The DeKalb County Courthouse is in dire need of some costly maintenance, leaving many courthouse workers literally out in the cold. At issue is the 55-year-old building’s heating and air system that has become outdated, with some vital parts now unavailable.

The courthouse is a busy center or the county, with courtrooms, several local public offices, the election commission, veteran services, and meeting space for various committees and boards. Over the past few years, the building has seen problems with its heating and air system, a main complaint amongst some area judges and courthouse workers. The courtrooms have been reported as either too hot or too cold, with finding a happy medium hard to come by. But recently, the system has been down altogether, leaving the entire building in a deep freeze.

One courthouse worker told the Review that the indoor temperature one day last week was a balmy 37 degrees. Staff tried to use space heaters to battle the cold, but it was more than the building’s electrical system can handle, popping breakers on several occasions.

During the last regular meeting of the County Commission, on February 24, County Mayor Matt Adcock explained the problem and the costly replacement needed for the building. According to Adcock, repairmen have discovered a blockage in some of the piping of the boiler system, obstructing hot water from reaching heaters in upper parts of the courthouse. The blockage also keeps water from cooling the courthouse in the warm months.

“The boiler system is completely shot,” Adcock explained. “The boiler system is so old they have to make parts for it to work. They are trying to expedite it to get it here just to get the system up and running. Thinking about the future, I have asked a couple of different companies that’s come out. I have talked to them about doing a whole new heating and cooling system in the courthouse and completely get rid of the boiler.”

While a temporary fix is in the works, Adcock says the outdated and ragged system needs to be totally replaced, something that is a lot more complicated due to the building’s concrete construction.

“I am probably going to ask for approximately $400,000 at budget time in capital projects to completely overhaul the entire system to remove the boiler, chiller, blower, and put in modern HVAC on all three floors with split units and thermostats. The cost to get it back up and running isn’t as significant as the permanent fix. The boiler works off the water pipes going up to the wall units that blows heat. The water from the boiler goes up but the pipes are so corroded between the wall units and the boiler that the hot water can’t get up there to blow hot air. You can touch the piping below the floor and its scalding hot and you touch the piping above and its ice cold. There is a lot of corrosion buildup in the lines so that the water can’t properly get throughout the courthouse to heat and cool. That’s the reason we are going to talk about doing an overall overhaul.”

“I’m not quite sure what the cost will be yet. We will have to get an engineer to see how this project will be done and determine the cost because the courthouse has really thick marble and concrete. I’ve been told it would be anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to half a million dollars to completely overhaul everything,” said Mayor Adcock.