The Greenwood City Council OK’d spending thousands in federal relief funds for a backup power generator, citing security concerns about electrical substations.
Council members unanimously voted to use $600,000 in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, to purchase a 450-kilowatt natural gas backup power generator, a natural gas line and a meter for the Greenwood City Center. Security fencing would also be purchased for the generator, according to city documents.
There was a public hearing for the ordinance on Wednesday, but no one spoke.
The ordinance was originally scheduled for first reading. However, city council member Linda Gibson later asked if the council could vote to expedite its final passage. She cited recent reports of problems at electrical substations as her reasoning, and the council unanimously agreed to expedite it.
Since at least November, there have been numerous reports of vandalism at power substations across the country, including South Carolina, Oregon and Washington state. A recent attack on power substations near Tacoma, Washington on Dec. 25 left 15,000 without power, the Associated Press reported.
No attacks have been reported in Indiana.
The city of Greenwood currently has generators for all of the fire stations, the justice center, the Department of Public Works, the community center and the fieldhouse. But the city center does not have one, which is a security issue, city controller Greg Wright told the city council last month.
If the city center loses power, officials lose the ability to access controls for door locks. Security cameras and computers would also go down in the building, he said.
The generator is an important security feature for the building to have, Wright said.
