After Sandy, Ossining Considers Generator Upgrades

With storms like Sandy becoming "the trend more than the exception," Ossining Village Manager Richard A. Leins said officials are looking into what it would cost the village to install generators at key locations throughout the municipality.

"Basically, after Hurricane Sandy, we realized there were some weaknesses within the village and one of the major weaknesses was the generator at the Indian Brook facility," Water Superintendent Andy Tiess shared at the village's January 22 work session. "The generator there was put in in 1986. It was a generator that was sized for the population and the usage at the time."

During the 2012 superstorm, the Indian Brook transformer "blew out, so we immediately went to backup power," Tiess said.

While waiting for a replacement circuit breaker for the facility over the course of four to five days, the village borrowed generators from Westchester County and New York State, he shared.

"So, in the process of losing power, we realized that it is time...for a new generator," said Tiess.

Other major municipal stations, including Village Hall and the village's operations center, do not have generators. Tiess said Ossining officials should consider changing that.

"There's a resolution for the board to authorize going out to bid for the generator at the Pleasantville Road pump station at the next legislative session," Tiess said. "The generator that is in that facility is going to be taken out and we thought that a good use for that generator would be the operations center."

He continued, "We want to get a generator installed at the filter plant that would work along with keeping that old generator there."

The design and construction management of this portion of the project would cost approximately $58,250, according to an estimate by John Dulak of Lynstaar Engineering.

A "full hook-up" of the Pleasantville Road facility's generator at the village armory, Tiess said, would cost between $75,000 and $100,000.

The design and construction management steps needed to bring a generator to Village Hall would cost about $14,000 he said. Adding a standalone generator would be an additional $125,000, while a trailer-mounted generator would cost approximately $150,000, he said.

"The advantage of having it on a trailer is we would most likely be able to use it in other buildings," Tiess pointed out.

With the village board's blessing, the generator project would then be turned over to Lynstaar Engineering for a design phase before also receiving health department approval.

"My goal would be next year at this time actually go out on the street for bid," said Tiess, who said he hopes to be tackling installations by the spring of 2014.

Said Mayor William R. Hanauer, "I think this is a very important step for us to take in further bringing the village into the 21st century."