Pioneer Lodge

Diana Thompson leans back in her office chair, stares distantly at the ceiling and tries to recall how long she was uncomfortable. “I think it’s really been 10 years since we’ve had temperatures like this,” she says.

It was comfortable, somewhere in the 70s, while the July heat outside raced into the 90s. Thompson returns to that 10-year span of discomfort. “You kind of just got used to it… You had a fan at your desk. We always blamed it on technology (addition of computers, televisions, etc.).”

Thompson was referring to temperatures at Pioneer Lodge, a 25-room facility providing services for the elderly, frail and handicapped. She knows all about its office-comfort levels, having worked there 26 years, her last seven as administrator. Built in 1964, Pioneer Lodge is a not-for-profit organization located in the small southwestern Kansas town of Coldwater.

During that decade of long, hot summer stretches, Thompson couldn’t get temperatures in her office to drop much below 83 degrees, and throughout the facility they hovered close to 80. Keep in mind that anything above 85 degrees is considered dangerous, at which point Kansas law requires that residents be evacuated. The facility has a two-pipe system and is cooled primarily by a 40-ton Trane cold generator. The problem was something wasn’t working. Complaints came in daily from staff and residents about the temperature. Air conditioning mechanical breakdowns during the summers of 2008 and 2009 didn’t help matters. Thompson knew something needed to be done and understood that the cost likely would be high, so she, along with other hospital staff and board members, turned to the community for help.

Together they began a fundraising campaign in October 2009 and called upon Coldwater High School alumni and local townspeople to donate funds to make building improvements to Pioneer Lodge, including changes to its air conditioning system. Alumni and residents responded, donating $25,000. Thompson was surprised and pleased with the campaign’s success. With the money raised, Pioneer Lodge purchased eight air handlers in the first quarter of 2010, which were designed to cool the interior of the facility. It also installed new zone pumps, which push water through pipes to the various wings.

Memorial Day weekend rolled around, and it got hot, really hot, unseasonably hot for late May in Kansas. But the new zone pumps had not solved the problem and the new units had not yet arrived. Thompson knew it was time to act. “We were almost on the verge of having to evacuate residents,” she says, noting the huge amount of work required to accomplish the task and inconvenience it would bring to residents. Realizing that the problem was beyond their scope, Thompson called Kansas Trane.

Brad David, Kansas Trane Service technician, was traveling home from a job in Manhattan over Memorial Day weekend when he received the call from Pioneer Lodge. David returned to his home in El Dorado, repacked his bags, and immediately began the 3-1/2 hour drive to Coldwater. When he arrived, David noticed the chiller was short cycling and thought the flow was not right. “That started me thinking, let’s look at the system.” David took pictures of the facility’s pumps, piping and equipment, returned to Kansas Trane with his findings, and met with Richard Black, Kansas Trane Service manager.

The two sat down to determine why Pioneer Lodge’s system wasn’t cooling properly. “Once I got pictures from him, I started figuring things out,” Black says. It didn’t hurt that he is familiar with the building’s style. “That building was built in an era I grew up in. I understand how they work.”

One of the first things to catch Black’s eye was the chiller pump - it was too small. He also noticed that supply and return piping to the chiller had too many restrictions, which led to inefficiency. The chiller sits outside near the building, and the pipes coming up through the ground to the chiller were installed with too many 90-degree turns. Safety was another issue. Disconnect switches to the new pumps were located near the floor, where water would collect in small pools.

Black contacted Thompson about his and David’s findings and explained what repairs were needed and their cost. So Thompson turned once again to the money raised during the building improvement campaign. With funds in place, Thompson and Black set the repair date for the week of July 12. It was a gamble, considering that the repairs would require the system to be shut down temporarily, and July temperatures can easily reach 100. “I printed off a 10-day forecast,” Thompson says. “So much for the weather forecast.” Highs early that week climbed into the upper 90s.

David and a fellow technician, Mark Pierce, arrived July 12 to begin work. Over the course of three days they logged more than 40 hours of repair work, including installing and securing a new chiller pump  – the original had sat on cinder blocks and a board; removing piping restrictions; installing balancing valves for the pumps; and working with an electrician to relocate the disconnect switches to a nearby wall. This change pleased Sean Osborn, Pioneer Lodge’s lead maintenance person. “For me, safety wise, I feel more comfortable coming down here.”

David prefabricated as much piping as he could to minimize the facility’s downtime, but eventually the time came when the system had to be shut down for final repairs. It was a tense time for Thompson as she watched the thermostat closely to see if it would climb above the 85-degree threshold. At one point, Thompson says, she and her husband went to the facility’s roof with hoses to spray it down with water, anything that might help keep the building cool. Staff also moved residents into the interior of the building, which didn’t please everyone. “One gentleman was pretty blunt and said, ‘I think you just wasted $20,000,’” Thompson says, adding he once repaired air conditioning systems.

Temperatures climbed above 85 degrees briefly, but Thompson decided it was best to keep residents in the facility and wait for repairs to be completed. Finally, after about seven hours of downtime, David and Pierce turned the air conditioning back on. It worked. David says he was relieved, fully comprehending the gravity of the situation that Pioneer Lodge faced. “They thought it was the way it was supposed to be. They suffered for 10 years.”

And what do the residents think?

“It’s just wonderful in here,” says Lorena Prusa, a perky resident of nearly two years, while sitting on her couch watching “The Price is Right.” “I love it.” Down the hall a few doors, Thelma Lytle says the air conditioning is working “a hundred times” better than it was. “I got chilly.”

Now that the air conditioning system is working properly, Thompson anticipates utility savings and looks forward to seeing future bills. She is pleased that she’s comfortable again after 10 years of being mostly uncomfortable in the summer. “A lot of credit really goes to Brad. He analyzed the system.”