Bucks Cuts AC For Prisons, Courthouse

The commissioners of Bucks County have recently cut air conditioning for several hours in its courthouse and at correctional facilities, to save money. But the act is raising a lot of questions.

Fox 29 was in Doylestown on Wednesday afternoon and the AC was on at the courthouse.

But sources told our Shawnette Wilson that the air conditioning was shut for several hours on Tuesday and days past during the current heat wave.

A Bucks County commissioner spoke with Fox 29 earlier on Tuesday and said they were part of a voluntary "energy curtailment program" through PECO and if they agree voluntarily to turn off the air conditioner on the five hottest days of the year the county can save $250,000.

The air conditioning would be shut off from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on these days at the courthouse and three or four of the county’s correctional facilities.

Bucks County commissioner Charles Martin explained the plan to Wilson.

“Circulating fans continue to operating circulating the air and the temperatures are actually being monitored in the facilities where these reductions are taking place,” Martin said. “And if they reached a certain level, we would certainly be turning back on the air conditioning if it reached the level where it would be a problem for employees.

Martin said the savings to taxpayers are significant.

“If we went before the taxpayers of Bucks County and said to them, ‘we have the opportunity to save a quarter of a million dollars, by providing air conditioning 21 out of 24 hours, do you think this is a good idea,’ I would be more than willing to abide by the results of that particular survey,” Martin said.

Wilson also spoke with a PECO spokesman on Wednesday who said it wasn’t true that PECO had an “energy curtailment plan” that would allow businesses to sign up for a program and to get incentives to save money by shutting off air conditioning.

The spokesman said he believes the county found a way to save money on their own.

The county had a meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the program.

On Wednesday night, the Bucks County Commissioners, most reluctantly, decided not to turn the AC off in county facilities on Thursday, but they will then take it day by day as they decide if they should do it at all.

A group of county employees, union members, and community activists braved the heat at at the commissioners meeting Wednesday held outside under a tent.

"I'm in a county building... it is 85 degrees ...it is unbearable," one worker said.

The program is a gamble because the county has to cut off AC for at least five days, but to get the savings they have to be the days deemed the hottest by the power company PJM.

PJM doesn't release those dates until the end of summer.