Keeping it cool at Cape City Hall

The City of Cape Girardeau has installed a 30-ton Trane high-efficiency chiller unit to cool City Hall at 401 Independence St. — a building municipal officials hope to move out of in the next few months.

“It just got too warm, too quick,” said Mayor Bob Fox, speaking of the need for the air-cooler unit installed in mid-May.

Completion of the $12.5 million city hall project at 44 N. Lorimier St., originally set for Oct. 1, has been delayed because of interruptions in the building supply chain, with officials informed certain roofing materials necessary to finish the project’s new addition are unavailable at present.

Retiring city manager Scott Meyer said a contingency fund set aside for upkeep and maintenance was tapped to provide the $47,317 necessary to buy the chiller, have it installed and have the faulty unit removed.

“We looked at other options, but renting a unit was going to cost over $34,000. So, we thought it best just to buy one,” explained Meyer, adding because the unit permanently improves the building, the chiller may increase the value of the building when it comes time to sell it in the future.

“Renting would give us no residual value,” he said.

“I know we have funds set aside for just this sort of problem,” Fox said, “and we can get the money back out in a sale because we’ve made an improvement.”

The current City Hall, the old Lorimier School, was built in 1937. The city-owned property has housed City Hall since 1978.