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MAYOR Bill Blesener COUNCIL Jim LaValle Rick Montour Barbara Allan John Keis 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 ADMINISTRATOR (651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 -4048 Joel R. Hanson www.ci.little-canada.mn.us MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener & Members of City Council FROM: Bill Dircks, Public Works Superintendent Joe Steele, Public Works Supervisor DATE: November 7, 2005 RE: Generators Background: The storm of September 21 of this year has given us a chance to take a look at our emergency operations as a department, particularly with regard to generators. The power was out to five of our seven sanitary sewer lift stations along with the booster station for our city's water supply. The storm sewer Lift station at Sleepy Hollow Apartments had power. Power went out to the affected stations at around 7:30 p.m. All remained without power until about 2:30 a.m. when a couple came back online including the booster station. The remaining powerless lift stations were back online by 4:30 a.m. Throughout the seven hours without power public works staff had to jump from lift station to lift station to try and keep them all pumped down so that they would not back up into homes. The booster station was not a factor early but became one as the night went on. We were going to have to pump water into the tower so that residents had water the following morning. We were in the process of hooking the large generator up to the booster station when power was restored to it. Currently the city has two generators that can be used during power outage situations. We have a 200 kw trailer mounted generator that is used mostly for the booster station but is also necessary for 4 sanitary lift stations and the storm lift station that are all fed by three phase power. We also have a small 7500 -watt generator that can be used on three of our sanitary lift stations that are fed by single -phase power. The problem when much of the city is without power is running two generators back and forth between Lift stations and the booster station. The large generator is very awkward to maneuver around and the plugs are very heavy and awkward and it is a difficult task to connect and disconnect 2