By WHITNEE ICE&nbsp;St. Joseph Post&nbsp;The St. Joseph School Board&nbsp;is looking to use federal COVID relief&nbsp;funds to pay for long over-due heating and cooling projects&nbsp;in the district.&nbsp;A St. Louis financial firm,&nbsp;L.J Hart and Company will finance the project and will be reimbursed by the district with federal funding.&nbsp;&nbsp;Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations&nbsp;Gabe Edgar says the district hopes to get more federal funding for H-VAC projects throughout the district, but for&nbsp;now current federal funding is getting put towards these specific projects.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“The Snyder Electric project that was approved, that’s going to happen right now because of this funding was new H-VAC&nbsp;at Hillard Tech School, new H-VAC for the big spaces at&nbsp;Central&nbsp;High School, Lafayette&nbsp;High School, and Benton High School, and I say big spaces, that means the gymnasiums and auditoriums,” Edgar tells St. Joseph Post.&nbsp;&nbsp;Larry Hart CEO of L.J.&nbsp;Hart&nbsp;says his company is the jumpstart to the funding process of the project since the ESSER funding is not an upfront payment but instead it is a reimbursement to the district.&nbsp;&nbsp;“You have to pay for the project yourself then the government reimburses you for that expense so we need some money to pay for the first&nbsp;construction cost then they get reimbursed and it’s a revolving program after that,” says Hart.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hart says this is as significant step made by the school board and administration towards improvement of the district.&nbsp;&nbsp;“This is a very positive, proactive effort on the part of the administration and the board to just start these&nbsp;improvements that have been needed for a long time and without having to have the tax payers pay for them like they would have with the bond issue,” says Hart.&nbsp;&nbsp;Snyder Electric, Heating, and Cooling will be the company working on the H-VAC systems at the schools.&nbsp;

Improvements coming to aging St. Joseph schools