AC systems in Cape County Jail to be replaced

After spending much of the last 10 years trying to fix problems with the heating and cooling system at the Cape Girardeau County Jail, the time has come to replace it, Sheriff John Jordan said.

The county is advertising for bids to replace chillers in the air-conditioning system, create a way for fresh air to be brought into the jail from outside and put controllers on the system to save energy. Strickland Engineering of Jackson estimated last fall that repairs will cost $131,000, but Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said he expects the cost to exceed that.

"It is a big headache," Jones said. "We have probably spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars on it already, and we got tired of patching it."

Jones blames problems with the original designs incorporated in the 8-year-old jail, opened in March 2001 at a cost of $8 million. The new work should fix the problems for good, Jones said, and that is why the county hired Strickland, a local company with offices near the county administration building. "If something goes wrong, then I can go across the street and strangle the son of a gun," Jones said.

With the chillers constantly running, regular breakdowns are common, said Don McQuay, county building supervisor. Controllers installed in the administration building shut down the chillers when they are not in use or when the building is empty, saving the county the $15,000 installation cost in one year, McQuay said.

The jail is never empty, but controllers should aid in energy conservation, he said. So should a system for bringing fresh air inside to cool the building, he added.

The most common problems are hot and cold spots inside the jail and adjacent offices of the sheriff's department, Jordan said. Inmate complaints are common in all jails, but when parts of the jail are below 70 degrees, the complaints are justified, he said.

Nor can the system keep up with the heat generated by computers in the department's IT division, Jordan said.

When the jail was being built, cuts had to be made, and the heating and cooling system was redesigned to reduce costs. That was a mistake, Jordan said.

"It is time to do something here because it is only getting worse," Jordan said. "This is insane what we are having to pay out on a relatively new building for repairs to keep it going."

In anticipation of the cost, the county set aside money in the sheriff's budget for the repairs. If more is needed, Jones said, he will scour the budgets for other county buildings and transfer funds.

The issue isn't just inmate comfort but stemming the flow of repair funds as well, Jones said.

"The law is you have to treat these people humanely whether or not you doubt they deserve it," he said. "Mainly what I am trying to do is save the county money in the long haul."

Bids from contractors are due Aug. 24, and county officials then must decide which alternatives are affordable and which must wait. Eventually, however, everything that is needed will be done, Jones said.

"If it is a million dollars, we are going to have to fix it slowly," he said. "But it won't be that much."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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