Levee District 3 Board Approves Purchase Of Power Source Backup System

Pump station operator Norm Gallup was authorized January 13 by the Ste. Genevieve Levee District 3 board to purchase whatever uninterrupted power source (UPS) backup system he and board member Tom Okenfuss decide would work best for the Urban Design Levee pump house.

The UPS purchase is part of an ongoing attempt to upgrade software and equipment at the pump house. The board voted to authorize Gallup and Okenfuss to pick out the UPS that would give the pump house sufficient backup protection at the most economical price during its regular monthly meeting on January 13.

A UPS would keep the computers and equipment programmed and running in the event of a power outage.

It would also keep any settings from being lost when the system switches from regular electricity to the generator.

“We can’t afford for that thing to shut down and lose everything,” board president Vern Bauman said.

He stressed that it needed to be taken care of right away.

“If you want to look at it and work it out, that’s fine,” Bauman said. “But we need it.”

Board member Robert Eck said a UPS could cost anywhere “from $55 into the thousands” of dollars. The higher the wattage, he explained, the longer the backup time the device would provide.

See complete story in the January 22 edition of the Herald.