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Board backs county plan to place $750,000 shelter generator at West Bladen High School
Summary
After questions about site choice and logistics, the Bladen County Board of Education approved an interlocal agreement allowing the county to install a state-funded emergency generator at West Bladen High School; county officials said the grant requires the identified site and the county would own and maintain the unit.
The Bladen County Board of Education voted Aug. 11 to approve an interlocal agreement with Bladen County to install a state-funded emergency standby generator at West Bladen High School.
Julie Coleman, an emergency-management official with Bladen County, told the board the county received a shelter-capacity grant worth $750,000 and that engineers produced drawings proposing a generator installation to power the entire ground floor of West Bladen High School. Coleman said the county selected West Bladen based on historical shelter usage at that site and that DSS and the health department are the primary shelter staffing and data partners; she offered to provide usage statistics to the district.
Several trustees raised logistical concerns and alternatives, noting Elizabethtown’s centrality and closer hospital access and asking whether maintenance, insurance and long-term costs had been resolved. Coleman and other officials said the memorandum of agreement addresses ownership, maintenance, insurance, fuel and access and that the generator would be county property placed on school property; she also said county maintenance staff and engineers had reviewed control-panel access and other technical details.
Trustees also discussed the grant terms: Coleman said the state-approved application specified West Bladen as the site and that, if the board declined that specific site, the county would need to de-obligate and return the funds to the state and reapply later. After discussion and a point of order, Chair Singletary called for a motion; the board approved the interlocal agreement by voice vote ('Motion carries'). Coleman thanked the board after the vote.
