Dodge County building officials outline tornado damage, ongoing repairs and insurance claims
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Summary
County facilities staff described cleanup and multiple building repairs after a recent tornado, including damaged HVAC units, a bent shed wall, a pulled light pole and pending insurance claims; staff said they will track costs in Tyler Munis and convert a medical examiner cooler to emergency power.
After a recent tornado, Dodge County facilities staff described cleanup work and multiple repairs across county properties, and told the building committee they are pursuing insurance claims and internal repairs.
John, the county facilities director, told the Building Committee that crews removed a downed tree and helped Clearview with parking-lot cleanup and that “there is other repairs that we need to do from the tornado damage.” He reported hail and wind damage to rooftop air-conditioning equipment, including a Johnson Controls condenser on a CBRF rooftop whose bent condenser fins “will diminish the cooling capacity of that unit,” and which Surefire has been trying to price with Johnson Controls. He said if replacement coils are no longer available the county will “have to look elsewhere.”
John said a courthouse third-floor rooftop unit also sustained bent fins; staff plan to try fin combs to straighten them because that unit is scheduled for replacement in the county capital improvement plan in 2026. He described a steel shed at the Henry Dodge Building with one wall pushed out; crews bought materials at Menards and expect to make it usable again for about $500 in materials.
On other damage, John said a parking-lot light pole was pulled from the ground and the main roadside sign at the Henry Dodge site also was hit; the county has quotes and is waiting for an insurance adjuster. He confirmed all storm-related labor and materials costs are being charged into separate damage accounts in Tyler Munis and “countywide, it's all gonna get put together.”
John also said the medical examiner’s main cooler will be converted to emergency power later this week, which he said will end the need to move decedents to the reserve cooler during outages. He added that county generators worked during recent outages and that backup systems performed as expected.
Committee members asked about the overall dollar estimate of damage; staff said a consolidated figure was not yet available. John estimated that if total damage were under $1 million he would be “shocked,” but he did not provide a formal, consolidated damage total or a finalized insurance tally.