The Mineola Village Board is accepting bids for the installation of an emergency generator at Village Hall and Community Center, officials announced last week. The project cost is estimated at $500,000 and would be covered by community development block grants. The funds are federal monies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered through Nassau County Office of Community Development.
“We’re requesting to go out to bid to see what the cost of this is going to be,” Department of Public Works Superintendent Tom Rini said. “Plans are ready.”
Village Hall would need a 200 kilowatt natural gas generator if power were to go out for an extended time period.
“We’re looking for a natural gas generator, not an oil or diesel fuel generator so there’s not delivery issues or concerns of that nature,” Mayor Scott Strauss said. “For some reason if you can’t get gasoline, we can still operate.”
The village board also approved an engineering services proposal from Dvirka & Bartilucci for generators at the village’s central garage and DPW office. The proposal totals $54,000 with the project cost at $400,000. The plan would be funded by the general fund or unreserved fund balance of the village budget.
Consisting of three buildings, the two main garages would run on one generator, with the DPW administration office working of a second generator. The previous generator only ran on 25 kilowatts.
Rini estimated the garages and offices would need 60 and 35 kilowatt generators, respectively.
“We first looked at the possibility of having one big generator run both but it just didn’t make any sense to do that,” Rini said. “We’re looking to get the engineering done so we can then come back and go out to bid to see what the cost on that’s going to be.”
Strauss said Mineola is still seeking government assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s a long process,” he said. “We’re not sure [FEMA] funding will happen, but we want to start the process on our end.”
