5-year-old courthouse HVAC system may need replacement

The Nuckolls County Board of commissioners met at the courthouse in Nelson, Tuesday. David Mussman was an excused absence.

The board met Tuesday because of the Juneteenth holiday Monday. The board is meeting weekly, through the middle of August, to formulate a new budget.

The board approved claims. The county road department noted they expected the new loader to be delivered Tuesday.

The bulk of the meeting was dedicated to conversations with various representatives from different companies concerning the heating and air conditioning system at the courthouse.

The county had a new heating and air conditioning system installed by Energized Electric five years ago. The system, manufactured by Trane, functioned efficiently for two years. Problems then arose with various components of the system. Either certain areas of the building were not receiving heat or cool air or parts were not functioning. A series of changes within the Trane Company has led to further issues as the ownership became more convoluted. The system came with a 10-year parts warranty.

Energized Electric has been installing the replacement parts but not billing the county as they felt an obligation to support their work.,

The challenge of acquiring parts has become a constant battle. Parts are sourced from Samsung, based in South Korea. It can take two weeks to two months for replacement parts to arrive, leaving county workers to toil in unacceptable conditions. At present, the county magistrate has no air conditioning in her office yet she has to be present to process court matters. Portable air condition-ers are a stop-gap measure at best and put a strain on the building’s electrical system.

Gay is awaiting the arrival of a replacement compressor for one that failed. He is also attempting to stockpile some vital replacement parts in order to be proactive when items malfunction.

A conference call was set up with the original supplier of the system, O’Connor, an Omaha based supply company, Gay, along with representatives from Trane and Samsung, discussed the situation. Samsung is honoring the parts warranty. Trane stated they are now affiliated with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese multi-national conglomerate.

The options presented to the commissioners came down to two basic choices: keep repairing each item as it malfunctions while incurring the labor cost or replace the system with a new one.

The commissioners will revisit the topic at their next meeting when concrete proposals are presented.

The board approved a renewal of the STOP program, which allows certain driving offenses to be expunged from the record upon completion of the courses.

The board will meet at 8:30 a.m., Monday, at the courthouse.