(1/22) The Town Council voted to submit an application for a Maryland Government Infrastructure Fund 2024 Series A Bond to fund work on the Moser Road Substation and additional departmental upgrades. The Town will also search for other grants.
The Town will request $4 million to cover the Moser Road Substation, estimated to cost $2.425 million; Catoctin Heights feeders, estimated at $1.1 million; and $348,000 for a new bucket truck. The total of the three projects reaches $3.8 million.
"We put a little extra on there so that if something increases by $100,000, we’re not totally shocked by it," Mayor John Kinnaird said. "We’re realizing up front that there can be cost increases between now and when we do the project."
Electric Engineer Jay Waller from Preston Waller & Associates presented the same information from the August 15 meeting for the Moser Road Substation project, where the total quote remained $2,425,000. The quote includes labor, engineering, all parts and materials, contingencies, etc.
Waller broke the project into two parts: the substation/controls scope and the transformer scope. Under the former, they will replace breakers and disconnect switches and install a new computerized control system for an estimated $1,250,000. The transformer scope covers work to refurbish the outside of the transformers, estimated to reach $1,175,000.
Each transformer will take about 6-8 weeks to repair, according to Waller’s rough estimate. The crew is only able to work on one transformer at a time and Waller suggested doing the repairs outside of peak hours to reduce any further disruption. If something should happen to the transformers during the repairs, Waller expects the Main Street Substation to be able to take over its electric load.
The Catocin Heights Feeder project would separate the subdivision and high school so that they are on two different feeder power lines. "Right now, there’s only one; if something were to happen, that whole side of 15 would be out of power," Electric Utility Director Tyler Hubbard said.
The project consists of installing an underground wire to the subdivision, which was started in 2018. Completing the project means making the final connections to the transformer and then making any necessary reconfigurations.
In looking into the cost of a new custom configured bucket truck, town staff told the Council that instead of waiting for a truck to be configured specifically for the town, there were premade options that were immediately available and cost less. However, since the prices on the options the town needs have a large range, they used the cost of a new custom configured truck to ensure the cost was covered.
The current truck, from 1997, no longer passes inspection because the fiberglass loom doesn’t provide enough insulation to protect against electrical currents. "Without this truck, we can’t do our job," staff said.
