PROSPECT — The Town Council last week approved two transfers, totaling $118,527, to install a generator and a new oil fuel tank at the Prospect Community Center.
The cost of the diesel-powered generator and to install it is $93,787. The town awarded the bid for the project to Cummins Metropower in Rocky Hill.
The community center is the former Community School. The town purchased the building and property at 12 Center St. from Region 16, which oversees schools in Beacon Falls and Prospect, for $873,000 in 2016.
The center is now used for a variety of programs and by town organizations. When the town bought the building, the plan was to also use it as an emergency shelter. The generator will allow it to be an emergency shelter. The town’s present emergency shelter is the firehouse on New Haven Road.
Mayor Robert Chatfield said the town will have to prepare the site where the generator will sit, including buying a concrete slab for the site.
The town will also be installing a new, 3,000-gallon fuel tank to replace an underground tank, per order of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The town awarded a bid of $24,740 to United Concrete Products in Wallingford for the project.
Chatfield said the new tank will be installed above ground. It will be fenced in with landscaping around it, he said. Any oil left in the old tank will be transferred to the new tank. If there’s no contamination around the underground tank, Chatfield said the town may be able to just leave it in the ground and fill it with sand.
The funds for the work were transferred from the town’s fund balance to the capital non-recurring account. The fund balance has about $1.6 million in it, according to Chatfield.
