By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
The Decatur Board of Works and Safety has approved a contract for something for which it is in no hurry to receive.
At its latest meeting, the board okayed a contract with the Logansport-based Dilling Group, with Dilling to provide a chiller for the new HVAC system at the MERIT Center at a cost of $149,892.
Also included in the price is some roof work at the center.
Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert told the board it will take approximately 42 weeks before the chiller arrives, and that’s okay since the board has to determine before that time how it will pay for the chiller.
It’s not a matter of a lack of finances, but where to pull the funds from since the chiller cost was not expected at the time the 2024 budget was being put together.
The board decided to purchase the chiller now rather than wait until next year when a price hike is expected.
The chiller is part of the new HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system the city is installing at the MERIT Center. The board has already approved a contract with the Dilling Group to have installed, for the sum of $455,000, new boilers, controls and a pump at the former Northwest School building on Dayton Ave.
The costs are covered by a state READI grant of $290,000 and $200,000 Adams County has paid the city for a small hunk of land on the northeast corner of the lot on which the MERIT Center is situated.
The HVAC system in the building is failing and it was decided that a new chiller is also needed.
The city has an agreement with Adams County to upgrade the system in the wake of the Adams County Council on Aging moving into the building over a year ago and now prepared to launch a countywide transportation system on January 2.
The county paid the city $200,000 for .7 of an acre of land where a garage will be constructed to house the transportation service’s vehicles.
The building, purchased by the city several years ago for $1 from the North Adams Schools system, has 55,000 square feet and most of it is being used by various organizations.