Jamestown Board of Public Utilities officials, including General Manager David Leathers, update Jamestown City Council (February 12, 2024)
Jamestown City Council received an update from the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities at their work session Monday.
BPU General Manager David Leathers said bids have been launched for phase two of a water main replacement project.
He said the BPU received a $3 million Water Infrastructure Improvement grant and a $2 million Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund to go toward work on five streets, “I think it’s West Virginia Boulevard, Glenview, Mercury Lane and LaSalle; West End Langford and West 18th Street. The intent with those five streets is to get the bid results back and see how much money we have left out of the $5 million to award. So, we expect bid results in early March and hopefully an award by the March (BPU) board meeting.”
Leathers said the beginning of 2024 has seen some water main breaks compared with almost a historic low number of breaks in 2023, “As we continue to replace what we’ve identified as old and needing to be replaced lines, then we’re hopeful that shows up in the results related to main breaks and disruptions for our customers.”
Leathers said the BPU is in a multi-month negotiation with the U.S. Department of Energy regarding a microgrid project. The utility received a $17.4 million federal grant for the $23 million project.
The monies will be used to construct a microgrid, electric vehicle charging, battery storage and replacement of underground cabling. BPU Transmission and Distribution Manager Kris Sellstrom said that the microgrid would serve the downtown area, including government and public safety buildings, healthcare facilities, and some Jamestown school buildings.
He said then that the microgrid would help prevent against regional power outages.
Leathers said it’s primarily a reliability and resiliency project, “It is not a long-term commitment to the Natural Gas LM 6000 Turbine. So, we have that turbine and we anticipate that turbine will be available for another decade, if not more. But as new technology comes along and the state transitions away from natural gas, if we have new generation this project can help support that.”
Leathers estimates that it will take four to five years to complete the project.
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