Today's Board of Commisioners meeting.

The Curry County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of a new $21,365 propane generator for the Cape Blanco Emergency Communication Tower during today’s weekly business meeting.

The Kohler 38RCLB propane generator will replace the broken diesel model that supplies backup electricity to the tower during a power outage. The Cape Blanco Tower is one of five telecommunication sites that provide radio communications for numerous county and city agencies, including the Curry County Sheriff’s Office, the Roads Department and the Gold Beach City Police Department.

County Roadmaster Richard Christensen told the Board of Commissioners this morning that repairing the diesel generator would cost nearly $11,000 and that the county has been paying a hefty price to rent a temporary backup generator for the tower during fire season and the stormy winter months.

“It’s killing us,” Christensen said. “By time we get done here we're going to have [as much as] $6,000 tied up in this backup generator.”

The new propane generator will be purchased from and installed by the Blue Star Gas company in Brookings. Christensen said that Blue Star will also offer cheaper maintenance costs than Pacific Power Group, a non-local company that dispatches employees from Ridgefield, Washington to maintain the diesel generators.

The County previously had one emergency communication tower backed up by a propane generator. With today’s approval of a second propane-powered generator, Christensen said he plans to earmark approximately $25,000 of the Road Department’s annual budget over the next three years to swap out the three remaining diesel generators with propane ones.

“We’re worried that they’re going to have problems with new biodiesel fuels,” he told the Outpost. “They don’t have a long life before they start gelling up the fuel systems and tanks.”

Christensen said that swapping diesel for propane will also provide long-term financial relief for the County. Unlike diesel, propane has no shelf life. It’s also cheaper.

“Our [department] has to go fuel those [diesel] tanks,” he said. “It costs about $4.50 a gallon. Blue Star gas will deliver the fuel at $2.50 per gallon. So we're saving a couple of dollars per gallon on fuel costs for fuel that never goes bad.”

The new propane generator will include two 500 gallon tanks that will hold 430 gallons of fuel each and will cost approximately $2,100 for an initial fillup. During a power outage, Christensen said the tanks will be able to run the radio tower for five-and-a-half days straight at 60 percent capacity without refueling.

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