WESTFIELD – The Health Department and city officials will have more options to respond to natural emergencies which result in power outages when an emergency generator is installed at City Hall.
Health Director Joseph Rouse said at the Board of Health meeting last night that the generator was acquired with Homeland Security funding of $25,000 through the Hampden County Health Coalition.
Rouse said that during the recently completed city hall renovation, additional circuits were added to which the 45-KW generator, which is secured to a trailer, can be attached and provide power.
The city has considered acquiring a larger emergency backup generator as part of the city hall renovation, but decided that it was cost-prohibitive at the time. A generator producing 300 KW or more would be needed to more adequately power the building.
“It isn’t large enough to power the entire building, but it will run the Health Department so we don’t lose the vaccines in our refrigerators,” Rouse said. During prolonged power outages in the past, the department had to move vaccines and other perishable items to Noble Hospital, which has emergency power sources.
Rouse said the emergency generator has sufficient electrical output and switching capabilities to also provide power to the City Council Chambers, Building Department and mayor’s office, as well as the Health Department.
Currently, the only place that has emergency backup power where officials could plan responses to emergencies, natural or otherwise, is the Technology Center, which also houses the Emergency Management Department.
“This gives us another location where all of us can meet,” Rouse said.
The trailer-towed generator, Rouse said, is a regional asset that will be shared with other communities, but Westfield will have first priority in the event of a widespread power outage such as the one following the Halloween blizzard several years ago.
“If Southwick needed it for an emergency situation specific to their community we could bring it over to them,” Rouse said. “But if we needed it, we have first dibs on it.”
