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Council hears plan to finish water/sewer complex standby-generator design after 2022 pause
Summary
Acting water/sewer staff told council an engineering design paused in 2022 is about 90% complete and the city seeks to extend the contract with Rambo Americas Engineering to finish designs and provide a full-complex standby generator and reliable transfer switching; staff said no robust interim redundancy exists and asked council to approve finishing the design work.
City water and sewer staff described a resolution to extend an agreement with Rambo Americas Engineering to complete design work for a standby generator serving the water/sewer complex.
Presenters said the 2022 design reached roughly 90% completion before work stopped and that the current onsite generator and transfer switches are unreliable. "We really don't have anything in place if something were to happen tomorrow," a presenting staff member said, adding that the new system would provide a single transfer switch and a generator sized to power the entire complex. Council asked whether NYSEG transmission capacity and recent substation upgrades would support the additional kilowatt load; staff said the Montgomery Street substation's three‑phase capability has been upgraded to serve the project.
Members also asked whether the new design leaves capacity for possible future treatment equipment such as PFAS filtration. An engineering contact was quoted as estimating a PFAS treatment cost for one well at about $1,500,000, and staff said grant settlement funds exist to help pay for PFAS work but that money has not been formally set aside or protected. The presentation included a project timeline and a note that final construction procurement will follow standard public‑procurement steps, including public notice and competitive bidding.
No formal vote on the design extension was recorded at the work session; staff indicated the design completion is scheduled to move forward once council authorization is granted. The discussion highlighted a vulnerability in redundancy that staff said has persisted since 2022 and a need to complete the design to protect water operations.
