MANSFIELD — The price of temporary cooling at the Richland County Courthouse came in cheaper than first discussed.
Richland County commissioners — who on Tuesday talked about spending up to $44,129 on a contract with Mobile Air & Power Rentals of Cleveland for a temporary, mobile air-conditioning unit that can cool the entire building — settled Thursday on a comparable deal for about half the price.
The temp fix is needed because the computer controls on the 10-year-old, water-cooled air conditioning system in the five-story courthouse have failed and it could be a month or longer before repairs can be made.
On Tuesday, commissioners approved spending $19,984 with SMARDT Incorporated of Ontario, Canada, for parts and labor for new controls that were running off an outdated Windows XP system.
Commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved a $20,470 contract with United Mobile Heating & Cooling, an Illinois-based company with offices in Ohio, to rent a portable, 170-ton system for one month. A second month, if needed, would cost an additional $14,970.
The three-member panel also a $2,800 contract with Lake Erie Electric and up to $20,000 with Standard Plumbing & Heating to help hook the portable chiller into the building’s HVAC system.
County administrator Andrew Keller praised the work of maintenance superintendent Josh Hicks and Commissioner Tony Vero.
“I have to say the maintenance superintendent and Commissioner Vero have scrambled to solicit these quotes and it’s been a fast-paced couple of weeks in order to get this done as quickly as possible,” Keller said.
Hicks said the portable unit, which will be placed in the parking lot on the Diamond Street side of the courthouse, could arrive as soon as Monday. He said it will take about a week to get it hooked into the building’s AC system.
Commissioner Darrell Banks said Lake Erie Electric and Standard Plumbing & Heating, both with local offices, are “on standby” and will get to work on the project as soon as the chiller arrives.
Hicks said SMARDT has projected it can be on site to replace the controls on the current AC the week of June 10, if it has the parts, which may be on back-order.
“If they don’t have the parts, it’ll be probably an additional month (of rental for the temporary),” Hicks said.
All of the work will be paid from the county’s capital fund.
Until the temporary system is up and running, Hicks has said he is turning the system on at night to pull in cooler air as evening temps sink into the 50s.
“So it’s cool in the morning, and we’ve been trying to live with it all day,” Hicks said Tuesday, adding that some windows in the courthouse can be opened and fans are also being used in some offices.
Vero said Tuesday the expense for the temporary system was a must, given the time of year.
“When this first went down, we were told that the Windows XP board was only several weeks out. After more than a week, they said it could be six to eight weeks out, which we knew wouldn’t be acceptable,” he said.
“We have jury trials on the (top) floor, so this is a costly but necessary fix to resolve the issue immediately and we’re going to get the circuit board to fix the AC,” Vero said.
Vero said earlier this week Hicks and Banks have been working on what he described as a “long-term fix” for the next several years to correct a “design flaw” in the system.
“We’re going to look at ways to upgrade the system and have some redundancies. So, if this ever happens again, we won’t be in this position,” he said. “It’s all part of the ongoing capital upgrades in this building.”
