Commission discussed maintenance of HVAC units
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY - After a lengthy discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 17, County Commission Chair Alison Hamilton said that she would like to go out on a second opinion on replacement or repairs for the two heating units at the 4-H Building. She said that means they would open it back up to the public for bids.
Public Works Director Jesse Walton said, “If we keep it under the $25,000, we don’t have to go out for bid I can just go out and get quotes on that.”
At that point Linn County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta said commissioners needed to go into a short executive session for attorney-client privilege in anticipation of litigation. When they came out, there was no further discussion about the heating units.
The discussion about the heating units included Jason Webber, a heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) technician the county has under contract for service on the county’s HVAC units. He explain the problems that were happening with the units.
”There was a little bit of confusion in talking to Lennox to begin with,” Webber said. “I called and talked to them about the one unit and they said, ‘No, you don’t have any warranty left at all on those units.’ Well, when I called back and actually talked to the warranty supervisor, they informed me that unit 2 does have a warranty on it for two more years.
“So we can get the heat exchanger replaced under warranty. But what they did ask in the process of replacing those, they recommended replacing the indoor motor, the roll-out switch, the LP conversion kit so that we make sure that we’re back on the right propane settings.”
Commissioner Jim Johnson asked Webber about the warranty on the new heat exchanger.
Webber explained, “The way they do that, it’s only as good as the original warranty, which is the reason why ,if we could have got to that other unit, we could have replaced it in July 2025. We would have been good. For unit 2 it would be good until 2027, but unit number 1 is out of warranty. It goes with the original warranty.
“This will take care of everything. This is probably the worst I’ve seen in a system this young.”
He told them that the cost for repairing Unit No. 2 the one under warranty would be $3,030. To repair Unit No. 1, which the warranty had expired on last August, would be $4,987.
Commissioner Jim Johnson said, “Instead of $37,970 (to replace them), we’re at $8,017 to fix it.”
Webber said that was the case unless the commission wanted to replace them.
Johnson asked, “These units aren’t that old, are they?”
Webber told him that one was installed in 2015 and one was installed in 2017.
Webber continued telling the that he had cleaned those systems out two years ago because they had become so loaded with soot.
Johnson asked, “So it probably has not been going in the high stage?”
Webber answered, “When I do maintenance I can put it into high stage manually but I can’t say that it is doing it on its own.By replacing the board and the thermostat, this will guarantee that we are going into high stage. And also making sure that we get the right propane conversion kit.”
“The tops of them are like caved in,” Webber said. “ I don’t know whether when they were doing work on the building they set a bunch of heavy stuff on top of them or something. It’s cosmetic; it’s not hurting anything. I was pretty disappointed when I saw what it looked like because that’s not the way they looked like before that building started getting the work done on it.”
A KCAMP risk assessment, presented by Jon Dickson, was delivered to Linn County in Dec. 2025, said that a protective covering, cage, or fence should be placed around all generators and air conditioning units to help prevent theft or damage to the units.
KCAMP is the member owned, member-funded self-insure property and liability pool formed under the Kansas Association of Counties that Linn County belongs to for insurance.
Hamilton said she was not ready to make a decision that day. She asked Johnson what his thoughts were.
“I don’t know,” Johnson said. “That’s a lot better price for us, but I don’t know.”
Webber added, “I will say we know that the air conditioning is working in them right now. As far as carbon monoxide testing I can’t even get the unit to run long enough.”
Webber told the commissioners, “For all the components and everything it’s like a seven-day lead time to get it in and get it done.”
Webber said he could probably get one done a day.
Johnson said, “We just have to decide whether we to go new or roll the dice on the old one.”
Ali asked if they had to have two or whether they could convert it to just one.
They are set up as two systems, Webber said. They are 7.5-ton units. We’ve run one at a time before just to see what it would to. It will not do it in the heat of the summer. I mean, if we bumped one up, if we were to convert to one system we would have to go inside and we’d basically have to gut the entire duct system and redo it all.
In a separate conversation with the Journal, Webber said that the lack of insulation in the building meant that it was more difficult to heat and cool. That was the reason for the two large units.
Hamilton said she was concerned about going out for bids to correct the problem when the county already has Webber under contract to do maintenance for the county buildings.
Paletta answered, “There is not an exclusive-use provision in here that I saw. Also the contract can be canceled at any time. So the language that I was looking for in regards to sort of your sole provider of these types of services, that’s not in there.”
“I guess for me looking through the contract,” Hamilton said, “I don’t understand how with the contract that we’ve hired him to do all of this maintenance and on the units, and cleaning the units, and checking electrical components, and leaks and soot ,and changing filters, winter and fall.
“Every time he does an inspection, we’ll be provided an itemized list of any issues. I just don’t see how two units fell through the cracks with all of this being paid out. Thousands of dollars on a contract for maintenance and then both units fail. I just don’t understand. Is that logical thinking?”
Johnson agreed with Hamilton.
Hamilton and Johnson asked Walton if he had received a checklist when the units were serviced.
“I’ve never seen one come across my desk or through emails,” Walton said.
Hamilton asked, “Even though you haven’t seen one, do you feel like Jason Webber, he was performing the duties under the contract though, going out there checking them?”
You know just trusting his word on it is all I have to go off of on that,” Walton answered. “I can’t sit and micromanage everything that goes on.”
“I heard him say that it was cold a year ago or two years ago, whenever he vacuumed it out,” said Johnson. “Then it was dirty again. I mean it should have been inspected. Looks like to me every six months.”
Johnson said that going forward a checklist should be required. Walton agreed.
Johnson said he believed that this was the first time that the county had done a service contract with someone with a two-year contract to service the HVAC systems He said that the county had just done it on an as needed basis before.
The motion for the contract with Webber was found in the Feb. 26, 2024 minutes to pay Webber $6,240 a year for all 26 units to receive quarterly maintenance.
Hamilton asked if Webber was getting paid. County Clerk Chasity Ware said that he was.
More discussion was held about going out on a second opinion and a public bid on the repair or replacement of the units. After the brief executive session, there was no more discussion and the meeting adjourned.