Committee reviews three HVAC bids for sheriff's office; Johnson Controls presents feasibility study and budget pricing

The committee spent an extended session on options to upgrade the sheriff's facility HVAC system, hearing a detailed presentation from Ben Malone of Johnson Controls and discussing two other vendor proposals. The committee did not award a contract but directed staff and the sheriff's office to compare the three bids and return with clarifying details and a recommendation.

Johnson Controls presentation and recommended scopes: Ben Malone described a feasibility assessment and budget pricing packages called Facility Improvement Measures (FIMs). He said the largest recommended scope (FIM 1) would remove three legacy condensing units, install a new chilled-water plant, provide new chilled-water coils for air handlers 1 and 2, demolish aging air-handler 3 and replace it with a smaller, more accessible unit, and add a chilled-water coil to the kitchen makeup-air unit to control humidity. Malone emphasized the approach was budget-level pricing only and that engineering and any required structural roof reinforcement would be part of a subsequent engineering/design phase.

"These are budgets, budgets, budgets," Malone said repeatedly, cautioning that the figures were preliminary and contained contingency.

The presentation also included two boiler options under FIM 2 (either replace one boiler with an upsized dual-fuel boiler to reach an estimated 2.5 million BTU capacity or replace both boilers with two new 2.5 million-BTU boilers) and two controls options under FIM 3 (a partial controls upgrade tied to the new chiller or a full controls replacement to modern BACnet communications).

Budget ranges and key technical issues: Malone gave budget orders of magnitude for the proposals and said the work would be turnkey if the committee chose to proceed. He listed a partial-chiller-plus-controls budget at about $998,100 and a full replacement option at about $1,279,800 (numbers presented as budget pricing). He also warned of industry-wide refrigerant issues that have made continued repair of aging DX (direct-expansion) systems increasingly problematic, and argued that a chilled-water approach concentrates refrigerant outdoors in a chiller rather than running refrigerant to indoor coils.

Vendor comparison and committee direction: committee members and staff noted differences in scope among the three vendors (Johnson Controls, Jamar, and KBK). Members asked staff to confirm whether high-voltage wiring and tax were included in each vendor's numbers, to confirm the structural engineering needs for rooftop chiller placement, and to clarify warranty and factory-startup procedures. Malone noted Johnson Controls could offer Sourcewell cooperative-pricing if the committee desired that procurement route.

Concerns and priorities raised: committee members repeatedly voiced a preference for doing the work "the right way" up front to avoid repeated repairs. They also asked for a clear delineation of essential work versus desirable upgrades, and discussed phasing work across fiscal years to reduce borrowing. Committee members and the sheriff favored FIM 1 (the chiller/makeup-air priority) as most urgent, with boiler and controls upgrades possibly staged depending on budget.

Next steps: staff and the sheriff's office will gather apples-to-apples comparisons of the three written proposals, remove tax where the county is tax-exempt for clearer price comparison, confirm what is included or excluded (electrical service upgrades, asbestos abatement if present, roof structural upgrades), and prepare a packet for the full county board. No contract award was made at the meeting.