ORANGE CITY—Air conditioning probably was the last topic on the minds of most N’West Iowans this week, unless you work in the Sioux County auditor’s office.

The county auditor’s staff is the latest department to be shuffled into temporary offices at the Sioux County Public Health building in Orange City as the county’s courthouse continues to receive a major overhaul on its airconditioning system.

Barry Brown with Interstate Mechanical of Sioux City works in the boiler room at the Sioux County Courthouse in Orange City on Thursday morning.

The county hopes to have the $1 million project wrapped up by April,but it has caused organized chaos with each county office taking its turn in the temporary location since November.

“The biggest thing will be when the chaos comes to an end,” said county engineer Doug Julius. “You are doing some disruption there. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for the transition.”

The air-conditioning project began in the fall of 2011 when geothermal wells were installed outside the courthouse in the first phase. Ice tanks were put in at the same time, which will provide cooling during the summer season.

The second phase started last summer, which involved installing the piping and duct work and has continued into the winter.

Kirk Kamradk and Cody Clay, employees with Interstate Mechanical of Sioux City, work in the auditor’s office at the Sioux County Courthouse in Orange City on Thursday morning. The office was just the latest one to undergo construction during a $1 million project to overhaul the courthouse’s air-conditioning system. Photos by Rylan Howe

In the system, water runs through the geothermal wells then advances through the ice tanks and into the chillers in the basement of the courthouse. From there, the water can be distributed in the form of air conditioning to all parts of the courthouse.

“It should be more economical than running eight or 10 single units that ran parts of the courthouse,” Julius said. “Everything will be running through one central location.”

Thermostats have been installed in every room to allow more uniform control over the heating and cooling.

Each office has had to be flexible over the last few months during construction. The offices of recorder,

planning and zoning and the clerk of court have been completed.

The length of stay for each office in the temporary location has ranged from 10 days to four weeks.

Julius said they have tried to be sensitive to court dates when making racket with machinery in the courthouse.

“In some cases when you work with metal and jackhammers are pounding through the concrete walls, it gets kind of noisy,” he said.

Infrastructure still needs to be finished up in the county attorney’s office, but Julius does not think that will cause all the employees in the department to relocate.

Interstates Mechanical Corporation of Sioux City is handling the construction.

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