County to upgrade emergency generators
EPHRATA — In the event the power goes down, Grant County can now keep the lights on in the jail and the courthouse.
County commissioners recently approved about $195,000 to replace one of the county’s aging emergency generators after it failed, as well as to add a third generator to the courthouse complex, allowing officials to keep power flowing in the event of a failure.
“We could never, in the event of an emergency, keep everything running,” said Tom Gaines, director of central services for Grant County. “Now we can keep county government going, keep the lights on.”
The failed generator was acquired by Grant County in 1965, and rebuilt in 1977, and Gaines said the costs of keeping it running were approaching the costs of buying a new generator.
“In any kind of catastrophic event, or the failure of the power grid, we have had to close offices in the past,” Gaines said. “We can now keep the HVAC going, and we have a back-up for the data center.”
Gaines said he expects upgrading the county’s emergency generators from two to three and replacing the failed generator by begin in late April and be completed around the first of May.
“It should be done before the first thunderstorms,” he said.
The total cost for construction work (which includes some asbestos removal), the new generators, permits from the state and disposal of the old generator has been budgeted at around $478,000, though Gaines said it could come in as much as $40,000 under because some of the work has been moved outside, which will lower costs.
However, Gaines said the county has had to postpone or cancel nearly all of its other capital work — which includes installing air conditioners, replacing perimeter sidewalks in the courthouse complex, and installing new commercial hot water heaters — in order to upgrade and replace the complex generators.
“Those generators are expensive, and to put them in is expensive,” Gaines said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.