Diocesan director’s ‘go-to guys’ go ‘above and beyond’ to fix damaged Kirksville A/C condenser
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It was a balmy 85 degrees in Kirksville when Brad Copland answered the phone in Jefferson City.
Father Joseph Luzandana was frantic.
“He said there was some electrical equipment missing from the air conditioning unit at Mary Immaculate,” recalled Mr. Copeland, diocesan director of buildings and properties.
Two men were caught on camera the previous evening, tearing the 20-ton capacity condensing unit apart and stealing valuable wiring and copper coil.
Mr. Copeland made the two-hour trip from Jefferson City the next morning, arriving at Mary Immaculate Church shortly before 8 a.m.
“It was unbelievable what those two guys had done,” he stated. “I figured someone had just cut the wire out, but the thing was actually in pieces.”
Mr. Copeland called his “go-to guy” for heating and air-conditioning equipment, Randy Kempker at Harold G. Butzer Inc. in Jefferson City.
Mr. Kempker is a member of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Taos.
“He said, ‘Give me a couple hours,’” Mr. Copeland recalled.
Mr. Kempker set about tracking down a comparable A/C unit that uses the same refrigerant, “so you wouldn’t be replacing a different kind of refrigerant on the inside and the outside.”
He called around and found such a unit in Chicago.
Mr. Copeland got confirmation that the parish’s insurance would cover the new unit, and Mr. Kempker had it shipped to Kirksville.
On Tuesday, Mr. Kempker sent employees Greg Love and Kevin Kirchner up to Mary Immaculate.
“They dismantled all the parts and pieces that were there,” said Mr. Copeland. “That afternoon, the new unit was sitting on the concrete pad.”
Mr. Love, a member of Our Lady of Snows Parish in Mary’s Home, called Mr. Copeland to report some additional problems.
“He said the electric up there had been hodgepodged so many times, it wasn’t going to work right,” said Mr. Copeland. “I said, ‘Randy, we need to get it fixed.’”
Mr. Love called Meyer Electric Co., which dispatched a crew to Kirksville at the behest of Leon Keller, the company’s president.
“He’s always been a good advocate for us,” said Mr. Copeland. “He does whatever he can to take care of the diocese. If there’s an emergency, he’d have a crew in a heartbeat.
They had the power up by Thursday, right around lunchtime, so the guys from Butzer could start fine-tuning the new unit they had installed.
The entire system was up and running by Thursday evening, in plenty of time to cool things off for Mass that weekend.
“I’ve been working with both of these companies since my time with the state,” said Mr. Copeland, who worked for the Missouri Office of Administration’s Department of Facility Management, Design and Construction for 21 years and has been with the diocese for 15.
“Whenever I need something quick and detailed, those two are definitely going to be the ones I call,” he said. “They’re so quick, their expertise is unmatched, and they go above and beyond what’s asked of them, every time.”
Mr. Copeland oversees construction and maintenance of all the diocese’s property, including its churches, schools, rectories and convents and the Alphonse J. Schwartze Memorial Catholic Center.
“Some of these heating and cooling systems eventually give out,” he noted. “When they’re really complex systems, these are the guys I’m calling.
“I couldn’t do my job as well as I do without them!” he said.
