Carbon County Correctional Facility’s heating and cooling units have outlived their life expectancies, the prison board was told last week.

During the monthly meeting of the prison board on Wednesday, Maria DeStefano, account manager of Trane Technologies, the company that services the facility’s heating and cooling units, provided a full overview of the current units, the growing risks of continuing to use these units and the cost for repairs.

“Trane has had a service relationship for several decades with the correctional facility and at this point the infrastructure has reached a critical turning point,” DeStefano said.

She outlined that based on guidelines created by The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, a standard rooftop unit used for heating and cooling has a life expectancy of 15 years. At the prison, the seven units are between 16 and 20 years old and use a refrigerant that is no longer manufactured.

DeStefano explained that the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency currently has heaters serving rooftop unit 6 at the prison because of a heating issue with the unit. The cost to fix that heating unit is approximately $30,000.

“Luckily PEMA was able to provide a unit for you for temporary heating at no cost; however if there is a more critical facility that comes up and needs that heater, they can pull that from you,” DeStefano said, noting that Trane does have a rental division the county could utilize in such cases.

The costs would be $7,000 for the first month and $4,500 a month after that.

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said based on the cost to repair Unit 6, that “it is not cost effective at all.”

DeStefano said Carbon County has spent $145,000 on unscheduled service calls and repairs of the seven units over the last five years, providing short-term fixes, but not solving the problem long-term.

“Right now you’re spending heavily without gaining long-term value,” she said.

DeStefano said that based on the facts and the conditions of the current units, Trane’s recommendation is to do a total system replacement. One unit costs between $192,000 to $257,250.

While funding can be a challenge, she also provided the board with a four phase plan to replace the units over a four-year period.

Last year, Carbon County approved replacing one of the rooftop units this year.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said each unit has its own set of controls so it allows for the phased replacements.

“As you replace the units, we would retrofit the VAV boxes and controls,” DeStefano said.

Ahner asked that this can be confirmed and presented in writing because a previous presentation a few years ago stated the controls were all connected.

The board had several questions, including project bidding, building specs and moving forward on such a project.

Following the discussion and presentation, the board voted to recommend the commissioners look at whether to replace the units or repair them at this time would be best for the county. The board also acknowledged that the units need to be replaced.

A special meeting of the prison board would be called if needed once a decision by the commissioners has been made.

District Attorney Michael Greek, president of the board, thanked Warden Derek George and the prison staff for their work on securing a temporary heating source after the one failed.

He noted that he had received several complaints stating that it was freezing in the prison, but noted it was not true, with temperatures never going below 66.

Ahner added that the heat was on within hours of the problem being found.