The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 15 approved two measures to address long-standing HVAC control issues at the Muscatine County Jail: acceptance of a $4,275 Winona Controls proposal for building-automation repairs and authorization of a control-system replacement not to exceed $31,890.

Oscar Alvarez, the county’s general services supervisor, told the board that the jail’s existing controls are proprietary and that programming and maintenance have been difficult. He recommended replacing the Venmar control programming with an open-standard system so county staff can better operate and stage equipment, reduce stress on compressors and improve distribution.

Alvarez said the repair proposal addresses immediate balancing and visible deficiencies identified during system balancing work and that additional, smaller repairs could follow as maintenance items. He described the $31,890 control-system work as the final component to provide full control and staging capability, adding that the transition may require staged outages and short-term thermal discomfort in some jail zones while contractors debug the new system.

The board discussed the operational impacts, and Alvarez acknowledged the project could take a week of intermittent disruptions during the transition and that some zones could be briefly too cold or otherwise uncomfortable for a day or two. He also said prior similar transitions have been performed elsewhere, primarily in Minnesota, and that debugging after installation is expected.

Supervisors approved both the $4,275 repair proposal and the control-system replacement (not to exceed $31,890) by voice vote. Alvarez noted that some smaller change orders fall under an existing authorization for staff to approve repairs up to $5,000 to avoid delaying work.

The county did not discuss funding sources or a detailed contingency budget for post-installation debugging during the meeting. County staff will schedule the work and coordinate with jail operations to minimize disruptions.