The Livonia Public Schools Operations Committee on Nov. 10 recommended that the full board consider a package of facility purchases next week, including a new generator for the central office, grant-funded hydration stations, 1,000 tons of road salt, additional lockdown shades and large portable fans to improve air movement in gym spaces.

District staff said the generator recommendation would be an award to Innovative Energy Solutions for a total recommendation of $435,000 — described to the committee as $395,500 in hard construction costs plus a $39,500 construction contingency — and would enable the central office to run the whole building, including the server room, during outages. A district project presenter said the new generator would work with the existing unit so that a single failure would not cause a district-wide loss of servers.

Mr. Green (district operations staff) described the hydration-station work as part of the state’s Clean Drinking Water Access Act and recommended Spartan Construction of Livonia as the bidder for $483,000. Green told the committee that only one bid was received for the work but that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) cleared the district to proceed with a single vendor because the market is busy and some firms declined prevailing-wage work.

On winter readiness, staff recommended purchasing 1,000 tons of road salt from Detroit Salt Company at $63.97 per ton (total $63,970) from the general fund. Staff estimated current inventory at roughly 850–900 tons and said the district uses about 1,500 tons in an average year.

The committee also recommended $45,095 for additional lockdown shades of the same specification used elsewhere in the district (Taylor Nightlock product, per staff) and a proposal to buy 18 large portable floor fans (6-foot units) at a total of $113,874 from Big Ass Fans to improve air movement in gyms and field houses where HVAC is limited.

All of these items were placed on next week’s board meeting agenda for formal action. Committee members asked staff questions about installation scope, lead times, decibel impacts and grant-reimbursement timing; staff said the hydration-station work will be paid up front and later reimbursed under the grant and that generator lead times are favorable but remain subject to supply fluctuations.

The committee did not take final votes on any of these items at the Nov. 10 meeting; formal approval is expected or scheduled at the board meeting on Nov. 17.