WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS APPROVE JAIL GENERATOR PURCHASE

  

A new generator is on its way for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

At today’s (Tuesday) county commissioners meeting, the court amended its contract with W-Industries for the purchase of a 500 kW Caterpillar diesel generator, along with a generator pad, docking station and equipment pads.  The price of the generator is $702,169, which will be paid with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Commissioner Kirk Hanath said this is a smaller generator than what was first agreed to in the contract at 750 kW, but the new size is “still sufficient” for the jail while also being $128,000 less.  Commissioner Don Koester said he is “happy that we’ve finally got it to where we should be with this.”

The jail has been renting a temporary generator dating back to December 2021.  According to Koester, citing information provided by Jail Chief Deputy Eric Hensley, nearly $100,000 has been spent thus far on the generator rental.  Koester said the rental is being paid using Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) money.

Koester said the main holdup with getting the new generator in place at this point is acquiring a transfer switch for it, which could take up to a year.  He said the contractor will start very soon with groundwork, electric work and placing the new generator, which will take a much shorter time than getting the special order transfer switch.  Once the latter is done, the generator will be operable. 

Commissioners then approved a contract with Brightengale for the implementation of a digitally integrated public announcing system at the Expo.  The contract is for $358,764, also using ARPA funds. 

Included in the agreement is a completion table with every applicable venue and section of the Expo facility that will be receiving the upgrades, along with the latest possible date for completion.  Those are the event center, where the project is expected to be done by June 1^st; the livestock barns and sales facility, listed to be finished by August 1^st; the horse barn, to be concluded by October 1^st; and the rabbit barn, VIP room, food court and entertainment plaza, to be wrapped up by December 1^st.

Also at today’s meeting, the court approved:

• A proclamation declaring the month of April as Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in Washington County.
• Declaring a Kohler generator, the old generator at the jail, as salvage property to be listed on GovDeals.
• An additional IT specialist.  IT Director T.J. Harris said his department is about six months behind on projects and that he would not ask for this position mid-budget cycle if he did not consider it “mission-critical.”  He said the entry-level position will be posted in the $45,000-$55,000 range and expects to hire a candidate on the lowest end of that. 
• A purchase agreement for fleet fuel with Voyager/US Bank using a state contract through Texas SmartBuy.