SALEM — The Ingram Senior Center and the pump station at Wheeler Dam will receive generators, likely this spring, interim Town Manager Henry LaBranche said.
"We've signed a contract with the low bidder for the work to be done, obviously in this calendar year and, hopefully, sometime in the spring," LaBranche said.
The 2009 budget included money for two gas generators to be used during power outages and natural or man-made disasters. The 2009 budget allocated $90,738 from the general fund for the generator at the senior center and $103,152 from the water fund for the generator at the pump station, according to town Finance Director Jane Savastano.
LaBranche said town officials thought the senior center served a population that could be in need in such situations.
"Should there be an outage with respect to electricity, a power outage, it has a kitchen, it could be used to support the senior center community, who may need some more warmth and a hot meal," he said. "But not as a major evacuation center because it does not have the capacity to do that."
He said Salem High School would likely remain the designated spot for use in any major evacuation.
The generator at the pump station at Wheeler Dam would enable the town to continue to manage the municipal water supply during a power outage.
"That is for six months of the year our source of domestic, commercial water," he said.
LaBranche said initial bids came in higher than the amount the town appropriated, so he negotiated changes that would not compromise what was needed and would make the generators more affordable.
"To see if we could take a Cadillac that was being offered to us and see if we could buy a Buick, so to speak, that was within our means," he said.
He said with some changes to the specifications, such as having a concrete pad base of 2.5 feet in depth, exceeded what was necessary for the smaller facilities the generators would serve. LaBranche said the town opted for a smaller gas tank for the generator at Wheeler Dam.
"Once you move into the area of 800 gallons, then you're looking into different EPA requirements," LaBranche said. "If you go to 400, the rules change dramatically and so did the price."
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