LaSalle County committee presses for downtown courthouse generator, seeks Ameren action on transformers

LaSalle County property committee members on March 14 pressed for a decision on a long‑planned standby generator for the downtown courthouse and urged the county to push Ameren to remove electrical transformers stored in the courthouse basement.

The discussion centered on safety and business‑continuity concerns for courthouse employees, jurors and the public after repeated power outages and equipment failures. Committee members asked county staff to contact the mayor and Ameren for an update and report back at the committee’s next meeting in two weeks, with the expectation the item would be forwarded to the full county board for a decision.

The issue has a multi‑year history. Kurt (engineer/staff) said an original design and estimate existed and was ready to go out to bid several years ago, but the city and a local historical group raised aesthetic concerns that stopped the project. “We had the project ready to go out to bids to be released and then the city stepped in and said they'd like further discussion,” Kurt said. He said the project had been coordinated with Ameren in prior planning so the utility could remove its equipment at the same time and…