Marshall County Commissioner Stan Klotz updated the county council members this week about the LED lighting project in the county buildings.
The county commissioners signed a contract with Telemon last year to replace all of the fluorescent lighting in the county building, county highway garage and the courthouse with LED lighting. In October, government leaders learned that the project was still not complete with issues in the courtrooms.
“They did the dimmer switches and they ordered these special units and they were $6,000 or $6,500 apiece and they were told right up front that if they didn’t work there’s no refunds or no returns. I guess they done a test with one light and it worked, but when they put in the whole system it didn’t work. The new schematics wouldn’t work with the old wiring and that’s where the problem was,” said Klotz.
The problem has since been remedied and Klotz said the judges are happy with the upgrades.
A result of the extra work needed put the project over budget by $40,000. That money is being taken from the maintenance department’s budget. Klotz told the council that he hopes that can be remedied down the road.
The contract the commissioners signed in 2018 was for $73,500. A rebate was anticipated to be almost $65,000.
In the original presentation, Telemon officials indicated the county would save $30,000 in energy costs a year.
