COEUR d’ALENE — For the hundreds of people who visit and work in Kootenai County’s courthouse and administration building each day, the week got off to a chilly start.

Sometime between last Saturday night and Monday morning, the boiler that heats both buildings went kaput, requiring extra layers of clothes and lots of space heaters until the issue was fixed late Wednesday.

County commissioners on Tuesday authorized an emergency expenditure of up to $23,850 to fix the broken boiler, which sits in the basement of the nearly 100-year-old courthouse.

“There were multiple space heaters running,” said county communications manager Nancy Jones, who works in the commissioner’s office on the third floor of the administration building.

“We definitely did what we could to keep our clients and staff at least comfortable,” she said.

Shawn Riley, the county’s project manager and consultant, said when the administration building was constructed in 1997, officials opted to pipe heat “from two old boilers” in the courthouse into the three-story administration building.

Riley said a tunnel connecting the buildings includes two pipes in which the steam from the boilers is pushed.

“When it snows a little, you can see on the sidewalk between the building where it melts from the steam,” he said.

Jones said the unbudgeted expenditure would come out of the district court’s unrestricted funds.

“This is why you have contingency funds — for this type of thing,” she said.

The boiler work was completed by Atlas Boiler of Spokane Valley.