Commissioners okay IT cooler; eye HVAC at Public Service Bldg.

Whitman County commissioners Monday approved the installation of a new air conditioner that will cool data storage servers in the county’s information technology building.

Pullman Heating and Air was the lowest of three local bidders on the project, quoting a price of $10,126 to install the new cooler.

IT Director Chris Nelson said her employees have had to check the status of the servers over the recent hot weekends to ensure the chiller is keeping them cool enough to operate.

Last year, a malfunction in the AC unit knocked out the county’s internet service.

The IT cooler was part of a list of capital improvements commissioners are making this year out of anticipated revenue from the increased property taxes from the Palouse Wind project. Receipt of those taxes will begin in 2014. Those taxes are expected to generate $1.2 million over the next 20 years.

The county’s current expense fund has borrowed $600,000 from the Public Works Department’s Solid Waste fund for the IT project and the new chiller which has been installed on top of the jail building.

The solid waste fund is kept outside of the operating budget. The fund will be reimbursed out of the portion wind farm tax revenue which will be dispersed to the current expense fund.

The loan will be for nine years at a quarter-percent interest.

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.

Commissioners also Monday discussed possible replacement of the heating and air-conditioning units in the Public Service Building.

Bob Reynolds, county facilities manager, said the current system dates back to the 1960s. It was installed used when the county remodeled the former Jones Truck & Implement building for public use. The old system sucks up electricity and lacks functioning controls on the AC unit. That means the system it is either fully on or fully off. Heat is turned up, even in summer, to manage the temperature inside the building.

“It’s an antiquated system and the energy costs are getting so high in there,” said Reynolds.

Last year, commissioners signed a contract with energy audit firm McKinstry to target equipment that can be installed to hold down the county’s utility costs.

McKinstry was hired out of a state program. That program requires McKinstry to pay additional costs if energy savings fall short of the company’s projections. Those savings are intended to be used to repay a loan from the state department of commerce that would pay the up front costs.

Earlier this year, the chiller on the roof of the jail was replaced through the program.

Reynolds Monday told commissioners about another grant from the state that will pay a portion of the county’s cost to install new equipment.

Initial estimates of replacing equipment in the public service building range from $1 million to $3 million, said Reynolds. Those costs could be paid out of energy savings over the next seven to 15 years, depending on how much equipment the county replaces.

Commissioner Pat O’Neill spoke in favor of the project, but Commissioners Greg Partch and Mike Largent worried about how the county would pay the up-front costs.

Partch noted the wind farm property taxes were leveraged this year to pay for the new air conditioners in the IT building and the jail and won’t be available for other proposed projects.