Elkhart County Commissioners hold special meeting to address, repair busted boilers at jail

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- Elkhart County Commissioners held a special meeting Tuesday afternoon to address busted boilers at the Elkhart County Jail.

They approved urgent repairs to keep hot water flowing for inmates at the jail.

There are two boilers at the jail.

One has already been down for the last several weeks for repairs, but over the weekend the second boiler started to show some signs of failing.

County staff were able to do temporary repairs, but they say that could either last months or go out at any time.

And if both boilers are down, that means no hot water for inmates.

"The implication is if they're both down at the same time, currently right now in the warm weather the part will be that there would be no hot water in the jail, " explains Joe Leichtman, Director of Buildings and Grounds for Elkhart County. "Inmates would be taking cold showers or using cold water to wash dishes, stuff of that nature."

The necessary repairs to the 20-year-old boilers will ensure they'll be good to go for the next 20 years, say county leaders.

In Tuesday's emergency meeting, county commissioners signed off on a bid for a company named WJO out of Chicago to repair the burner systems on both boilers for just over $668,047.

"We have it in our budget to make repairs such as this and we have funds we can draw from that is specific to repairing stuff in the jail," says the President of the Elkhart County Board of Commissioners, Brad Rogers.

The county is just hoping now that the second boiler is able to keep functioning with its temporary repairs for the next six weeks, when they expect those permanent repairs to be complete.

"You know when you have 800 or 900 inmates at a jail it's like a small town and it works with that," Rogers says. "It's critical that we maintain the operations of the jail, not only for the sheriff but for the safety of our community."

If that second boiler were to break down before getting repaired, the county would plan on renting a boiler in the meantime.

Though they warn it would be a big expense, about $100,000 a month, not including installation fees.