File photo The exterior of the Bartholomew County Jail in Columbus, Ind.
After nearly a decade of delays due to lack of funds, the $2 million upgrade of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department should be completed by the end of this week.
Most of the extensive new system went on line earlier this month throughout the jail, according to reports provided to county officials. The entire building takes up an entire city block bordered by Franklin Street, Second Street, Lafayette Avenue and First Street.
Jail and construction personnel recently completed a final walk-through to inspect the expansive HVAC system, project consultant Charlie Day of DLZ Indiana said. From that walk-through, the department and contractors came up with a list of smaller and last-minute items that still needed to be addressed, Day said.
“It’s probably been up to eight years that we knew we had HVAC work that had to be done at the jail,” County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said. “We just didn’t have the funding, so we kept delaying it and delaying it.”
But the financial problem was resolved when money became available from over $16 million in federal funds allocated to Bartholomew County government through the American Rescue Plan. Beside creating a more comfortable climate, the HVAC upgrade will result in energy savings and lower maintenance costs in the future, the commissioner said.
The work forced a number of technicians to crawl up into air ducts and ventilation shafts, including those located in jail cells, sheriff’s department Capt. T.A. Smith said. Such work in a jail requires crews to take extra steps to secure all work areas before they leave work for the night, Smith said.
It was a lesson the county learned the hard way. When the jail was being expanding in 2002, one inmate was successful in escaping by removing an third-story window that was not secured and slid down bed sheets that has been tied together, news accounts state. Another inmate tried to make a similar escape later that same year, but both were quickly apprehended and taken back into custody, according to the stories.
“It’s challenging when you have 280 people in jail that don’t want to be there, and are trying to find anyway to sneak out,” Bartholomew County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
However, no such attempted escapes took place during this year’s project, Smith said. He credited good planning and wise measures that were taken before construction began.
Since the new HVAC system has multiple internet controls, the county had to purchase control software that will allow local officials to operate the system manually if the internet goes down, Bartholomew County Information Technology Director Scott Mayes said.
With the commissioners’ approval, the software was purchased for $5,442 from OJS Building Services, a Mishawaka-based company with an Indianapolis office that has been doing mechanical and building automation systems controller work for the past 12 years.
The software also gives the sheriff’s department the ability to avoid being involuntarily tied to a local vendor, as well as enhance security, Mayes said. While the software will allow the maintenance team to work on the HVAC system, the vendor offers technical support if needed, he said.
