A proposal to install two emergency generators in town, in case of a regional power outage, was temporarily put to rest at the town board's Jan. 8 meeting.

The town will now solicit request for proposals for the project from various firms and budget for the project in the next fiscal year.

The idea, proposed by Vice Chairman John McDonald, was to install one generator at the Bob Ruud Community Center and one at the main fire station on Highway 160.

The plan hit a snag, however, when WillDan Engineering, the firm with which the town has a service agreement, came back to the board with a daunting estimate of the cost.

The cost just to engineer and design the generators was estimated at $82,000. And that didn't even include future costs, estimated at approximately another $80,000.

This led to McDonald questioning the necessity of having an engineering firm at all, and stating at previous meetings that much of the work could probably be done by a general contractor at far less cost.

Since the town has a service agreement with WillDan, the question arose as to whether that meant the town could go out to bid for the project.

According to McDonald, Town Counsel Carl Joerger determined that there is no exclusivity clause as far as WillDan is concerned.

As such, the vice chairman suggested taking no further action on the item due to lack of funding.

The discussion led to a motion by Don Rust not to entertain agenda items the town for which the town doesn't have funding, which fell flat with no second.