Tri-County News

Stearns County gets federal stimulus grant


Stearns County learned today that it received a $392,000 federal Recovery Act Grant through the Department of Energy to pay for a much-needed energy improvement project.

The federal stimulus grant dollars will be used to replace chillers that provide air conditioning in Stearns County’s Law Enforcement Center, Courthouse and Courts Facility building.

Equipment the County currently uses is 25 years old, inefficient and hard on the environment. It still runs on Freon and is bad for the ozone. Finding parts for the antiquated system is presenting a challenge as well for maintenance staff at the County.

The new equipment is more economical and will take less power to run, cutting down the County’s energy costs.

Replacing the chillers was a project that Stearns County needed to have done. In fact, it was in the County’s budget, the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), before the grant became available.

“The timing was perfect for us”, said Ralph Braegelmann, Stearns County’s Building Facilities Director. “We had planned to replace this equipment; it needed to be done regardless. Now we have additional funds to move forward with the project.”

Some additional dollars will still need to come from the County’s CIP fund, as the project is expected to cost approximately $600,000, of which $392,000 will come from the federal grant.

Work to replace the chillers will take place late this winter. Plans are to have the new system up and running by this coming summer of 2010.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *