Carbon County is slowly moving ahead on a heating and cooling unit overhaul at the county correctional facility.

On Wednesday, the county prison board discussed the status of the rooftop unit replacement project that was previously discussed with a representative from Trane Technologies, the company that services the units.

The current rooftop heating and cooling units have surpassed their life expectancy of 15 years, with seven of the units nearly two decades old.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that the county is getting the project ready to put out for requests for proposals on the replacement and then it would go out to bid, possibly in phases.

He mentioned about three systems for the project.

Last week, the board of commissioners approved three motions regarding work on several rooftop units at the prison.

The first included Snyder Hoffman Associates Inc. of Bethlehem performing mechanical electrical engineering services to replace rooftop units 3, 4 and 5 at a cost of $23,600.

The county also received quotes from Trane to replace a heat exchanger and combustion fan blower on one of the units for $9,422; and replace the power exhaust relief fan motor, capacitor and relay on another unit for $2,810.

Earlier this year, the county prison board met with Maria DeStefano, account manager for Trane, who provided an overview of the current units at the prison, as well as outlined the growing risk of continuing to use these units and the cost associated with repairing outdated units.

She told the board that the infrastructure at the prison, which was constructed in the 1990s, “has reached a critical turning point.”

Some of the units use a coolant that is no longer manufactured, and the costs to repeatedly fix the aging units exceeds the cost for replacement.

DeStefano used the example of rooftop unit 6, which in February experienced a heating issue that forced the county to reach out to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for a portable heating unit, which was brought in until the problem could be resolved. The cost for the fix was approximately $30,000.

She also noted during that meeting in February that over the last five years, Carbon County had spent $145,000 on unscheduled service calls and repairs of the seven units.

She said that the prison needs a total system replacement to cut down on the service call costs.

No decision was made at that meeting with DeStefano as the board had several questions that needed further discussion.