Courthouse HVAC and jail intercom and cameras projects expected to finish by late February

ASHLAND - After grinding through more than a year of planning, months of construction and even the typical construction setbacks, the trio of county commissioners were all smiles Jan. 20 with County Maintenance Superintendent Denny Harris’ update on the County Courthouse HVAC Project and the County Jail Intercom and Camera Project.

Both projects are on pace to be done by mid to late February.

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Harris began the presentation with a progress update at the jail.

“After talking with the contractors and pulling teeth, they are thinking possibly by the end of February,” said Harris. “But there are still over 100 intercoms they are still waiting on. The wires are already pulled. All they have to do is connect them and that would take about a week maybe a week and a half once they got them.”

Harris explained the work Schneider Electric is finishing up at the Jan. 20 meeting.

“(They) are doing the programming,” he said. “Today and tomorrow they were supposed to be down at the jail doing a survey and audit of what needs done and how they want to lay this program out and the graphics. And that will take an additional four weeks for them to do the programming and then they will come back in and commission that into the system.”

COVID causes some delays with the project at the jail

Harris said there were some delays due to a COVID issue at the jail and everybody had to pull out of the project for a time.

“But the biggest delay is on parts,” he added. “Just trying to get the parts. BCU Electric has done a great job for us.”

Harris also said there is one more issue to deal with yet.

“We are working on it right now and that is the intercom, speakers and system for each pod and each cell area," Harris said at the Jan. 20 commissioners meeting. "They want a two-way radio or speaker system and right now it is only one-way according to Chief (David) Blake who I spoke to yesterday.

“It is going real well as all of the outside and inside cameras are all operational and everything is up and running.”

Harris said the amount of cameras now installed is almost doubled and the clarity of the picture and recording features can last a lot longer than the old system.

“That building is almost 22 years old now and I remember when they broke ground on that building,” he added. “A lot of technology has changed and parts have become obsolete.”

‘They made this building to last forever’

With more than 200 holes needing drilled into the courthouse, Harris explained the long, tedious procedure workers agonized through the past several months.

“There were over 200 holes that needed to be drilled,” said Harris. “And tomorrow morning probably the 201st hole is to be drilled early in the morning. This has been a challenge for every contractor that has been in there due to the original construction of the building.

“They made this building to last forever,” Harris added.

Harris talked about the intense hardness of the red brick workers had to drill through.

“One company that drills through the entire state of Ohio, and they drill through a lot of red brick, said to me, ‘I don’t know what they used in this red brick but it is dulling our bits.’ ”

Harris said the company was using diamond-tip bits and there were days where they only got one or two holes done in an eight-hour day.

“They were drilling 2- or 3-inch holes and it was awful,” he said. “And some of the walls were in excess of 2 feet. They tried dry (drilling) then went back to wet. It was quite a struggle.”

“Obviously a lot of the delay was core drilling,” said Commissioner Denny Bittle. “When you think getting 10 to 15 a day done as opposed to two, that pulls it way back. The (maintenance) staff has done a tremendous job. With only four or five people working and keeping up with all the other buildings and the two projects, I want to commend you and your staff.

“I believe we have set this county up for success for the next 20 to 30 years,” Bittle added.

“I’ve talked to a lot of the elected officials over there and tried to work with each department,” said Harris. “We started out working days and then that went to nights because of the noise.”

American Rescue Plan funds covering most of the costs

The original estimate for the project was $690,540, but an additional $98,247 was added due to overtime costs. Not wanting the intense construction noise to disrupt court proceedings, meetings and other areas of government business, workers went well into the night to finish the project. As of Jan. 20 the total cost of the project is $837,987.

“And with no borrowed money,” said Commissioner Michael Welch about construction overlay. Most of the costs are being covered by American Rescue Plan funds.

All of the HVAC units are ready, some in the back and some on the roof. Harris said when the asbestos test was done early on, the report came back clean which in turn saved a lot of money in the end.

“It was a really good report for a 1928 building," Harris said. "Ashland County should be proud of how they built this building. It was built to last.”

“One thing people don’t think about is after they get all this stuff done, Dennis and his crew have to go in and repair and move things and fix ceiling tiles,” said Commissioner President James Justice.

Harris then acknowledged that several ceiling grids will need put back up.

With the completion of these two major projects nearing fruition, some more work will commence. A new visitation area at the jail and new windows at the courthouse will be on the agenda at some point.

“We can’t wait until we can get double-pane, argon gas windows in,” said Harris about the courthouse. “We are installing bars so the building will look they way it did when it was originally constructed.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland County improvement projects nearing completion