Fulton County tables decision on renting generator after recent outages

Fulton County commissioners discussed a malfunctioning county generator and possible short-term rental options before voting to table any rental agreement until the next meeting or until more information is available.

Staff reported repair could take two to three weeks. A rental vendor quoted $756 per day, approximately $1,900 per week and roughly $4,730 for a full four-week rental; additional charges would include round-trip delivery, fuel and setup, and an hourly hookup rate of about $170. Commissioners and department staff described recent operational impacts from outages, including loss of VPN/internet access that disrupted vaccine refrigeration logistics and required manual handling by staff and sheriff’s deputies.

One commissioner summarized the operational cost of downtime: "You take all the county employees that really didn't do anything, and we're paying everybody. Even if you said $20 an hour and a 100 people, there's $2,000 an hour, we're losing productivity time without a generator." After discussing repair timelines and options to reallocate funds for a permanent solution, the board moved to table the rental/agreements until Monday to allow staff to seek further details and availability from the vendor; motion carried by voice vote.

Staff will follow up with the vendor on repair timing and rental availability and report back at the next meeting.