EMA discusses tower repair

A major item on Wednesday’s Union County Emergency Management Commission meeting revolved around the repair of a controller board in one of the EMA’s communication towers.

EMA works with NMC for maintenance on communication tower sites for repairs to their HVAC systems. Two HVAC systems are in each of the four towers the EMA covers.

The Kerrigan site has been repeatedly receiving false alarms for one of their HVAC systems for four months. Maintenance dispatched to the site has reported no issues related with the alarms, but noted how a computer card in the system controller board was of poor condition. A false alarm is sent whenever the faulty card activates.

Repairs for the card is not covered by the maintenance contract. A maintenance team will be sent to repair the card, which on a four-hour repair schedule will cost the EMA $456, with an additional cost for the replacement card. The maintenance team has contacted the manufacturers for the HVAC system, and had not received a reply back before Wednesday’s meeting.

EMA Director Jo Duckworth estimated the replacement part could cost anywhere between $700 to $1,000. Each HVAC system has been in use for four years.

In other EMA news...

The Emergency Management Commission hosted the public hearing for the 2026 fiscal year budget. No comments from the public were made to the updated budget.