HVAC update approved for SCSO
WALLACE — The 50-year-old Shoshone County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) is getting a much needed upgrade on the heating and cooling system currently in place.
Mike Fitzgerald, Jay Huber and John Hansen, who make up the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), met with Sheriff Mike Gunderson, Jail Captain Lance Stutzke, as well as Gary Roylance from Control Solutions Northwest Inc. (CSN), last week to review, discuss and make a decision from the Heating and Air Conditioning unit quote from CSN.
In 2018, the jail was presented a report of a top-to-bottom inspection of the current jail building and the strengths and weaknesses.
“Even if we finance this cost, the amount of money saved from the water and sewer bill alone will pay for the finances. This should have been done years ago,” said Fitzgerald to the group.
The biggest ticket item are chillers, which transfer heat away from a space that requires climate control but uses water instead of air.
Time is of the essence, as Roylance explained that costs could increase as much as 20% every three months, so it’s important to get the prices locked as quickly as possible. SCSO currently needs to replace two chillers, and with the courthouse needing to replace one.
The new chillers are closed-loop systems which do not go through the massive amounts of water that the current system goes through, and can keep those working at SCSO from overheating to the point of melting cheese and chocolate inside desks.
“I did work in the mine where the conditions were much worse, but for some reason, I’m a lot whinier about it when working in the Sheriff's Office,” said Stutzke of the conditions. “Another time we went through a week where we had no heat.”
Currently, the control system is a pneumatic system, which only has a handful of local techs that can work on this, as it’s very outdated. CSN can come in and bring new controllers, with the ability to dial in and change the temperature from a phone.
However, Roylance explained the thing of most value is the maintenance.
“Before we start talking about spending money on new equipment or what’s wrong, we need to find out what works and what doesn’t. Some of that may be resolved simply by the cleaning. The coils haven’t been cleaned ever, or not for a very long time. I’m going to guess forever.”
CSN is located from Spokane, and they are very specialized to these services. Roylance currently lives in North Idaho, with plenty of staff that are able to come service and meet our needs at a local level.
BOCC approved three items, that Fitzgerald explained, “This will improve the existing working conditions, provide long-term cost savings, increase the efficiency of the existing infrastructure, will assist in the future improvement needs, and can add value if/when we need to resell the property.”
The items approved were three chillers, two for SCSO and one for the courthouse, a new control system to replace the outdated one, and cleaning and maintenance, for a total of $640,000. BOCC along with Grants Administrator Colleen Rosson will look to seed money from ARPA or USDA funds along with financing to keep the cost low.
“This is a smart move for the county with respect to how we spend our money, and what it costs us for energy. The one downside, is we are throwing money into a building that has cost us a lot. On the upside, when we get a new safety building, the old building will have added value.”