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Swain County building and grounds reports multiple HVAC, plumbing and facility repairs
Summary
The county building and grounds department reported replacement of HVAC units, plumbing and boiler repairs, library HVAC parts shortages, lift station repairs and other routine maintenance across county facilities; staff warned that some replacement strategies could exceed six-figure costs.
Brooks, the county building and grounds department head, told the Swain County Board of Commissioners that crews had completed multiple HVAC, plumbing and boiler repairs and other maintenance across county facilities.
“I'll start off with the jail. We've worked on several HVAC units up there. We had to replace 2 of them,” Brooks said, listing recent work that also included electrical circuit repairs, replacement of two hot-water circulating pumps and boiler maintenance. He reported replacement of an HVAC unit and LED lighting upgrades at the county museum and work on the museum bell tower clock.
Brooks said the library has ongoing problems with HVAC units and that parts for the library units are difficult to source. He reported work on a municipal lift station and on multiple HVAC units at the county courthouse, and said staff moved offices at the Department of Social Services and completed painting and fixture replacement at the health department and courthouse.
On system replacement strategy, Brooks said the county has discussed installing mini-split systems in some buildings but that the cost would be substantial. “It would be well over a hundred thousand dollars because ... you would have to have a mini split in every room,” Brooks said, noting that replacing centralized indoor/outdoor units is significantly cheaper in many cases.
Brooks and county staff said they are discussing rotating HVAC unit replacements instead of allowing multiple units to fail at once and are tracking costs and parts availability. The department asked the board to consider longer-term budgeting for systematic replacements given the scale and cost of work in county facilities.
Why it matters: ongoing HVAC and infrastructure failures can affect county operations, occupant comfort and safety, and carry unpredictable capital costs; staff emphasized the need to plan replacements and avoid deferred-maintenance spikes that raise overall project costs.
Next steps: the department plans ongoing repairs, is evaluating replacement strategies and will continue to report maintenance needs to the board.
