February 24, 2021 Emergency Meeting
The Town of Glen St. Mary held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 6:00 P.M. at the Town Hall with Council membersMcCullough, Oca, Padgett, andReneau present. Mayor Rhynehardt presided over the emergency meeting.
The purpose of the emergency meeting was to discuss backup generator issues with Council.
Mayor Rhynehardt opened the emergency meeting and turned it over to Matt Torgerson to give better information regarding the generator issues. Matt explained that over the past few months, the generator has been having problems and he has reset it, but that last Monday he had auto set it to run five minutes, but it came on showing a low voltage. He told Council it was about six hours before he was notified of a problem. He went on to explain that one leg of the three phase is not putting out, but it is. He called CAT to come out and check it. The CAT technician diagnosed that the control panel is bad and obsolete. It is estimated to cost about $9,000 to repair the generator. We then called the engineer and was told to call Zabatt. They have worked on our generator before. The City of Macclenny referred us to Mr. Thornton of ProGen, which told Matt that he can repair the current circuit board. Zabatt suggested replacing the panel with an off-brand. CAT wants to replace with a retrofitted CAT board. The Town has no backup at this point if the power goes out. The water plant doesn’t have a problem, just the generator. Councilman Oca asked about the warranty of the generator, to which everything is over the life expectancy. Matt stated that everything else is working other than an oil leak that he can fix. Council member McCullough asked about any warranty for repairs, but we will have to ask. Council member Padgett asked what a complete replacement of the generator would be. Matt replied based on the 2014 replacement list, it would cost about $31,000. Councilman Oca stated that Zabatt has done good work in the past. Both CAT and Zabatt each cost about $300 to come out for the service call. Council asked how long it will take to have someone come out and fix the generator. Matt replied that CAT would be about two weeks, Zabatt didn’t give a timeframe. Sunbelt Rental would charge about $1,300 per week or $4,000 to rent a generator. The longest the Town’s water plant has been out of power was about nine hours during a tropical storm. Council decided to have Zabatt come out and fix the generator based on the bids received.
Council then discussed if the RV park and the fire station are going to allow for more revenues to be put aside for things like this. Councilman Oca stated that the lift stations are going to be an issue in a few years.
On a motion made by Council member McCullough, second by Councilman Oca, the Council voted to hire Zabatt to repair the generator based on the bids presented. (Vote 5-0) Mayor Rhynehardt told Council we will call them first thing in the morning.
The emergency meeting was adjourned at 6:13 P.M.
