Knox municipal board approves plotter and mobile generator to modernize records and protect wastewater operations

At a Knox municipal meeting, board members voted to add and approve the purchase of a wide-format plotter to digitize the city’s long-format blueprints and approved buying a mobile generator intended to serve all 13 wastewater lift stations.

Lonnie, speaking during the agenda amendment, said the plotter would let staff “scan them in and then go to the PDF file” and noted the city has “a ton of blueprints, old ones” that are difficult to search. He estimated the machine would cost “about 11,000 total” (one speaker later referenced roughly $12,000).

Superintendent Jason described the generator need after recent storms left multiple lift stations without power, saying the John McGill lift station was out of power for three days and the city had to set up bypass pumps. Jason said the mobile unit would allow crews to “move it around the lift station… pump the wet well down, move to the next one,” and called the purchase essential for avoiding future service interruptions.

The board reviewed two quotes for the generator; staff reported one vendor offered an overstock 45 kW unit at a discounted price of about $33,590 while another quote was about $35,000. After discussion the board made and seconded motions to fund and purchase both the plotter (added as agenda item 4B) and the mobile generator; the motions carried by voice vote.

The purchases were framed by members as investments in both recordkeeping and emergency resilience: the plotter will allow the city to scan, archive and retrieve historic blueprints (Sunnyside subdivision was cited as an example), while the generator is intended as a shared, movable backup to keep wastewater pumping and treatment functioning during extended outages.

Next steps: staff will proceed with procurement under the board’s direction and return any required contract documents or formal bid results to a future meeting for recordation.