Chairman's Corner
No.12, May, 2007
Begging the indulgence of the many NSW bridge players who never set foot in our premises, I propose to devote this column to what is (literally) the hottest topic on the minds of those who do, namely air-conditioning. This problem has plagued the NSWBA ever since it bought its Goulburn Street premises, back in 1992, and stems from the fact that the premises were never designed to cater for the use that they
are being put to. The NSWBA clubrooms comprise one floor of a commercial building and when the building was originally strata titled the air-conditioning specifications that had to be met were those applying to standard office premises, to wit., enough capacity to handle a heat loading of one person per 10 square metres. Given that the playing area is 450 sq metres, that translates into a maximum load of 45 people. Little wonder then that on a Monday night when we have forty tables (160 people) or at a weekend event such as the GNOT Metropolitan Final where we might have as many as sixty tables (240 people), the place becomes unbearably hot. And it’s not just a question of temperature, there’s also the issue of air quality. The fetid atmosphere that players complain of is due in no small part to a steady build up of carbon dioxide, not to mention the depletion of oxygen.
As you’d appreciate, overcoming
these problems will involve a major upgrade to the
air-conditioning plant the capacity of which will need to be
boosted to the extent where it can not only handle the heat load
generated by 250 people over the course of a day, but also, to
cool down a steady flow of fresh air drawn from outside where the
ambient temperature might well be 10 to 15 degrees higher.
Council is obtaining a number of
competitive quotes for the work involved. Early indications are
that these will be of the order of $75,000, not including two
major extraneous items. The first is that the scale of the work is
such that the premises will be unusable for a period of weeks. As
it would be unthinkable to cancel all bridge sessions for that
length of time, we will need to rent suitable space nearby to
accommodate displaced sessions. The second is that local council
approval will be required, which could potentially expose us to
additional costs. The Building Code has been tightened
considerably since 1992 and it is unlikely that council will
restrict its attention to just the air-conditioning issue. The
question of whether the premises comply with the fire code (i.e.
can 250 people be evacuated within the prescribed time), the
adequacy of toilet facilities, and even the permissible floor
loading may be revisited. Should this scrutiny produce an adverse
finding, the resultant costs could be substantial.
Local council is not the only obstacle
we have to clear, there is also the Body Corporate. In the past
they have been less than accommodating and, despite putting a
great deal of effort into rehabilitating that relationship, I
don’t expect an easy passage for any proposal we submit. The
bottom line, then, is that all of this is going to take some time
to play out and I would ask your forbearance in the interim.
Importantly, for those of you who don’t frequent NSWBA’s premises,
let me give you this assurance – not a single penny of affiliation
fees or any other ‘state’ impost will be channelled towards fixing
the air-conditioning. While the details of how the rectification
cost will be met are yet to be worked out, the guiding principle
will be one of ‘user pays’. In other words only those who utilise
the premises, now and in the future, will bear the cost.
Dr Alex Yezerski
Chairman NSWBA
