FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners heard a simplified plan for the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) renovation project during their meeting on Tuesday.

Olseon and Hobbie had been ordered to do a facility conditions assessment of the building soon after the board of commissioners decided in March of 2025 to no longer continue plans for a new justice center. The findings of the assessment were presented to the board in March of this year and originally came in at an estimated $6.3 to $7.2 million.

However, after a work session in April, some board members have expressed concern with the phased approach of the renovations and have been seeking clarity on what work needs to be done.

Tim Auringer of Oleson and Hobbie said on Tuesday that they’ve been working with the building committee for quite some time and had a new proposal that would address the most pressing issues while not disrupting building operations.

“The proposal would be to prepare a reroofing project as well as replacement of existing windows in the facility. Just two specific items that we can accomplish,” Auringer said.

He said they’ve also talked about replacing air condensing units on the roof, as it was identified as a need in the facility conditions assessment. He said the recommendation is to leave them in place, but disconnect them during the reroofing project and then put them online again.

“That would mean we’re probably down without air conditioning for about a week,” he said.

A document dated May 26 listed proposal A, option one, for window replacement, reroofing, exterior wall insulation and a new air conditioning system and proposal A, option two, for just the window replacement and reroofing.

Proposal B is a more involved, long-range project which Auringer said there would need to be several design meetings on with the building committee and other county staff.

Commissioner Joe Loughmiller asked for some clarification on the project.

“I thought that we were really clear last time that we wanted to do windows, roof, compressors and condensers and potentially air handling units,” Loughmiller said.

Commissioner Jaime Bleess said the building committee had recommended going with a document dated June 1 for just window replacement and reroofing.

Loughmiller referenced the May 26 document and said, “I thought that we had repeatedly agreed verbally on proposal A, option one.”

Though he said the exterior wall insulation could be removed.

Commissioner Richard Koons agreed and said, “I don’t know what keeps happening that we keep circling back to sweeping the floor instead of mopping it. I just don’t get it.”

Bleess said that the building committee had talked about how option two would be a more manageable project when considering staff in the building as it would be less disruptive.

Auringer stepped in to provide some explanation about the two air condensing units on the roof, which are from about 2005.

“They’ve had some issues over the years but Luke (Cyphers) and his staff have repaired them as needed,” Auringer said. “One of the things the board originally asked for was to replace those units when we did a reroofing project and that is certainly something that can be done easily.”

However, he said that the new air conditioning condensing units will require some modification of the existing larger air handling units in the mezzanine.

“That is removing the cooling coils that are currently there and replacing them with new cooling coils that would be compatible with the new air conditioning condensing units,” he said.

The estimated cost for that is in the $20,000 to $30,000 unit but Auringer said they’re suggesting leaving the existing system in place to save that money. He said that when the air handling units are replaced at a later time during a whole heating and cooling project, the cooling coils will need to be replaced again.

“We’re trying to avoid that cost of spending money twice by pushing that condensing unit replacement back a couple of years,” Auringer said.

Koons said he was in favor of saving money, but expressed frustration with the thought behind the plan.

“We’re kind of getting the run around here and I’m a little bit insulted that they don’t listen to what we ask them,” Koons said.

Auringer pointed out that what the county is asking for is putting new equipment into an old air handling unit.

“We would be inserting into that old unit some new cooling coils. We can do that, but if you proceed with the entire project, you’ll be throwing that cooling coil replacement away,” he said.

Ultimately, Koons made a motion to do the window removal and replacement, reroofing and install new rooftop compressors, condensing coils and air handlers and the lines in between the two. In a roll call vote, the motion passed.