Putnam Seeking Grant To Establish Emergency Generators At County Buildings

Putnam County applying for grant funding to install emergency generators at several county buildings.

Mayor Randy Porter said the idea is to install the gear at community centers, libraries and the county courthouse for emergency shelter purposes.

“Especially the Cookeville and Monterey Community Centers,” Porter said. “They are large to where you could have several people be able to be there and the library has a full basement that could house people. So we are looking at those buildings to add emergency generators to.”

Porter said the courthouse serves as the second post of command in emergency situations. Porter said it currently does not have a generator as well as the other locations being explored.

“The only places that have back up generators are emergency facilities like the 911 center, emergency operations center, health department and the substations have them, but the main county buildings don’t,” Porter said.

Porter said the grant would only require a 10 percent match from the county. Porter said Cookeville Electric usually does not have widespread outages, but the county wants to plan ahead for natural disasters.

“We learned this with the tornado and the ice storms,” Porter said. “There may be people that go several days without power.”