Yuma County approves $454,554 Foothills Library air-conditioning replacement

Yuma County is spending $454,554 to replace the rooftop air-conditioning system at Foothills Library, a move officials described as long overdue maintenance for one of the Yuma County Library District’s busiest branches.

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors approved the contract for the branch at 13226 E. South Frontage Road in Yuma, an unincorporated area about 14 miles east of the City of Yuma. The library opened in September 2008 and has become a key public-service stop for residents in east Yuma County, with meeting room space, study rooms, computers, printing, copying and wireless printing.

Bid documents show the project calls for replacement of seven rooftop-mounted packaged air-conditioning units, along with zone damper controllers and controls integration into the library’s existing Carrier i-Vu front end and web server. The county posted the HVAC replacement request for proposals on Feb. 26, 2026, and it closed March 27, 2026.

The work matters because Foothills Library is not just a reading room. It is one of eight branches in the Yuma County Library District, which says it is funded by Yuma County, secondary property taxes and donations from the Yuma Library Foundation and Friends of Yuma County Libraries, Inc. The branch’s regular schedule runs Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the library closed Sunday and Monday.

That makes dependable cooling central to daily access, especially in Yuma’s heat. A failure in the rooftop system would threaten more than comfort inside the building. It would put programs, study space, computer use and basic library services at risk during the hours when the branch is open to the public.

The replacement also points to a maintenance backlog that county leaders are now addressing at a facility that has been in use for nearly 18 years. For families, students and job seekers in the Foothills area, the project is less about equipment than about preserving reliable access to a branch that serves as a local service hub on the edge of the city.