A view of Warsaw City Hall where servers are housed.

WARSAW — The city administration intends to purchase a generator to serve city hall as a way of ensuring its computer servers remain functioning if there should be a major outage.

City hall currently relies on a backup battery, but that can only provide power for about two hours in the event of a power outage.

The switch to a generator would ensure continual electrical coverage to keep city servers running.

Mayor Joe Thallemer brought the issue up Monday at the board of works and safety meeting and said the city will seek grant money through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to pay for the generator, which could cost between $50,000 and $75,000.

Thallemer said relying on the existing two-hour battery back-up has been a concern.

All of the internet service provided to city departments comes through servers housed at city hall. Even an isolated power failure in the downtown could halt the city’s ability to function if the servers go down, Thallemer said.

In the event of an emergency, electrical power is crucial in maintaining city phone lines and the ability to move large mapping files to departments responding to an emergency, among other necessities.

“Obviously, in case of emergency, having that communication is critical,” he said.

The board of works took an initial step in that direction by arranging for D&D Electric, Etna Green, to complete electrical work that will also support the use of a back-up generator for city hall. That work will cost $17,778.

“Doing this work will also play into having that full-time dedicated generator,” said Staci Young, assistant to the mayor. “If we move forward with that project, it’s almost like leveraging and starting the ball rolling.”

In other matters, the board:

• Approved street closure plans for the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest, which runs from May 17 to 19 in Warsaw and Winona Lake. Numerous streets in Warsaw will be closed Friday, May 17, but an effort is being made this year to minimize the closing of Lake Street to as short a time as possible.
• Approved paperwork to initiate preliminary engineering by StructurePoint for reconstruction of Anchorage Road, which will not happen until possibly 2022. That work is separate from this year’s scheduled improvements at the intersection of US 30 and Anchorage Road by Indiana Department of Transportation.
• Approved a contract with Verizon for city cell phones that will be provided to police under a new policy approved recently by the city council. The contract would cover up to 200 phone lines in case the city chooses to expand the policy to other departments, Thallemer said.