The Pines Long Term Care Home will get a new emergency generator, but it will cost more than double what was budgeted.
According to a report to the district’s Health Services Committee on Thursday, the current 150 kilowatt generator can only power essential heating, lighting, care systems, and equipment, which “limits the level of care and services” during an outage.
Bob MacGregor, Capital Project Coordinator with the district, told committee the new 400 kilowatt generator would solve that problem.
“This upgrade will ensure the entire home is powered and [can] continue to operate normally in the event of a Hydro outage,” said MacGregor.
Committee voted to amend the district’s 2022 budget with another $392,702 for the project, for a total of $731,002. The bulk of the additional funds, $338,300, come from the federal government’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
According to MacGregor, the increase largely comes from building an outdoor enclosure for the larger generator, rather than housing it in the same space as the current one.
“Through the design process, it was determined that the new generator needed to be housed in a larger, self-contained enclosure outside the building,” said MacGregor. “This is the significant component to the required budget amendment included in this recommendation.”
The contract for acquiring and installing the new generator was awarded to Sutherland-Schultz, the only bid out of the four the district received that included the enclosure.
The delivery date is set for just over a year from now, which MacGregor said came as a surprise. He noted that the contractor said they might be able to shorten that by up to 20 weeks, depending on their supplier.