Council approves electrical panel rebuild at Seer Gates Community Center to reduce outage risk

The New Iberia City Council approved a contract to replace the aging main electrical panel at the Seer Gates Community Center after staff described a potentially serious reliability risk to the facility.

Staff said the existing setup includes two services and an original main panel from the 1960s. "If that goes out and this is also 1960 electrical panels," a staff member said, "we have no more to get to." The base-bid project replaces the main panel and associated breakers to reduce the risk of an outage during events. Staff said that reconfiguring to a single service and installing a transfer switch to enable a generator hookup would add roughly $150,000 and would be a future project if funding is secured.

Council members stressed the building's role as the city's emergency shelter and the need to minimize disruption to scheduled events during construction. Staff said the contractor will coordinate work around the city's calendar of events.

The council approved awarding the electrical service rebuild (Resolution 25138). Staff said further work to allow generator hookup and full single-service reconfiguration will require additional funding and engineering and could be considered later as a separate project.

Ending: The rebuild should reduce the risk of a catastrophic electrical outage at a facility the city uses for large events and sheltering; the council asked staff to coordinate timing to avoid key community events.