The town staff will be busy shopping for generators at the Town's Board's request during the next few months in a continuing effort to turn Vice Chairman John McDonald's hope of having two emergency generators supply the town with power in the event of a regional blackout into a reality.

The proposal, which includes having a generator at the main fire station on Highway 160 and another located at the Bob Ruud Community Center, has hit a number of snags since the idea was first introduced in January 2007.

After several months of researching and investigating the idea, WillDan Engineering, the firm the town has a five-year service agreement with, came back with the daunting price tag of approximately $82,000 for the design and engineering cost.

That didn't even include purchasing or installing the generators.

McDonald then brought up the question of whether or not an engineer was needed for the project at all, arguing that the generators could be purchased already built and much of the work could be completed by a general contractor.

Board Member Dan Sprouse introduced a motion at the last meeting to request bids for the project and incorporate the price into the next fiscal year's budget.

That solution, however, fell flat when town counsel Carl Joerger pointed out that legally an electrical engineer was needed for the project.

Furthermore, while Joerger conceded the town's service agreement with WillDan did not give that firm exclusivity, engineering firms had to be selected on the basis of qualifications, not price.

In short, there was no way to budget for the project with solid numbers because until a firm was selected for it, the town would not know how much that firm would charge.

"We can't ask them ahead of time, until we choose what firm it's going to be, how much it's going to cost," Joerger said.

The discussion became slightly convoluted when a separate emergency plan proposed by McDonald (this one to have several emergency drinking water stations around town) that may also require generators was brought up by board member Don Rust.

Rust suggested the town come up with a comprehensive idea of what was needed for both plans before requesting qualifications from firms.

"We need to know specifically what we want someone to do before we go to anybody and get engineering proposals, whether its WillDan or somebody else," Rust pointed out.

In lieu of budgeting for the project, the board directed Town Manager Dave Richards to contact generator companies and obtain literature from them and create a report that would give the board a general idea of the cost.