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Kootenai County weighs $500,000 HVAC fix or other options for aging Juvenile Justice Center
Summary
County Director Jeff Fuller told commissioners the Juvenile Justice Center has lost cooling and a full chiller replacement is estimated at about $450,000 plus roughly $50,000 in engineering; commissioners asked staff to develop two or three vetted relocation or retrofit proposals while judges and staff warned of operational impacts.
Kootenai County officials on July 21 discussed short- and longer-term responses after cooling failures left the Juvenile Justice Center (JJC) uncomfortable and forced temporary staff relocations.
Jeff Fuller, introduced at the meeting as "our director," told the Board of Commissioners the buildings chiller uses an outdated R-22 refrigerant and repairing the compressors may be possible but that replacing the entire chiller was the recommended option. Fuller said a rough estimate to replace the chiller came in at $450,000 and that engineering could add roughly $50,000, putting a full replacement in the neighborhood of $500,000.
Fuller described interim measures: one portable air-conditioning unit is currently running in a main office area and staff could purchase additional portable units at about $1,000 each for short-term relief. He said Apollo Mechanical is pursuing options to replace individual compressors and staff will bring a full package of repair and replacement options back to the board.
Fuller also said roughly 18 juvenile-probation staff have already moved to space on the second floor of the prosecutors area and identified seven available offices in the Annex building as another potential relocation site. He noted concerns about shared bathrooms and privacy for juvenile services and warned of potential conflicts if juveniles were co-located near registered offenders.
A judge who spoke during public comment, Ross Pittman, identified himself as a district judge in Kootenai County and said Courtroom 13 in the JJC is specially configured for juvenile and child-protection cases. "When we bring in juveniles who are in custody, it provides an opportunity to keep them separate from in-custody adult defendants," Pittman said, arguing that losing that courtroom would increase transport demands and complicate secure separation of juvenile and adult defendants.
Commissioners responded by urging staff to develop two or three cost-saving or low-cost options for moving people and improving underused space, and to vet those options with interested parties before presenting them to the board. One public commenter recommended a five- to ten-year maintenance plan for county properties so major repairs can be budgeted in advance.
Fuller also noted an unrelated but ongoing elevator-rehab project at the courthouse with about $150,000 in parts already purchased, which could influence scheduling while the JJC has limited staffing on site.
Next steps: staff will compile repair-versus-replace cost estimates, provide vetted relocation proposals and return with a fuller recommendation for the commissioners to consider. No formal vote took place at the July 21 meeting.
