COUNTY News:Due to budget constraints, the Los Alamos County Public Works Department will postpone upgrades to the Mesa Public Library heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.
Project engineering and design was recently completed and originally scheduled for construction this summer. In the meantime, Public Works staff will make some improvements to the existing system to improve air flow based on the findings and recommendations provided by the design engineer.
Additionally, a smaller and lower cost safety project to replace the fire communications system is still scheduled to occur in the summer/fall of 2017. This project involves the replacement of fire emergency reporting devices such as the fire communications panel, alarm/strobe lights and voice alerting. There will be no disruption to library services during this time.
County Manager Harry Burgess mentioned, “projected revenues have not been as expected for this fiscal year, and therefore it is prudent to have a one-time deferral of this project originally slated to occur this summer. We understand that our community’s top employer, LANL, has been operating under a continuing budget resolution for most of the last six months, and believe that this fact has resulted in the lower than expected revenues that we have been experiencing. “
The deferral of this project is one of several strategies that are being considered to make up the current budgetary shortfall. This situation will be part of the larger discussion with the County Council when the budget hearings begin next month. At these budget hearings, staff will propose ways to resume the Library’s HVAC upgrades as early as the summer of 2018.
