Commission approves pre-purchase of HVAC equipment for project

By Anna Jauhola
During their regular meeting on Tuesday, March 4, the Kittson County Commissioners approved a bonding schedule and a pre-purchase agreement for equipment for the courthouse project.
Administrator Aimee Sugden presented two proposed schedules for the general obligation capital improvement plan bonds. Both options factored in the public hearing for securing bonds for the project, which is set for Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m., and the petition period, which lasts through Saturday, April 19.
The first option has Monday, June 2 scheduled for the bond sale at 11 a.m. and the county closing on the bonds by Thursday, June 26.
“I inquired whether there was a way if this could be done faster,” Sugden said. “And it can be done slightly faster, so that’s what Option B is.”
Option B would allow the county to sell bonds on Wednesday, May 21 at 11 a.m. and close on the bonds by Wednesday, June 18.
“Both are fine. There’s no real advantage or disadvantage for either of them,” Sugden said.
Sugden said there’s no reason not to do the earlier schedule. Commissioner Brad Johnson moved to approve the bond sales schedule Option B with Jones seconding. Everyone voted in favor. Commiss-ioner Loren Younggren was absent.
The board also approved the pre-purchase of HVAC equipment from Johnson Controls, Inc. Travis Pawlowski, JCI project manager, told the commission he negotiated to keep the costs down. The net price of the equipment – induction units, water heater, pumps and pumping accessories, variable frequency drives, fan coils and cabinet unit heaters – came to $697,250.
“There was about an 8.5% price increase. But, we were able to negotiate that down to under a half-percent,” Pawlowski said. “But you’ll see on here, March 12 is the cutoff date for this equipment. After that, figure an 8.5% increase. It adds up to quite a bit of money.”
Pawlowski had previously mentioned he would release as much equipment as he could prior to federal tariffs taking effect, which happened at midnight on Tuesday, March 4.
Commissioner Theresia Gillie motioned to approve the pre-purchase, which requires a 50% down payment, with Jones seconding.