Residents of Richardson Towers have been left in the cold this semester with continuing interruptions of their hot water supply.
Dormitory residents say that the problem has been ongoing since the beginning of the fall semester.
"The hot water has been going on and off for a while," said Damien Pointer, a freshman computer science major who lives in Richardson Towers. "No one has given us an explanation or timetable about when it will be fixed."
Kirk Lee, assistant area coordinator for the dormitory, lives in the building and has experienced the same discomforts as other residents.
"The problems are resulting from the instillation of a temporary boiler," Lee said. "There have been some malfunctions during the transition period."
Lee said that the temporary boiler was installed Friday.Stephen Krokowski has noticed the occasional absence of hot water in his dorm.
"This has been going on since the year began," Krokowski said. "It's not really affecting me, but I'm sure that it's affecting a lot of other people. I just hope that they can clear this up as soon as possible."
The Residence Life department knew the permanent boiler was in bad shape and that prompted the installation of a temporary replacement, said Peter Groenendyk, associate director of Residence Life.
"We're continuing to press on the Physical Plant to replace the permanent boiler and install new hot water heaters," Groenendyk said. "Every time that someone turns on the tap and there is no hot water, they need to call us no matter what time it is."
Groenendyk said that Physical Plant workers were out at 3 a.m. Thursday working on the temporary boiler.
"They left telling us that they had solved the problem, but apparently it cut off again," Groenendyk said.
New hot water heaters for Richardson Towers are on campus, but installation is on hold until the contractor completes design work.Physical Plant staff members are meeting today to set up a timeframe for getting the new heaters up and running.
"I anticipate a permanent solution to this problem in the next three to four weeks," said Danny Armitage, associate dean of students for Residence Life. "We're a little frustrated that the temporary system has not worked as well as planned."
Armitage said that plans to replace the permanent boiler have been in the works for five or six months.
"The new equipment had to be designed," he said. "It will be ten times better than the existing system because it has backups and is more cost efficient."
The University had to get approval from the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) before purchasing the new heating system because the price exceeded the $99,000 limit that The U of M can spend without consulting TBR.
Residents of Richardson Towers are eager for The University to solve the problem as cold weather approaches.
"It has been turning on and off for the past month," said Carlos Huitzil, junior MIS major. "One day you might have hot water, and the next day you might not.
