(KLZA)-- An informational meeting to provide Falls City businesses and home owners along Chase, Harlan and Stone Street about Falls City Electrical Distribution System improvements was held last Thursday at Prichard Auditorium.

Falls City Utility Superintendent Ray Luhring said the huge project would be a great benefit to the Falls City.  JEO and Olsson Engineering firms will work together on the project.  

Work will begin at the power plant on south Crook Street in Falls City and the five,  5KV feeder lines will be taken out and the system will be upgraded to 15KV power.  

A major component of the project is to convert approximately 14 blocks of the downtown business alley overhead power lines to an underground system, making the system more resilient to weather events and safer for the public. 

Luhring said a recent major power outage only confirmed the need to move forward with the project.  There are five circuits that distribute power to the community and when all five go down it leaves approximately 60 - 70 percent of the community without power and and it shuts down gas stations as well as restaurants and really cripples the community.  He said this project will help alleviate those issues. 

Luhring explained the change from the current 4.16 KV to 13.8 KV lowers the current and give the system more capacity while running more efficiently and also allows the Electric Department to shut down an isolated problem spot to make needed repairs instead of shutting down a much larger area. 

JEO Consulting Group is the firm leading the project, and the city are looking at federal hazard mitigation grants to help address the estimated $4.1-million cost of the project.  If awarded the FEMA grant could pay up to 75-percent of the cost.  Once the grant application is submitted,  the firm should find out in June or July of 2022 if the application was successful.

Luhring noted that even if the grant application is denied,  the Board of Public Works and the City Council have decided that it is necessary to move forward with the project.  

Letters of support for the project from community businesses and residents to be included with the grant application would be appreciated.  Olsson and JEO will be gathering information from businesses as well for the grant application.  

Mayor Shawna Bindle said the project is very important to the future of Falls City and noted that during the last power outage there were questions about why the City could not supply power with the generators at the power plant, and that the distribution system was the culprit.  She said the City can generate the power needed, but without upgrades to the distribution system that generated power cannot be delivered to customers.  

Preliminary work has started on the project but actual construction is not likely to start until the spring of 2023.