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Mar 17, 2024

Clarion County hires architect for courthouse HVAC upgrades

CLARION – Heating and cooling upgrades are on the way for the Clarion County Courthouse. At their meeting last week, Commissioners Ted Tharan, Wayne Brosius and Ed Heasley unanimously approved a

CLARION – Heating and cooling upgrades are on the way for the Clarion County Courthouse.

At their meeting last week, Commissioners Ted Tharan, Wayne Brosius and Ed Heasley unanimously approved a proposal from architect Amos Rudolph of Seneca to design and engineer upgrades to the courthouse’s HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system.

“This is for a heating and cooling system for the entire building,” Tharan said, noting that the boiler in the building blew up last year and the pipes, which date back to the 1940s, are breaking. “It all has to be looked at.”

According to Tharan, window air conditioners are currently used to cool all the rooms in the courthouse, except the main courtroom which utilizes a large unit in the attic of the building — most of which “bought the farm this year.”

“It was put in there in 1972 and is past the end of its life,” Tharan said of the current air conditioner, adding that some cooling units housed in the bell tower are leaking coolant — which cost the county several thousand dollars last year to replace — and one of the compressors blew up.

Additionally, he said, five heating pipes have broken in the past two years, which, at times, has caused the main courtroom to heat no higher than 60 degrees.

“The problem around here is that stuff has been neglected forever,” Tharan said, noting that the commissioners approved the installation of a temporary boiler to replace the broken unit.

He pointed out that because the courthouse is 150 years old and is not insulated, different heating calculations are needed than those for a modern building.

“We’re going to a different system,” Tharan said, explaining that the new heating system will utilize hot water rather than the current steam-heating system. A “chiller system” will also be installed to cool the entire building.

According to Tharan, a chiller system cools water and utilizes the same wall units that are used to heat the building.

“All your big malls and stuff are done with chillers that sit outside that cool fluid before it runs inside,” he said, pointing out that the county had to hire Rudolph to determine the cost of the project by measuring the size of each room and how much heating and cooling it will take.

The cost for Rudolph to prepare the plan for the county is $98,500.

Although the commissioners applied for a $1.9 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help fund the new HVAC system, Tharan said the project can’t wait for the grant recipients to be announced later this year.

“Time is important; they need to start the design of it now,” Heasley agreed, noting that the grant may not be awarded until December. “If it’s awarded, it will help a lot.”

Tharan said they hope to get the project done as quickly as possible, hopefully in conjunction with the courthouse basement renovation project.

“It’s impossible to get it done this year, but we’d like to get it done next year,” Tharan said of the HVAC project. “There’s a lot of moving parts in it.”

County Faces

Unknowns with

Tourism Search

With its relationship with the Northwest Pennsylvania Great Outdoors (PAGO) officially over, the commissioners said last week that the county is still in limbo regarding a new tourism promotion agency (TPA) to serve the county.

Tharan said that the county is currently looking “at all options” when it comes to appointing a new TPA.

“I think it has to be outside of the control of the county, according to the statute,” he said of a county TPA. “The attorneys are going to have to answer that question as to how the statute dictates what can and can’t be done.”

Officials said the county is also working to determine who is entitled to the hotel tax money the county withheld from PAGO, as well as the leftover money PAGO has that was supposed to be spent on promoting Clarion County.

“The money that PAGO already has is what we feel should be used for Clarion County,” Tharan said, noting that PAGO should not have spent any more of Clarion County’s money after July 31 when the agreement was terminated. “In our opinion, that should come back to Clarion County.”

“We’re going to try to recoup what [money] is legally ours,” Brosius added.

Officials also said they aren’t sure whether or not the county can legally spend any of its Hotel Tax money until a new TPA has been established. For that reasoning, the commissioners moved to table a $3,000 per month advertising contract with a separate promotion agency until more answers are known.

“It’s so unknown; no one’s really been through any of this,” Tharan said, adding that it is typically a county that “divorces” a TPA, not the other way around, as was the case between Clarion County and PAGO. “They divorced us. We don’t really know what the outcome is going to be.”

Other Business

• Tax Claim director Megan Kerr said a county upset tax sale will be held on Sept. 18 at the Clarion County Complex Learning Center in Shippenville. All bidders must register by 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 in order to participate in the sale.

Kerr reminded potential bidders that all open mortgages, judgements and liens come with properties sold at a tax sale.

“The bidders need to do their homework,” she said. “The county does not research any of these items for the properties.”

• The commissioners approved a letter of support for the Clarion County Economic Development Corporation’s request through the Keystone Communities Program to fund the planning of the Clarion County Main Street Initiative.

• Carol Brown was appointed to a three-year term on the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities board. Brown will serve on the board from Aug. 10 until Aug. 9, 2026.

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