BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Twelve inmates at the Los Alamos Detention Center were moved to other detention facilities in the area Wednesday due to issues with the heating system at LADC, Los Alamos Police Chief Dino Sgambellone confirmed Thursday afternoon.

Los Alamos County Facilities Manager Jim Zerr told the Los Alamos Reporter it may be three weeks before the facility is up and running due to four broken coils in the system. Replacement coils have been ordered but will have to be built which takes at least five days and then they will be overnighted to the County for installation.

Zerr said there may have been a bad batch of coils installed when the Detention Center was built.

“It is highly unusual for four coils to fail,” he said, adding that the system didn’t freeze.

The areas affected were the booking area, the laundry room, the supervisor’s office and a hallway in the jail, Zerr said. Space heaters were initially brought in to keep the affected areas warm but the entire system had to be shut down to prevent it from drawing cold air into the facility.