At Monday’s Greene County Board of Supervisors meeting some options to pay for an HVAC project with the Greene County Courthouse were discussed.

The Board is wanting to replace the boiler and add central air conditioning for the courthouse. It was mentioned that the meeting that the Board has $1.7 million of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that has been earmarked for the project, which leaves about $1.9 million to move the boiler from the basement to the attic, install a chiller, along with piping to complete the project. 

One option that failed to pass during the November General Election was to change the revenue purpose statement for the county to utilize the additional Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOSST) funds to pay for the rest of the project. Another option that the Board is leaning toward is transferring LOSST funds to the General Basic fund to offset the debt that would need to be incurred for the project. Supervisor Chair John Muir said after he was initially frustrated that he was not fully aware of this secondary option as a choice, but he wants to investigate if that is the route the Board wants to go.

“It’s letting us keep the project moving the way we think it should, the way it’s important to finish the projects so nobody has to worry about it down the road. We’re going to get it done, that can be off the burner, off the stove, and then we can move on.” 

Muir was confident that the HVAC project was still needed for the courthouse.

“I still think we’ve thoroughly vetted all the possibilities of the necessity of doing that, updating the HVAC and improving things. And doing the whole package at one time and saving the money on different trips for contractors and dealing maybe with different contractors. I think we’ve went through all of that as thoroughly as we can, almost painfully, ridiculously.”  

The Board mentioned that they wanted to keep the courthouse as a viable structure so that the state doesn’t consolidate their courthouse with another and they have made other investments to ensure that the over 100 year old structure continues to stand. 

Muir added that all doors are still open at this point for options on completing the project, but that the Board decided to look into the steps that are needed to transfer LOSST funds to the General Basic as a way to pay for the $1.9 million for the rest of the HVAC project.