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Repair to village power plant engine costs $140K

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The Greenport Village Board authorized $140,000 to pay for repairs to one of the village power plant’s engines last month.

Village workers discovered that Engine No. 4, the oldest of the village’s three power generators, had a crack in one of its cylinder heads in July, according to Mayor George Hubbard Jr. The engine, which had been rebuilt in the 1990s, was taken offline and engineering checks found more issues inside, he added.

“When it was done, I was told, there was a split in the head and so they welded the head and figured it was going to be fine,” he said. “It lasted 25 years but then [the problem] came back.”

The engine suffered damage from water that seeped through the split from the intercooler into the oil container, Mr. Hubbard said. Two other cylinders were replaced as part of the repair, a water interchanger was cleaned and repaired, and the entire engine’s oil was changed.

“An oil change on it is 300 gallons of oil,” Mr. Hubbard said.

The engine was repaired last month, he said, but the village has yet to receive the labor costs for the repairs, meaning the total cost of the incident will likely rise by next month’s meeting. The other two engines were rebuilt during Phase I of the village’s upgrade to the power plant.

These issues with the engine are unrelated to previous problems at the village’s plant, such as an issue with the transformers of the system. The Village has sued the contractor that oversaw the Phase I construction, alleging the company made “design flaws.”

Mr. Hubbard said the restored engine will help save the village money, since the village gets a heavily discounted rate on electricity due to the capacity of its power plant.

“It should be good for another 25 years,” he said. “By spending this money we actually save.”

Repairs were paid for through the village’s electric enterprise fund. Those monies are set aside for improvements and repairs to the village’s electrical equipment. The village’s $315,000 street and curb paving on Carpenter Street, which was also approved last Thursday night, will be paid for using the village’s general fund.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how the village paid for the engine repairs. The project was paid for through the village’s electric enterprise fund, not its general fund.

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Courtesy photo credit: Mary Bess Phillips