Coldwater board approves consent agenda and green-lights second mobile standby generator purchase

The Coldwater Board of Public Utilities approved a multi-item consent agenda and voted to adopt management's recommendation to purchase a second mobile standby generator to support city lift stations during multiple-circuit outages.

Brian (staff), who presented the generator request, told the board the additional unit "would be a critical piece of equipment to maintain operations at our lift stations and as well as maintaining the delivery of our system." He described that the existing shared generator is nearing capacity during growth and extended outages and that deploying a second mobile unit would allow staff to assign generators to two stations while maintaining other stations with backup resources.

The staff presentation included three bids. Board discussion noted size differences between the Cummins bid (only available at a larger 70 kW size) and other vendors offering smaller-rated units. Exact bid figures in the transcript were partially garbled but staff cited vendor offers and recommended the board proceed with the purchase.

The board moved to adopt management's recommendation and approved the purchase by voice vote. The consent agenda, which included minutes, financial statements for January 2026, bills for the period ending 02/28/2026, power-supply cost projections and MERS pension statements, was also approved earlier in the meeting.

Votes at a glance:
- Consent agenda: motion made and approved by voice vote (recorded "aye").
- Mobile standby generator purchase: motion to "adopt management's recommendation" made and approved by voice vote (recorded "aye").

The meeting record does not list individual named movers or a full roll-call tally in the transcript; the approvals were taken by voice vote. The board did not specify delivery timing, final contract amount, or vendor selection in the spoken record; those specifics are recorded as staff notes to follow up.