the boilers. It would probably be more cost and safety effective in the long run. A lot of big companies are going that route these days.

It might work, but what it doesn't provide for is local control. How can the jobs be impactful on the local economy? The 'big company' might have an employee who isn't related to a current employee or who wouldn't support the school board at the ballot box.

This doesn't sound like a problem, but it could result in outside forces taking control of the school district. Another undesirable possible side effect is the money saved might be spent on students.

[Honky Tonk]

It might work, but what it doesn't provide for is local control. How can the jobs be impactful on the local economy? The 'big company' might have an employee who isn't related to a current employee or who wouldn't support the school board at the ballot box.

This doesn't sound like a problem, but it could result in outside forces taking control of the school district. Another undesirable possible side effect is the money saved might be spent on students.

But, but, but..... we've ALWAYS done it this way!