Lincoln County’s lawsuit against the companies that installed a geo-thermal HVAC system at the county courthouse in 2014 will continue, after a jury ruling on Wednesday.
After considering a day of testimony, a six-member Dawson County jury ruled that the statute of limitations does not apply and Lincoln County’s claim for compensation can continue.
In the long-running legal claim, Lincoln County is asking for damages from the well driller and the system designer. The well and piping were installed by Nebcon Inc. of Omaha. The designer was the M.E. Group of Lincoln. The M.E. Group raised the statute-of-limitations defense. Also, the Old Republic Surety Group, an insurance company, filed a similar defense.
The system has never worked right since it was installed, and the questions of which company, if any, was negligent, and who should pay the losses, remain unsettled.
For years, the county has rigged a hose each summer to carry the system’s “return” water out a courthouse window to Fourth St. and into a city storm sewer grate next to the curb.
In a normal geo-thermal system, underground water at a temperature of around 50-degrees F. is pumped into the building, into heat exchangers and condensers that cool the courthouse in the summer and heat it in the winter. But the return water is mixing with the intake water in this single well system, fouling up the process.
The courthouse heat was shut off for two weeks, employees said Monday, Dec. 6. Workers used space heaters in their offices and wore sweaters in the commissioner’s meeting rooms on the first floor.
The jury ruled that the Lincoln County claim began not in 2014, but on Aug. 22, 2017, when the M.E. Group’s “alleged act or omission in rendering, or failure to render professional services” occurred. Lincoln County discovered facts leading to the lawsuit at that time, the jury said.
The jury also ruled that the professional relationship between the county and M.E. Group was never terminated, although apparently it became inactive. And, regarding Old Republic Surety Company’s claim, the jury ruled that the HVAC project was never substantially completed.
So far, the county has paid $221,913 to Nebcon for the existing system, for which they want to be reimbursed, along with their legal bills. The cost of another well, which is thought to be needed to rectify the situation, is estimated to be around $240,000, according to an estimate previously provided to the court.
© 2021 The North Platte Bulletin. All rights reserved.
