From left to right: Riley County Commission Chairman Ron Wells, Marvin Rodriguez and John Ford (Sam Hennigh/KMAN)
Riley County Commissioners on Monday approved an emergency purchase for a new monitoring system at the Riley County Law Enforcement Center.
Public Works Director Leon Hobson told commissioners he received a call Friday from RCPD Captain Josh Kyle saying the company they used for the monitoring and controlling of the air handlers for the building, had gone out of business. This means the department is locked out of the system and cannot control it.
The project will cost $85,000 to replace every controller for each unit on the roof, as well as the computer program. Hobson called it an emergency purchase that needed to be done right away. With the system down, the facility in certain sections is not cooling properly. He added this could potentially be an issue for inmate and staff health.
Chairman Ron Wells agreed with Hobson on the urgency of the situation.
“I think a case could be made either way because of whoever’s in those pods. We’ve got over 100 degree days coming. If it’s not going to heal itself now I don’t suppose we better take a chance of not remedying especially with it being county property and this being an emergency,” Wells said.
Commissioner Marvin Rodriguez agreed with Hobson as well and both commissioners gave consensus for him to move forward with the project. He will come back later with a presentation for approval for the funds.
The Riley County Commission has also approved a change order for the county fire station project in Leonardville.
Emergency Management Director and District 1 Fire Chief Pat Collins presented the order Monday that would require the county to tap into the main water line in the City of Leonardville.
“There was an assumption that Leonardville operated like the City of Manhattan and that they would do the meter work and do the connection but they don’t do that. The meter could’ve connected right onto the 3/4 inch meter but it would’ve been right in the middle of the driveway and it would’ve been connecting a 3/4 inch meter to a 2 inch line to the building,” Collins said.
Collins says the original design included a one inch meter per the recommendation from the contractors. The cost to install the meter is around $7,000.
Commissioner Marvin Rodriguez asked Collins if the contractors should have to pay the amount since they were the ones who didn’t look into the water line.
“I reached out to them with that same question,” Collins said. “I think this was a misunderstanding because I said when we first met that the city was alright with the connection if they left it where it was, they just wanted to be there. All they heard was that the city wanted to be there and was going to do like the City of Manhattan.”
Rodriguez added he still would have preferred an up front cost from them during the original designs. Commissioners also approved 10 additional construction days to the plan due to weather.
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