HOULTON, Maine — The Aroostook County Jail’s heating system needs nearly $15,000 in repairs if it is to provide heat for inmates next winter.
Members of the Aroostook County Commissioners approved the emergency expenditure during a July 19 meeting in Houlton at the Aroostook County Sheriff’s building.
“This is something very hot off the press,” explained new County Administrator Ryan Pelletier. “Bryan Jandreau [facilities manager for Aroostook County] sent this information this morning. I apologize for the shortness of this request, but it is what it is.”
The jail’s boiler breeching system, which distributes hot air throughout the building, has severely rotted and as such the boiler can no longer function.
According to the memorandum provided by Jandreau, the reason the breeching rotted out is because of the combustion air louver being too close to the duct work and steps will need to be taken to prevent it from happening again. A new louver and combustion air fan will be requested in the 2018 capital budget for that work.
Hot water is still available at the jail as that system operates off a separate boiler.
“There are no capital funds to cover this work,” Pelletier said. “Usually, Bryan is pretty good at finding money in reserves to take care of things like this, but his recommendation is to do the work now, utilizing funds from the County’s contingency account to do that.”
Pelletier said the worst case scenario if the commissioners did not authorize the repairs was that there would be no heat in the jail this winter.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Commissioner Norm Fournier said.
Honeywell Building Solutions of Westbrook was contracted to do the repair work.
