Photo by Joselyn King Rodney Boniti, president of H.E. Neumann., proposes cost-savings to Ohio County Board of Education members.

WHEELING – H.E. Neumann sets the climate controls for nearly every school system in the Ohio Valley except one – Ohio County Schools.

The company estimates its proposal to take over the school district’s massive number of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems across 14 buildings will save Ohio County schools $2,799,277 over the next decade.

The collective size of the buildings to be heated and cooled is equal to that of about 1,300 homes, according to Rodney Boniti, president of H.E. Neumann.

Ohio County Schools has a long-standing contract with Siemens, which expires July 1. This week H.E. Neumann representatives made their pitch to take over the maintenance of the school district’s HVAC contract.

Most of the systems are new and were installed by Siemens during recent bond-specified building improvements across Ohio County Schools. Siemens has proprietary control codes over the systems, and the cost for any other company to take over their operation previously came with a $500,000 price tag, Boniti explained.

But since then, some former Siemens engineers – some with Martins Ferry backgrounds – have created and marketed a software system called “Purple Swift” that enables an outside contractor to overlay Siemens controls. H.E. Neumann has purchased and is using the software.

Siemens has operated in Ohio County Schools for 40 years, and Boniti acknowledged they were a great company.

“We’re a 102-year-old company, and we’re about a half-mile down the road from you folks,” he told board members. “We have 115 employees… 25 employed right here in Wheeling.

“We’ve had experience with service maintenance agreements for about 35 years now, so they are not new to us.”

H.E.. Neumann presently has 24 school districts, colleges and universities under a similar program.

“To my knowledge, Siemens has one and it’s the largest school district in the (Northern Panhandle) – Ohio County Schools. Kudos to them for being able to keep it,” Boniti continued.

“We could never crack that envelope, but not because of a lack of mechanical knowledge. It was basically because of the controls. All control companies have their proprietary controls.”

And to come up with $500,000 for the control codes “just to get to the table” is impossible for most companies to do, he explained.

Boniti added the process of taking over climate control systems actually doesn’t disrupt operations in the school. He estimates H.E. Neumann could take over the school district’s systems in 35 to 40 days.

Boniti explained the company begins by logging into the system and uploading the programming. From there they create a backup copy to take with them.

After about 40 days of work, the engineers are able to plug back into the system in about “a couple of hours,” according to Boniti.

The transition is “seamless,” he added.

“It’s not like you would be down for a month or two,” Boniti continued. “It is not like we have to change out equipment or anything like that. It is a simple process, at least for the control people.”

The contract being offered by H.E. Neumann would cost Ohio County Schools $535,000 in the first year, compared to $720,700 for Siemens.

H.E. Neumann provided a breakdown showing that over the next 10 years, Siemens will have charged the school district a collective $9,192,832, compared to a proposed $6,393,555 by H.E. Neumann.

The savings difference over the decade is projected to be $2,799,277.

Both companies employ union workers, though H.E. Neumann is local and pays local taxes, Boniti added.