The Knox County Building Committee approved some emergency service at the Nursing Home at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Ron Williams, the Nursing Home’s Environmental Services Director, informed the board that there was a failure with a compressor on a rooftop unit that was used for food and medical storage.
Williams brought two bids to the committee: the first from MSI for $3,350 for the unit’s compressor, or the whole unit for $6,460. The new unit would come with an economizer – which Williams says would be beneficial during the cooler seasons.
The other bid came from AMP: replacement of the unit would be $6,900, or the compressor for $3,900.
Williams informed the committee that the failing unit was 26-years-old, and he believed that it was time for it to be replaced.
Board Chair Pamela Davidson asked the committee how it was going to be paid for – citing a lacking referendum fund as a reason to reconsider approval.
Williams also told the committee that because of tariffs going up, the unit will cost significantly more as of Monday. Also, if the committee doesn’t approve the replacement, he would have to rent a unit to keep the storage space temperature controlled.
With a lacking referendum funding, the committee decided to pay for the replacement unit out of the building committee’s funds, on the condition that the referendum fund reimburse the building committee
The board approved MSI’s bid to replace the unit for $6,460 and deemed the work an emergency.
Additional action was taken by the committee to approve some renovation work at the courthouse for the IT Department.
Cody Basham of Klingner and Associates informed the committee that some work needs to be done in the current IT department space to meet building codes. He said that slimmer heating ducts would be installed and insulated to reduce leakage of heat and the noise, making the space more work friendly.
In short, this would negate the need to move the IT department.
Basham said that the total cost would be between $10,300-15,000. The building committee approved the action.
The committee also discussed the courthouse HVAC issue from the winter. Deciding to bring State’s Attorney John Pepmeyer in on the Finance Committee meeting to discuss if legal action could be taken.
