Sparta Aldermen unanimously approved the start to a $7-million infrastructure upgrade to the city’s electric grid Thursday.
Mayor Jerry Lowery said the new grid should be completed over five years. Lowery said it will offer power to Sparta’s growing business and population for years to come. Lowery said he chose to decisively expedite the project in an effort to keep costs down.
“We’ll have one of the most reliable grid systems in this area for a town this size,” Lowery said. “And we’ll be able to provide power for industries, homes, businesses that want to come here. And our reliability rating, which industries look at. So there are not a lot of power outages going in and out will be a very high rating and we’re looking forward to having that done.”
Lowery said work at the substation will begin at the end of September as the city starts to construct its state-of-the-art electrical grid.
“We’re not at our limit of power but we’re looking for a future expansion,” Lowery said. “So we bought a $2 million transformer that’ll be going at the substation.”
Lowery said the upgraded electrical grid will be a strong investment for many years even after he leaves office.
“Let’s say a business come in here and say they need ‘X’ number of kilowatt voltage or whatever they need and we can’t provide that with this system going on, maybe we can provide that when it’s happened, so it’s just planning for the future,” Lowery said. “You need to have a little vision to see out past where we are right now. If you just look, focus here, we forget about down there and five years comes and goes, you don’t get anything done,” Lowery said. “We just feel like that needs to happen.”
In other business, the city passed the first reading to make amendments to the municipal code, allowing laundry and dry-cleaning establishments to operate anywhere in commercial zones except the historic district.
The city approved auditing services from Blankenship, CPAs. the group who audits the state’s comptroller’s office.
The city also approved a request for a new street light on Depot Street.