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Newton seeks $100,000 to hire contractors after electric-grid workload exceeds in-house capacity
Summary
Public Works Director Dusty Wentz told council that rapid residential electric-grid work has strained a six-lineman crew; council approved a $100,000 budget amendment to contract with Williams Electric for construction and maintenance support.
Public Works and Utilities Director Dusty Wentz told the council the city’s electric system has seen major residential growth this fiscal year involving by-pass switches, reclosers, miles of fiber cable and three-phase line work. Wentz said the scale of new-construction and maintenance work exceeds what a six-lineman crew can safely complete in a timely fashion.
The city previously contracted with Osmose for pole evaluations and identified dozens of poles needing replacement; additional poles were noted for ATT 5G deployment work. To address capacity constraints, staff requested authority to expand services from Williams Electric under an hourly contract for crews and equipment and asked the council to adopt a $100,000 budget amendment for contracted distribution construction and maintenance services. Council adopted the ordinance amendment.
Wentz said the services are intended to speed system expansion, maintain reliability and allow timely outage response while protecting public safety.
