Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget And Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Xenia approves emergency appropriations, authorizes purchase of new City Administration Building generator
Summary
Council approved emergency appropriations to cover an upsized generator for the City Administration Building, Market District intersection work, utility billing chargebacks and contractor refunds, and authorized purchase of a Caterpillar generator through Sourcewell. The measures passed unanimously.
The Xenia City Council on May 22 approved an emergency ordinance adding appropriations for fiscal-year 2025 and authorized staff to purchase an upsized backup generator for the City Administration Building.
Finance Director (name not specified) told the council the city is requesting additional appropriations to cover several items: roughly $197,358 tied to the Administration Building generator purchase (spread across general capital, water, sewer, sanitation and storm funds, with the general capital share roughly $39,000), an additional $250,390 to add intersection work to the Market District infrastructure Phase 1 (with $55,130 allocated to stormwater funds and the remainder from the general capital fund), refunds to contractors (amounts not specified in the meeting), and approximately $350,000 in transfers to cover utility-billing chargebacks across the four utility funds.
Council approved the emergency ordinance (Ordinance 2025-13) on a unanimous roll-call vote.
Separately, the council authorized purchase of a Caterpillar generator through Ohio Cat using the Sourcewell cooperative-purchasing program (Resolution 2025-028). City staff said an initial $250,000 had been budgeted for the generator but higher-than-expected equipment and installation costs, including corral and mounting work, required additional appropriations. Staff recommended a Caterpillar unit sized to meet computed peak loads; if approved, fabrication has a lead time of about nine months and installation and testing could delay full service until next spring. The packet notes a 12-month warranty on the unit; staff also reported a trade-in allowance for the existing generator of about $55,000 as an offset.
Councilors asking questions received explanations that the current generator is undersized and intended only to support basic life-safety functions (exit lighting, minimal systems), and that recent frequent outages have made an upsized unit more urgent for continuity of operations and emergency-operations capability. The city manager and finance director described the upgrade as necessary to operate the building’s server room, support customer-facing services during outages and provide space for an emergency operations center.
Both the supplemental-appropriation ordinance and the resolution authorizing the generator purchase passed on unanimous roll-call votes among members present.
