Clymer Central School District is looking into a potential emergency project, following a leak discovered in a hot water tank. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

CLYMER — Following the discovery of a leak in a 25-year-old hot water tank, Clymer Central School is looking at a potential emergency capital project to have that fixed.

During the December Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Beth Olson said the leak is in one of the tanks, coming from a pinhole, but there is no evidence of rust or deterioration on the outside.

“It’s actually degrading from the inside out,” Olson said. “It has been on our building commission survey but it hasn’t been raised to the top, it was still in really good working order and is assessed each year.”

Olson noted that Clymer cannot run school if there is no access to hot water, especially in the bathrooms, which is why the district needs to look into fixing the tank now and it cannot wait until the next capital project.

“So, with an emergency project it is an expedited review by the state and the board needs to declare an emergency project,” Olson said. “We declare Type Two SEQR that it’s got no environmental impact. We work with vendors to get quotes, we get approval from state ed. But, it is also eligible for building aid.”

Depending on how the project is approved, Olson said the building aid could come back in one year or over 15 years, depending on how urgent it is seen to be. She said it is believed that the project will qualify as an emergency project and that they are just working now on getting the steps in order, adding that it will be brought back to the board for further discussion in January.

In regards to cost, the replacement of one hot water tank will be around $100,000, Olson said. There are two tanks about the same age, and Olson said they are looking at doing both, and conversations with architects have told the district it can be lumped into one project.

“That would be important, especially if we want to update it to a high efficiency or if we want to do one-to-one, but if we have the opportunity to do both, why wouldn’t we just do both?” Olson said. “So, we’re looking at about $200,000. … That will be part of our discussion next time as to how we want to fund it.”