County borrows from landfill fund for jail chiller

Whitman County commissioners will next Monday finalize a $600,0000 loan from the Public Works Department’s Solid Waste fund to replace the chiller on top of the jail.

The current expense fund will borrow $600,000 from the solid waste fund, which is kept outside of the operating budget.

“Well I found $600,000,” said Gary Petrovich, county administrator, pointing to Public Works Director Mark Storey. “The loan shark’s sitting right over there.”

The loan will be for nine years at a quarter-percent interest. It will be repaid with anticipated tax revenues from the Palouse Wind project. Income from those taxes will begin in 2014. The wind farm is expected to generate $1.2 million over 20 years.

The solid waste fund, which derives from disposal fees to build up a fund for replacing the present facility when its life span expires, now totals $6.7 million.

Petrovich estimated interest costs for the in-house loan will amount to about $8,000. Interest generated by any funds in the county’s overall budget, however, is directed into the current expense fund, meaning the fund will be paying itself interest on the loan.

The chiller was among a list of capital improvements commissioners are set to make this year.

“It’s on its last legs and needs to be replaced,” said Commissioner Greg Partch.

Partch said maintenance fees on the current chiller mounted to nearly $2,000 a month during the hot summer months.

Facilities manager Bob Reynolds noted Divco, the company which has maintained the chiller, will no longer be servicing the model on the jail.

The new chiller will be installed by utility firm McKinstry under a supply contract through the state.

The state will monitor utility costs for more than a year after installation. If costs do not cover loan payments, the state will require McKinstry to pay the difference.

Reynolds expects bills for the new chiller will begin to come in by the end of this month.

Also on the list of improvements paid by the wind farm revenue is replacement of the air conditioning unit on the Information Technology building.

Current expense money was originally budgeted to pay for the projects, but commissioners decided to pay for them by borrowing against wind farm revenues to balance the 2012 budget.