Story County reviews FY26 facilities budget, flags keyless-entry update, HVAC purchases and parking-lot work

Story County supervisors and facilities staff met Feb. 5 for a work session on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 facilities budget, focusing on several capital projects and recurring operating-cost increases.

The meeting foregrounded several near-term capital and maintenance items: a required keyless-entry firmware and hardware update that facilities staff said must be completed before December, a plan to buy the remaining heat pumps for county buildings sooner than previously scheduled, replacement of a failing domestic water backflow preventer at the Administration Building, ongoing generator testing and fuel costs, and a multi-part parking‑lot replacement at the Justice Center that staff estimated would exceed $200,000 if done in one phase.

Why it matters: the items carry one-time capital costs and recurring increases that affect operating budgets across county properties. Staff said some work could yield savings if consolidated (for example, repaving the entire Justice Center lot at once rather than in separate phases), and other items respond to safety or regulatory needs.

Joby Brogdon, facilities management director, told the board the keyless-entry work is mandatory: "It's a required update we gotta have completed before the December of this year," and said the county will perform the installation in-house while budgeting for hardware. Brogdon and other staff discussed a $8,000 line for the firmware/hardware update and a separate $3,200 allowance for badge supplies, though staff said they would confirm how those figures should be combined on the budget spreadsheets.

On heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) work, staff described a change in the scope and timing of an existing capital improvement project for heat-pump replacements. The project previously showed separate amounts for FY26 and FY27; facilities staff proposed buying the remaining units earlier so the county can avoid upcoming refrigerant transitions that the Environmental Protection Agency has been implementing.

At the Administration Building, staff reported the domestic water backflow preventer has reached the end of its serviceable life after repeated rebuilds and recommended replacement in the coming fiscal year. Brogdon also described weekly generator runs — "We run our generators every Tuesday" — as standard maintenance that keeps equipment reliable and fuel fresh, and he included ongoing generator fuel costs in the proposed budget.

At the Justice Center, staff broke the parking-lot work into three sections for budgeting and said the total to do all sections at once would exceed $200,000; doing the whole job at once could save roughly 10–15% compared with spreading the work over multiple years. Darren, a county staff member who assists with engineering and bid work, offered to help put any paving project out to public bid and assist with engineering to reduce outside costs.

Staff also flagged a handful of operating-cost increases already reflected in the draft budget: utilities (roughly a 5% planning assumption across many buildings), waste removal and pest control rate increases, and higher elevator- and camera‑monitoring fees. Brogdon said additional interior and exterior cameras will be added at several properties to improve coverage.

Discussion versus decision: most items were discussed at length and entered the draft FY26 budget for later formal adoption. The board did not take formal roll-call votes during the work session; staff recorded a direction to proceed with the listed budget entries and to clarify and consolidate a few line items (notably the keyless-entry hardware and badge-supplies accounting).