SALISBURY — Salisbury-Rowan Utilities received approval to enter into a $1.19 million contract for engineering services related to updating the water treatment plant’s electrical systems.

SRU director Jason Wilson presented the request before the Salisbury City Council on Tuesday, saying that the project was the result of a study that was conducted because most of the electrical equipment in the building had been installed over 30 years ago and was “near the end of its useful life.”

“The intent is to replace the 2.4-kilovolt power distribution system with a new 480- or 4160-(volt) system to match the current technology. What we’re finding with the older system, we’re having a hard time finding spare parts and replacement parts. It’s antiquated, it’s out of service,” said Wilson.

The contract is with Kansas City-based Black and Veatch International Company and is for $1,189,000 and calls for the company to perform the engineering services involved with updating the SRU plant located off of West Kerr Street.

The plant would have five electricity utility feeders, three of which are connected to the compound’s main building while the other two are connected to the administration building and the maintenance building.

Wilson said that a large part of the design process was decided whether they wanted to continue with a 480-volt or move to a 4160-volt system, which would allow the plant to utilize more power, but would necessitate extra training and is not necessarily required due to the size of the water pumps.

“If we were going to go with the 4160, what we would probably do (would be) tear the building down and build a bigger one. So, with 480, we’ve already got the brick-and-mortar done on that, which did save some money. One other fact is that our current staff, we already have 480-volt in other places, so they’re comfortable working with that. 4160-volt is no joke, not that 480 is, but there’s already a comfort level of our staff being able to do maintenance on the 480-volt,” said Wilson.

Several council members, including David Post and Harry McLaughlin, wanted to make sure that SRU was prepared for future expansion by going with the 480-volt system. Wilson said that SRU currently has room for growth in its water pumping capability, and going with the planned system would not hamper that.

“I feel confident in the projections, and we’re not designing this for today’s capacity. We’re looking ahead,” said Wilson.

Council Member Carlton Jackson Jr., who works for Duke Energy, asked Wilson if SRU had engaged Duke Energy and was keeping them updated on the project and evaluated it for redundancies. Jackson added that as a Duke employee, he had worked on a plan to relocate the “antiquated” system, so he was somewhat familiar before joining the council.

“We were in the same position as the city, our facilities were so old that repairs became just about impossible. There’s probably a lot of retrofitting to keep things operational, so this is a really good thing,” said Jackson.

Wilson added that Black and Veatch had estimated that the project would cost a total of $9 million and that costs were only going to go up, so SRU was hoping to get the project underway and in the budget as soon as possible.

After the discussion, the members of the city council voted unanimously to approve the contract between the city and Black and Veatch.