Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency Director Bill Quinton received approval Tuesday to begin the purchasing process for several upgrades.
“We are requesting permission to advertise for a 150kw generator for the Rosedale courthouse and 60kw emergency generators to be used throughout the county,” said Quinton.
Quinton gave no specifics on where the 60kw generators would be placed.
However, all of the generators will provide emergency power in the event of severe weather.
Quinton assured the board that purchasing these generators would not cost the county additional money.
Once a bid is chosen, the generators will be purchased with excess funds from Quinton’s department.
The EMA received reimbursement from MEMA for the money it fronted for five storm sirens and five emergency generators in 2008.
“This is money that was left from them repaying us for handling the generator grant and the siren grant,” Quinton explained. “(We) should have enough money in there to pay for that and not cost the county anything.”
The 150kw generator to be installed at the county courthouse in Rosedale will operate similarly to the one placed at the courthouse in Cleveland.
The generator was installed in the county courthouse in Cleveland in March 2009.
At the same time, emergency power generators were also installed at the Port of Rosedale.
The generators were funded through a MEMA Mitigation Grant which Quinton urged agencies in the area to take advantage of in 2008.
When the MEMA Mitigation Grant was originally offered, the county courthouse in Rosedale was not one of the applicants.
Before a new generator can be installed at the courthouse in Rosedale, there will have to be some repairs made to the building.
The building’s wiring will have to be reworked and updated.
“I also have a request to do the electrical at the courthouse to make the generator actually work the same way it does at the Cleveland courthouse,” said Quinton.
Quinton had the wiring at the courthouse checked this spring, when he first mentioned purchasing an emergency generator for the Rosedale building.
At this time, there has been no timeline projected for the project, though it is moving forward.