Courthouse on chilly side
Heater fails to operate
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

The first serious cold front of the season left the occupants of the newly renovated Wharton County Courthouse shivering earlier this week when the heating system failed to kick on as designed.

"We got things straightened out (Wednesday)," Wharton County Judge John Murrile said.

"The system was installed in the summer time and, while they tested the air-conditioning, no one apparently tested the heating portion of the system. We contacted Stoddard Construction (the contractor for the courthouse renovation project) and they sent their subcontractor out to fix the problem."

County Maintenance Supervisor Paul Shannon identified the subcontractor as Raven Mechanical. He said the technician responding found two minor problems with the system.

"When none of the heaters came on, someone from Raven came in to look over things over," Shannon said. "He found that some of the control wiring had been done wrong and fixed that."

Shannon added a slight error had also been made in programming the system's software.

"Deep in the system menu, some selections were not properly programed," he said. "For example, the courthouse is all electric and there is setting for gas or electric that was switched on wrong.

"So when the thermostats called for heat, it couldn't turn on that part of the system. In addition to fixing things, they also gave me instructions on setting the system so we can make the fix on our own in the future."