Courthouse opens as HVAC work continues
Apr. 15—Workers continued to work on the new HVAC system on the roof of the Pittsburg County Courthouse as the courthouse reopened this week.
The courthouse closed for April 9-12 last week as workers used a huge crane to lift new heating, ventilation and air conditioning units on top of the county courthouse.
Because the HVAC systems had to be turned off last week during the installation process, Pittsburg County commissioners opted to close the courthouse, since neither air conditioning, heating or ventilation would be available at the time.
As of Monday, the process was near-enough to completion that HVAC services were functioning, although some work still remained.
Two of the larger HVAC units were installed and working as of early Monday.
"They have two of the three big ones going," Pittsburg County Commission Chairman/District 3 Commissioner Ross Selman said early Monday. Selman referred to the three 40-ton HVAC units, which the county purchased for $227,295, with Johnson Controls handling the installation.
Selman said an issue arose because one of the units came out of the box with a part that didn't work properly. Workers with Johnson Controls were able to take the part from another unit, so a part will have to be replaced for that one.
Work is also still underway on installation for the District 18 District Attorney Courthouse Annex, Selmam sad.
County commissioners were hopeful once all of the new HVAC units are installed and properly functioning, the issue of widely-fluctuating temperatures inside parts of the courthouse would be resolved.
Pittsburg County Clerk Hope Trammell said her office was cool Monday morning, although there were still some discrepancies in the temperature in parts of the county clerk's office.
"We were pretty comfortable over there," Trammell said.
She said temperature fluctuations in her office were not completely resolved as of early Monday.
"There's still a five-degree difference in my office and their office," Trammell said, referring to her back office and the spaces where other county clerk's employees work.
Asked about that, Selman said the part of the courthouse where the county clerk's office is located has always been a problem.
"She's at the end of the line," Selman said of the clerk's office on the first floor on the courthouse's southeast side.
"We'll get it leveled out," Selman said of the slight temperature variation.
"I'm not complaining," Trammell said.
"It's 72 (degrees) in my office," she said, when last week it was 82 degrees.
"To me, it's 100 percent better than what it was," said Trammell.
In addition to the three 40-ton units for $227,295, county commissioners also paid $14,456 for one 7.5 ton unit and $16,354 for two 5-ton units.
Along with using the crane to lift the new HVAC units on top of the courthouse roof, workers used it again to lift the old units which were being replaced from the roof and lower them down to a truck and trailer, used to haul them to the Southeast Expo Center.
