LAMBERTVILLE: City eyes purchase of two generators

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   LAMBERTVILLE — A proposed bond ordinance that would fund the purchase of two emergency generators for Lambertville was introduced by City Council Feb. 19, Mayor David Del Vecchio said.
   The generators would provide electricity to City Hall and either the Justice Center or library in the event of another major power outage.
   Harkening to the havoc caused by Hurricane Sandy and other storms that caused outages, the mayor said: “Given the events of the past few years, we have to be prepared for running out of power again . . . We’d be wrong not to prepare.”
   The proposed ordinance, which is expected to be on the agenda of the council’s March meeting for a public hearing and adoption vote, would amend a previously adopted $30,000 bond ordinance for the generators by adding another $150,000 to it, which would bring the total amount the city would spend on the two generators to $180,000.
   The city consulted with an electrical engineering firm in developing plans for the generators, the mayor said.
   If the ordinance is adopted as expected next month, one of the generators would be installed permanently at City Hall.
   The other generator would be portable and would be used at either the city’s Justice Center (courthouse) or library.
   ”The generator at City Hall will be able to power whole building, including the elevator,” the mayor said. “That would enable us, if necessary, to have the office of emergency management (OEM) on the top floor and have the bottom floor for public use.
   ” We’d only have to do that if for some reason we couldn’t use the portable generator at the Justice Center or library. If the portable generator is running, we’ll have the OEM on the first floor at City Hall and the public will be able to use electricity at either the library or Justice Center to charge their cell phones and computers.
   ” Having the permanent generator at City Hall ensures us we’ll be able to operate the OEM,” the mayor noted.
   The city’s police, fire-fighting and first aid stations already have back-up generators, the mayor said.