Company rep says generator won't power two county buildings

By Charlene Sims

LCJeditor@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commissioners heard a report from Adam Schifman on Monday, March 23, about the capabilities of the generator that is being moved from the old sheriff’s building in hopes that it can power some services in the courthouse and appraiser’s office in an emergency.

Public Works Administrator Jesse Walton said that he had been working with Adam Schifman from Multiplicity in Louisburg about moving the generator.

Schifman told the commissioners that he had identified one issue that has kept the generator from running at top efficiency and that was because it was running with a liquid propane (LP) adaptor kit installed on a natural gas line. He said that would need to be corrected when it was reinstalled.

Schifman explained to  the commissioners that a the generator would not be able to totally power both buildings. Commissioners should decide what they wanted to power in the two buildings.

“I would love to walk you through it (courthouse), because it makes a lot of sense when you walk through the buildings. But the spec sheets don’t lie,” said Schifman. “The generator feeds what the generator feeds.”     

Schifman said that a walkthrough would explain the different loads in the building. He said that there are 15 subpanels off of the main power supply.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             He said the next step was to disconnect everything, basically cap everything off.

Commissioner Jim Johnson asked if it needed to be moved for the demolition. Walton said it would.

Schifman said before the building is demolished he would recommend taking all the usable material that is worth money out of the building, items that could be used further with that generator for future use.            

He said, “And taking all the stuff that ties into life safety systems, so transfer switches and also it’s got the FDS setup, which is also where it ties into fire alarm systems and fire suppression systems, and it turns off the gas if there’s a gas leak. And all those pieces, because there’s no reason to waste three or four thousand dollars when you can pull it off the wall and use it for future use.”

Johnson asked if the county had somebody to take all that out? Or do we need somebody?

Walton said he had discussed with Schifman having a crew come down They’ll probably come in over the weekend.

Schifman explained, “We have four people coming down. We’ll be, assuming its approved, to be very fast, very quick. We’ll send four people down in company trucks, We’ll palletize everything, wrap it, wire it, you know, label it all up, palletize it, zip tie it, and either you guys want to store it for future use or put it into service in some sort of action plan.

“But no matter what at least everything is saved. And that way it doesn’t just get into the demolition and all of a sudden you’re missing the fire panel and you’re like, ‘We had that and now we have to buy another one for $4,000,’ you know, versus ‘Llet’s put it on a pallet and save it for future use.’”

So that’s the next step that I had, said Schifman.

Commission Jason Hightower said, “I guess what my thought is the emergency services is what I’m looking for. I’m not looking to power the whole thing.”

Johnson said, “I’m not either. I’d like to see a schedule of what’s necessary to keep up running the heat and the emergency services and see to go from there.”

In a phone conversation with Walton later, he said that Schifman and a crew would be coming down on the weekend to clean out the items that could be reused in the building.