The Ascension Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness is acquiring and installing 20 emergency generators at key locations around the parish.
Work has already begun at many locations, and is expected to be completed within the month.
“We’re looking at maintaining the continuity of operations to make sure that government can continue to function in case of an emergency,” said Rick Webre, director of the Ascension Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Fourteen locations in Ascension Parish are in the process of receiving permanent generators.
They include:
• Parish President’s Office and Finance Department
• Department of Public Works
• Department of Public Works maintenance facility
• Health Unit
• Prairieville Fire Department
• Ascension Parish Jail
• Donaldsonville City Hall
• Sorrento Town Hall
• Gonzales city maintenance facility
• Fifth Ward Fire Station
• Sorrento Fire Station
• Fire Station 51
• Fire Station 61
• Fire Station 71
Six other generators will be kept as mobile units to be used at fire stations and gas stations as needed. A permanent generator is already in place at the Ascension Parish Courthouse in Gonzales.
All the generators are diesel powered. They will not be faced with the problems of low natural gas pressure that were experienced by some Ascesnion generator owners following Hurricane Gustav. The entire project is being funded by $561,555 from the Louisiana Recovery Grant.
Generator installation at the Parish President’s Office and Finance Department and adjacent Grants Office will require the cutting of electrical power to those buildings on Friday, July 10.
Because of that, those offices will be closed July 10 after operating on a 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. schedule Monday, July 6 through Thursday, July 9.
