General Services urges preventive maintenance and flags safety compliance gaps

The General Services director described a shift from reactive maintenance to a planned preventive maintenance program and asked the board to approve professional services funding to ensure county mechanical systems are inspected and maintained. The director said staff currently manages roughly 420,000 square feet across 52 county facilities and that, until recently, the county lacked a formal preventive maintenance program.

The director identified immediate compliance issues: fire alarm panel inspections had not been performed in the recent past and annual backflow preventer testing in county buildings had not occurred since 2004. He said these were code and safety requirements (citing NFPA 72 for alarm inspection requirements and state law for backflow testing) and put specific preliminary budget line items on the table (for example, a $7,000 line for fire alarm panel inspections and a $5,262 line for backflow testing). He also proposed professional services to maintain new chillers and boilers and said professional contractor visits would be paired with on‑the‑job training for staff to reduce future contract reliance.

The presentation included energy‑cost placeholders (a 10% increase for electric and heating line items based on Dominion Energy’s announced increases) and a request to sustain contractor inspections so deficiencies can be addressed proactively rather than reactively. Board members asked about work‑order data, preventive versus reactive tasks, and contract procurement; the director said he will expand measurable tracking as the preventive program is implemented.