School Board Seeks Bids For Buerkle Kitchen Renovation

By a unanimous vote of 7-0, the Mehlville School Board agreed to move forward on the kitchen renovation by putting the job out to bid. At least five bids for mechanical, electrical and plumbing work must be submitted for the new kitchen layout.

“We hope to have contractors start bidding in November,” said Katie Koester, Mehlville’s director of school food and nutrition services.

Teardown of the kitchen is expected to occur during summer 2012. However, some preliminary, “behind-the-scenes” work could take place as early as spring break.

Multiple problems prompted the full kitchen renovation at the middle school, including antiquated and inefficient kitchen equipment, deteriorated mechanical and plumbing structures, and poor traffic flow.

“The flow for the students is very cramped,” Koester said at the board meeting Wednesday night. “They (the students) actually go into the kitchen. It’s a very narrow space for them to walk through, proceed out and sit down.” But students do not enter the food-preparation area.  

Some kitchen equipment original to the building is no longer working properly. For example, only two of six burners work on the stove. And ovens tend to bake better on one side than on the other, Koester said.

A change-out of equipment is not the only solution: space is too tight under the current kitchen hood.

“It's not as simple as changing out the oven that doesn’t function properly,” said Steve Habeck, the district's facilities director. “It’s going to snowball into all this mechanical equipment that is basically obsolete.”

The kitchen’s grease trap is particularly troubling. It is currently inside the building under the kitchen and, consequently, not up to code. It needs to be 50 feet away from the building to meet code, Habeck said. And that requires ripping up the floor. 

Although other cafeterias in the school district need attention, Habeck said, Buerkle’s problems are the most severe.

It is also the highest meal-producing middle school in the district, serving 500 meals per day. About 72 percent of its daily meals are reimbursable.

The district's food and nutrition services department is self-funded, and will use the revenue generated from school lunches to fund the project. 

"We cannot take that money and put it elsewhere," said Superintendent Eric Knost. "Additionally we’re really not allowed to build-up reserves with that money.”

The cost for the kitchen renovation is approximately $523,000. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing work is estimated at $162,000. New equipment is estimated at about $267,000. The new equipment will be transferable, but not all equipment will be replaced.

If mechanical, electrical and plumbing bids come in lower than expected, the school can also consider additional upgrades such as a new kitchen hood and new rooftop HVAC systems.

The cost for the project would be spread over two fiscal years, with $200,000 already available in the current budget. 

Said Koester, the new design will be more efficient and provide more workspace for the high-volume kitchen.