LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors made another step toward the purchase and installation of five generators for as many county office buildings Tuesday, approving budget transfers for all five and accepting a bid for one.
In total, the board approved $455,000 in budget transfers to open up funds for backup generators and transfer switches as well as necessary electrical work, which are required to allow redirection of power from the grid in the event of a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. planned power shutoff.
The board had directed Public Works Director Lars Ewing earlier this month to initiate a formal, expedited bidding process for the generators after several supervisors agreed that spending roughly $730,000 without requiring bids might not appear favorable to the public.
“I can’t move forward, personally, without doing a formal bidding process,” District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said at the time. “That is too much money.”
While in some cases, according to Ewing, the county appears to be standing to save money because of the bidding process, the bids received thus far have not all been low. Ewing noted that some had been “slightly higher than I anticipated.”
Overall, Ewing said he sees the bid amounts compared to the initial quotes he’d received prior to the bidding process as an “indication that we are saving money by taking the route we did.”
The buildings to receive backup generators are Lake County Animal Care & Control in Lakeport, Behavioral Health in Clearlake, Child Support Services in Kelseyville, Social Services in Lower Lake and the district attorney’s Victim Witness division in Lakeport.
Bidding requests have been divided into two categories, said Ewing. One category, opened to bidders Monday, includes the electrical work required to prepare buildings for generator hookups. The other, opened Tuesday morning, includes generators and transfer switches.
The budget transfers approved Tuesday, according to Ewing, will cover “the cost of the project as a whole.”
An electrical contracting bid from Lee Generators for $197,106.50, which would cover the electrical work needed for all five buildings, was approved by the board for purchase by Ewing.
Supervisor Sabatier asked whether the county had a policy in place on reducing the use of electricity when a backup generator is turned on. Finding that no such policy existed, he noted that creating one could help save on generator fuel.
