Boardman police get by without central air unit

By Kalea Hall | May 20, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

BOARDMAN

Boardman police have felt the heat for the past two weeks with the loss of an air-conditioning unit that could cost upward of $160,000 to replace.

To help ease the situation, the township purchased four portable air-conditioning units for $289 each to keep the township’s two-floor police department cool.

But with summer around the corner, the trustees still have to decide what, if anything else, can be done to fix the situation.

“We are going to have to come up with the solution,” said Jason Loree, township administrator.

The police department’s air-conditioning unit was installed when the township administration building on Market Street was constructed 22 years ago.

The system had multiple leaks, and if the township were turn it on now, it would blow noncool air from the outside, Loree said. Johnson Controls Inc. came in to evaluate the system and gave the cost estimate.

“It is a big unit and operates on multiple floors,” Loree said. “There is no sense in repairing it [because of the cost].”

The township has other options including buying larger temporary units, using the older vent system and possibly install a rooftop unit, which could cost significantly less than to replace the current unit.

The other air-conditioning unit for government offices at the administration building runs on a separate system that is the same age as the police department’s unit. The dispatch center also is on a different cooling system.

“Over the past six years, we have had issues with not being able to regulate the system,” Loree said.

Some of the offices got up to 80 degrees since the loss of air conditioning, Police Chief Jack Nichols said.

“It is an expensive thing to replace,” Nichols said. “The trustees are weighing a bunch of ideas, but we will get by.”

What makes the situation more uncomfortable are the windows at the police department do not open.

“I don’t know what it is going to be like when [the temperature] gets up to the 80s or 90s,” Nichols said.