On Monday night the Bloomington City Council approved a contract for $1.54 million to replace an aging generator at the Fort Jesse Pumping Station.
Bloomington Public Works Director Kevin Kothe explained to Cities 92.9 why this is important saying, “The backup generator at Fort Jesse at our pump station provides back up power for the pump station and if the Ameren power goes out we have the ability then to keep pumps running and supply the water to our citizens and our businesses in Bloomington. So that backup generator is important if the power goes out.”
Kothe told us without a backup generator should the power be lost, “It would effect the delivery of safe drinking water to our citizens. We do have some other redundancies in our system but Fort Jesse is one of our main pump stations to supply water to portions of the city. Not having pumps working there would definitely impact the pressures in the system and delivery of water to our residents and businesses.”
Specifically Kothe advised us that should the pumps at Fort Jesse fail all of Bloomington east of Main Street would be without water.
The life expectancy of generators is 25 years. The existing generator is 29 years old. Hence, the replacement generator is needed.
The Public Works Department initially budgeted $1.00million for the project. However the low bid came in at $1.54 million. Therefore the council also approved transferring $541,000 from the fund balance to increase the Water Fund budget for the project.
The low and winning bidder was Wm. Masters Inc. They outbid Wilcox Electric & Service Inc. whose bid was $2.31 Million. The difference in bids was $770,000.
Both Wm. Masters Inc. and Wilcox Electric & Service Inc. are local contractors.
