The Bruton Memorial Library will be receiving a new air conditioning system.
The library’s previous east air conditioning system was ruined during a storm Tuesday, July 7. Mark Emery, superintendent of general services, is responsible for all of the city’s buildings and fleet. Emery believes that the air conditioning was most likely affected by the power outages and voltage changes caused by lightning strikes during the storm.
“(This caused) one of the AC’s compressors to seize up, weaken the companion AC compressor and causing the system to trip the breaker,” Emery said.
Emery is notified by a fire monitoring service every time a power loss or a voltage change occurs. On the night of the storm, Emery received four notifications within a 10-minute period. The unit was deemed inoperative and uneconomical to fix.
The new, 30-ton Carrier air conditioning unit will be provided by Alan’s Air Conditioning and was purchased for $25,795. The purchase for the new air conditioning system was approved at the city commission meeting Monday, July 13.
Uplifiting Air LLC quoted $20,500, but it was rejected because it referenced a 25-ton instead of a 30-ton unit. Payne Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. quoted $35,221.