Soggy Tuesday for Medford High School

Students and staff at Medford Area Senior High School got a soggy start to their Tuesday as a pipe burst resulted in some flooding in the school library.

According to buildings and grounds director Dave Makovsky, the break was in part of the school’s heating system.

Makovsky explained, “Each classroom, or space has a Unitventalator, this one being in the library. Unitventalators have a copper coil inside of them that hot water flows through, and a fan blows against the coil pushing the warm air out of the coil and into the space. Similar to how a car heater works.”

He said when the building switches into an unoccupied mode at 6 p.m. the water stops flowing to conserve energy. However they are all equipped with a freeze stat inside them.

“When the temp drops down like it did [Monday] night the freeze stat should signal the unit … water temp to cold start circulating water. However the freeze stat failed, so no signal to circulate hot water,” he said.

According to Makovksy it is an isolated problem, with the part to repair it costing about $50. He said MASH has 100 plus unitventalators which were replaced in 2017 under the maintenance referendum.

“We are on top of it,” he said, noting the break is just one of those things that happens.

He said that prior to making upgrades in 2017 they would have four to five freeze every winter.

“This is the first one since 2017,” he said, noting it is a small part that makes a big mess.