Civic Center problem a lack of hot air

The city is suffering some woes with McMinnville Civic Center?s heating system. An inspection of the heating units calls for them to be repaired or replaced.

The facility currently has 11 units on the roof. Six of them were installed in May 1990. Four of them are old and not in use, and one unit is a newer unit but it?s AC only.

During a routine inspection, damaged areas in the burner units were found and the collector boxes were rusted. Given the damage, the inspector recommended they stop using those units until the situation can be addressed.

To ensure there was no gas leak, the facility?s air was tested. According to Parks and Recreation director Carlene Brown, there was nothing wrong with the air quality.

As of right now, the facility has heat in all the areas except the gymnasium. Given the mostly good weather Warren County has been having, it hasn?t been much of an issue said Brown.

The coming winter months might prove otherwise. After checking into how much it will cost to repair the units versus how much it would cost to replace them, Brown presented the findings to the Parks and Recreation Committee.

? Replacing the units will cost over $200,000, with the units costing $20,000 each along with hiring a company to crane lift the existing units off the roof and place the new units on the roof.

? Fixing the units will cost $3,500 each. Given this year?s tight budget, fixing them seems more in reach. However, repairing them won?t fix the problem in the long term.

If the units are to be replaced, a recommendation was made to replace two a year. If that is done, the unit?s parts might not be interchangeable with each other. Until now, that is how the facility has kept heat going ? using parts from broken units to fix working units.

Buying two a year will also increase the cost of replacing. Each year, when the two new units are purchased, a crane will have to be brought in to lift the old units off the roof and replace them with the new ones each time, which will add to the cost.

For right now, two of the units will be fixed to get the facility through the winter months. After that, the plan is to replace two units a year. In the meantime, research will be done to determine which units would be most suitable.