Greenport electric upgrade gets sparking
Months of delays came to an end Monday night as Greenport Village Board members awarded $1.4 million in contracts as part of the estimated $2.45 million in work planned to upgrade the electric plant in the next year.
Hawkeye LLC of Patchogue won the bid to provide a new 10 MVA transformer at a cost of $892,000. Elemco Building Controls of Hauppauge will be refurbishing generator switch gear cubicles at a cost of $449,000 and also won the bid to provide a generation and distribution mimic control panel for $59,933.
But there will be a rebidding to find a company to calibrate instrumentation, controls and protective relays for the outdoor switch gear and control cabinet. Bids received were too far apart and board members opted to rebid that part of the project, Mayor David Nyce said.
The board had originally hoped to bring in all four bids within its $1.7 million borrowing capacity, Mr. Nyce said. But realizing that wasn’t going to happen and that $2.45 million is closer to the mark, he plans to ultimately fund the work as a capital project.
That decision required an interim step, indicating that money to pay for the project would come from encumbering $700,000 from the electric plant’s fund balance.
“By law, you can’t have an unfunded project,” Mr. Nyce said. Regardless of money that would flow to the project as a result of bonding, the village had to show that it has money on hand to pay bills that might accrue before the borrowed funds are in the bank, the mayor explained.
With Monday’s action, work can get under way rapidly, he said. He and other board members have been critical of delays in getting the project moving.
PARKING
On a separate matter Monday, Village Board members approved hiring a traffic control officer to enforce newly enacted parking rules.
Mr. Nyce appeared before the Southold Town Board March 29 to ask that the town police post a traffic control officer in the village. He was told that would cost Greenport about $770 a week from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Mr. Nyce acknowledged that the board needs to move quickly to get signs posted and meters purchased for Front and Main streets.
