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Meeting held to discuss kinks at new jail
County officials and staff sorted through a list of issues at the Bourbon County Law Enforcement Center during a roundtable meeting Tuesday at the facility.
Bourbon County Commissioners, as well as staff with the BCLEC and Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office, representatives of Goldberg Group Architects and Universal Construction Company were on hand to discuss various problems encountered at the facility.
Staff began moving into the facility in April, but the move was not completed until June due to construction delays, improper wiring, a water leak due to a main break at the facility April 30, as well as staff waiting on furniture and various systems inside the facility to be ready.
Much of the work for the move didn’t begin until the first part of 2018.
“This was a follow up meeting to move forward on getting problems corrected,” Commission Chairman Lynne Oharah told the Tribune after the meeting. “It’s an effort to make sure issues get corrected in a timely manner.”
Present for discussion were Gary Walker, project leader from Universal Construction Contractors of Lenexa; Steve Smith, CEO of Universal Construction; Dominick Rucereto, vice president of BGR Consulting Engineers in Kansas City; Kevin Rost, associate senior project manager with GGA; and various representatives of Gold Mechanical, Inc., of Springfield, Mo., and Decker Electric of Wichita, subcontractors for the jail project.
Gold Mechanical completed work on the heat, air and plumbing in the new facility, while Decker Electric worked on electric in the building.
Issues discussed include mechanical systems and controls, problems with a fire alarm inside the facility, troubles with HVAC units on the roof of the facility, water and leak problems, and warranty concerns.
“One fire alarm kept tripping and would turn on the exhaust fans, so it would suck all the air and brought the humidity in,” Oharah said. “It was set up in zones. That issue has been corrected.”
Rucereto said the fire alarms “get dirty” over time and calibration can be adjusted daily “to tell you if it needs to be cleaned.”
“You could put a delay on the sensors,” he said.
It was reported there are 11 fire alarms inside the facility, four of which are used as a test for the sprinkler system.
“There’s one over every cell,” Rucereto said.
“It’s more likely dust than water issues,” Sheriff Bill Martin said.
BCLEC Capt. Alvin Metcalf said there are also “issues with exhaust in the sally port.”
There was also discussion on breakers on the rooftop of the building that were tripped and the sizes of the breakers for each unit, as well as issues with three RTUs (rooftop HVAC units.)
“We have multiple units to look at,” Rost said.
According to jail staff, there is a solenoid valve that is not working property in one of the jail pods. BCLEC Major Bobby Reed said “it was working before, the problem just popped up.”
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