The Garden City Commission approved the sale of a Substation Class transformer to the of Osawatomie at their regular meeting Tuesday. Mike Muirhead, Garden City Public Utilities Director, said the cause for reason for the sale is because on Oct. 25, Osawatomie experienced a catastrophic failure of their main substation transformer, which lead to large portions of their city being without power. So, representatives of Osawatomie contacted Garden City representatives including city staff, the mayor, City Manager Matt Allen, and Public Utilities staff, inquiring whether or not the city had a Substation Class transformer that matched the voltages and size they needed, Muirhead said. The city did have a backup transformer that would work. The transformer was purchased in 2014 for $185,652 and after calculating the inflation to 2023 dollars and the depreciation of the transformer, it was valued at $176,468, Muirhead said. “With the city of Osawatomie paying for the transportation and set-up costs, which was estimated at about $25,000, and since it was going to another municipal electric community in Kansas, staff set the value of the transformer at $150,000,” he said.
Source: Garden City Telegram
