Earlier this month the Marshall County Commissioners received an update on the jail maintenance from John Greer. He said the State Fire Marshall recently conducted the annual inspection and the facility passed with a 100%. He said the annual Jail Inspection completed by the state was also completed with no issues with building maintenance.
In May, National Sealcoating completed sealing of the parking areas and driveways which hasn’t been done since the jail was built. Turf Tenders has treated and fertilized the yard. Generator Diesel
Greer said the three backup battery systems were cleaned and inspected and repaired. Issues were found with some of the 911 batteries and the remaining ones were close to the end of life so a complete set of 24 batteries were installed and they now have a full warranty.
H&G did a complete service on the generator. The radiator for the generator was almost completely plugged because the generator sits and is so large that even when they put it to work it doesn’t require it to work hard enough. If there is an electrical issue, which happens quite often, the 1,000 KW generator isn’t stressed. He suggested having them come in and put a load on the generator to give it a real workout. It currently runs on Tuesdays for a test and inspection. Greer said it is really oversized for the job it needs to do.
Greer reminded the commissioners that in the spring he presented a proposal to replace 3 roof-top heating and air conditioning units in the spring of 2024. He said the cost is close to $250,000. Greer said proposals are only good for 30 days, so he recommended waiting until closer to the time to get accurate proposals.
Commission Mike Burroughs asked about lead time and John said 25 weeks.
The three units Greer wants to replace next are the one over the laundry area which he said was massive, the unit over the guard tower, and the one over the rec rooms which are used more as a dormitory. He said the unit over the laundry sucks 100% outside air because they have 2 massive dryers. The issue is the dryers only run about 3 to 4 hours daily, but the AC unit draws outside air all the time. Greer suggested the new unit be designed to operate as a conventional AC unit most of the time and when the dryers are on it would pull the outside air for those few hours which would be much more efficient.
A large crane is needed to replace the original units on the high roofs which are 16 years old. Greer suggests replacing them all at the same time to save money on the crane.
The County Commissioners suggested getting bids in September for the spring 2024 replacements.
Greer said he will be replacing two units this fall, in September, over the kitchen and the booking area.
Water Cooled Genset There are a total of 10 heating and AC units on the roofs of the jail and sheriff’s department. With these 5 replacements, it will only leave the large unit over the administration side of the sheriff’s department.