Lorain County commissioners voted Sept. 12 to award a $417,000 contract to Calvary Mechanical LLC of Columbia Station for a back-up HVAC system at the county 9-1-1 center and to fund the work from the county capital improvements account.

The commissioners authorized the administrator to issue a notice to proceed before Oct. 1, 2025, and set a contract completion timeline of 300 calendar days. County staff said two bids were received and Calvary Mechanical was judged the most responsive and compliant with specifications.

County 9-1-1 staff told the board the appropriation covers an HVAC upgrade and redundancy because the center’s computer and network equipment generate so much heat that rooms need greater cooling than typical office space. “This is an appropriation for the HVAC system… we have had two failures in the last six months of the air conditioning,” a 9-1-1 representative said, explaining those outages forced doors and windows to remain open — a condition staff said was unacceptable for clean, temperature-stable telecommunications rooms.

Commissioners and staff emphasized the risk of equipment failure without redundancy. County staff described past electrical shorts caused by wildlife and cited the potential for a small hardware fault to disable critical systems. The contract award includes authority for the administrator to notify the auditor to release retained funds at project completion.

The motion to award the contract carried with the commissioners voting aye. No amendment to the contract terms was reported during the meeting.

The county said the project will be paid from its capital improvements account; the board did not modify any levy or create new revenue during the vote. County staff indicated the project was deemed necessary to avoid interruptions to emergency communications.