Legislature authorizes Central Hudson contract after discovery of insufficient gas pressure for Justice Center HVAC

Greene County legislators authorized a contract with Central Hudson PS Electric Corporation to install a high‑pressure gas service and related electrical work at the Greene County Justice Center after project consultants failed to identify insufficient natural‑gas pressure necessary to run the building’s HVAC systems.

Committee members said the subconsultant engineering team missed that the main gas feed did not provide the pressure required by the selected HVAC equipment. Sean (identified in the record as a county project contact) told the committee that the practical alternative—adding pumps at generators—proved infeasible and more expensive. "We didn't really have an option," a committee member said; Sean said the work would draw from contingency funds already budgeted for the project.

The contract award to Central Hudson was moved and seconded in committee and carried. Members expressed frustration with the oversight and discussed sending a formal notice calling out the consultant’s missed specification so future procurements and references would reflect the error.

County staff said the contract work is expected to begin in the coming weeks and that completing the gas feed is required before HVAC systems can be commissioned. Members noted winter heating had been supplied by alternative means while the project awaited the correct infrastructure, and they asked staff to calculate ancillary costs incurred because of the delay.

The committee also asked for accessible bid packages and project specifications to be made available to legislative members so they could review the technical scopes—items some members said had not been sufficiently available during earlier reviews.

Next steps: execution of the Central Hudson contract, completion of the high‑pressure line to service HVAC units, and staff follow‑up on project oversight and consultant accountability.