County Awarded Grant for New Courthouse HVAC System

DAYTON—The Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation has released a list of ten courthouses to receive grants for rehabilitation projects, and the Columbia County Courthouse is on the list.

If state legislators include the rehabilitation projects in their Capital Budget for 2019-21, there could be a new HVAC system installed at the courthouse in November 2019, said county Maintenance Director Dave Finney.

Finney said the county has been talking about replacing the aging HVAC system at the courthouse for the past five or six years, but the approximately $600,000 price tag was simply too much.

After consulting with several contractors, Finney discovered the heating and ventilation system could be replaced, without making invasive changes to the interior and exterior of the building, which would lower costs substantially.

“One big change is to replace the evaporative cooling tower with an underground geothermal cooling loop. It will use the temperature of the earth to regulate the heat exchangers, rather than using a mechanical cooling tower,” said Finney.

This will translate to an annual 40% energy cost savings, and a reduction in costs for maintaining the current system, which Finney estimates at between $10,000 and $16,000 each year.

Finney said he applied to the DAHP for the grant in July, and the county received the letter of acceptance at the end of September.

He said the $122,500 award will go a long way toward offsetting the total cost of the project, which has a $254,500 price tag.

The county will apply for a $15,000 or in-kind match toward the grant, and the remainder will come out of county reserves, said Finney.

Finney said the county has worked with the DHAP on other projects, including resurfacing the courthouse steps with noncorrosive material, and repairing and sealing the stucco on the exterior of the building, along with repairing and painting the architectural eaves.

“Their goal is to preserve the historicity of the courthouses,” said Finney. “They want to see something that will improve the aesthetics.”

The courthouse is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is located in the Dayton Downtown Historic District.