by Mari Radtke
A city owned building in Primghar sits at the corner of McCormack Avenue and 1st Street SW served many purposes. It is coloquially known as “the old light plant.” The ground level housed generators to support the municipal electric utility. A new generator and building was built in recent years and located more accessibly to the substation and transmission lines into the city. Part of its upper area once served as City Hall. Since City Hall relocated in the late 1990s the building has been primarily a work space and parts storage.
A new leadership team has taken hold in the Primghar workforce. Working with the city council it was decided to find a way to return the building to useful. The biggest challenge facing that goal was removing four generators that filled the main level and served no purpose. Each is too big to remove. So a search began and staff worked with Goebel Salvage of Paullina to strategize an affordable way to remove the once useful generators.
In City Council meeting discussion was that if Goebel collected enough from salvage the city would bear no cost. Council being uncomfortable with unsaid dollars set a ceiling they would pay of $5000.
Work began on the removal in early November. An overhead door sized opening was made in the south wall of the old light plant and salvage efforts began. Removal of the generators took about a month, just completed recently. Costs are not yet finalized, but reinforcement of the floor and the installation of an overhead door will give the staff additional vehicle storage and work space.