JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- City officials are facing some frosty opposition over a new facility taxpayers are calling a waste of money. A JEA chilled water plant was constructed for $17 million to cool the new downtown courthouse. The problem is that the new courthouse has not even been built yet.

The "chiller plant" is one of three in the city designed to perform like an oversized air conditioning unit. It was built to cool off both the courthouse and new main library, but when Joe Rogero looks out the front door of his business, all he sees is a waste of tax dollars.

"I think that is a terrible waste of all our money, let alone the real estate sitting out here doing nothing," Rogero said.

According to Channel 4's lead investigator Jim Piggott, when the city and JEA agreed to build the plant and use it for the courthouse and library, it was decided the city would pay close to $1 million per year for the service.

Now, with the courthouse construction budget spiraling out of control and the opening of the library delayed again, taxpayers are paying to keep the "chiller plant" operational, even if there is nothing there.

"Back when the Better Jacksonville Plan was designed (in 2000), we believed there would be a library opened by now and courthouse open by now," Mayor John Peyton's spokeswoman, Susie Wiles, said.

The agreement states that even without the buildings, the city still has to pay because JEA has to pay the construction cost. At the time, no one though the courthouse would be put on hold and the library would open so late. The delays are a result of the Better Jacksonville Plan, which is $1 billion over budget.

Peyton halted construction on the original plans for a new courthouse in October 2004 after construction costs continued to escalate. In April, he announced that the city would move forward with a new, scaled-back courthouse, but would not spend more than $200 million on the construction.

The library is now slated to open in November after originally being targeted to open prior to Super Bowl XXXIX.

With three fire stations also on the chopping block and the city forced to cut every department's budget by 7 percent, JEA officials said they would try to work something out.

"We talked to the city and we are going to meet with some of the city officials," JEA spokesman Ron Whittington said. "What we are trying to do is come up with some type of solution."

There are also "chiller plants" near Alltel Stadium and Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, with talks of building a new one on the Southside.