Lorain County hires consultant to design backup cooling for 911 server room

The Lorain County Board of Commissioners on March 28 approved a $23,820 contract with Bank Associates, Inc., of Cleveland to provide mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) consulting for backup cooling at the county 9‑1‑1 facility on Burns Road.

County officials said the decision responds to repeated failures of the server-room cooling system that support phones, radios and data equipment for emergency dispatch. Rob Berner, a representative of the county’s 9‑1‑1 department, told commissioners that when an inducer failed in February the temperature in the server room rose to roughly 90 degrees within 90 minutes and that systems begin shutting down at about 95 degrees. "Anything over 95 degrees, the service start to shut down," he said.

The consultant will assess the current server-room and UPS-room cooling and design a 100 percent backup air‑conditioning solution so equipment can remain within operational temperature ranges if primary cooling fails. Commissioners were told the proposal covers only the server and UPS rooms; other HVAC systems in the facility are older and may require separate work under county building responsibilities.

Director Grosz of Facilities and 9‑1‑1 staff had worked with a consultant to prepare the proposal, Berner said. Commissioners described the work as targeted and time‑sensitive given the public‑safety implications of a prolonged outage.

The resolution directs payment from the county’s consulting services account. The motion passed on a recorded voice vote: Commissioner Moore, aye; Commissioner Gallagher, aye; Commissioner Riddell, aye.

The county also reported it is evaluating broader HVAC needs in the building; commissioners said responsibility for noncritical building systems requires further discussion with facilities staff.

For now, county leaders said, the immediate priority is to prevent another server‑room outage that would interrupt 9‑1‑1 phone, radio and data systems.