Electrical Engineer Informs Winamac Town Council about Water Project Breaker Problem

Winamac Town Council members were informed about an issue with certain breakers at the Water Project site when a special session was held Monday afternoon.

The electrical engineer for the project Allen Burch explained the breakers supply the power needed to run the wells. He said the northern most well, well #2 is sub-fed from the distribution at well #1.

Burch said the way they are set up currently is not how it was established in the original plans.

He explained, “On the plans I called out for a hundred amp main breaker on the second distribution panel which is a little bit smaller than the first panel. I talked to the electrician and he’s going to look into that but what he has is 200 amp breaker instead of a hundred amp breaker.

Burch elaborated, stating that means the 100 amp breaker is feeding the 200 amp breaker. He said he is considering two options; he could either adjust the higher breaker to be equal to the lower one or replace it with a 100 amp breaker, as was specified in the original plans.

Town Council President Tom Murray suggested switching them around but Burch stated that wasn’t possible.

 Murray mentioned, “You could switch the 200 amp breaker were the 100 is and then put the 100 amp where the 200 is.” Burch explained, “I can’t do that. I have 100 amp conductors feeding the second well, so I can’t.”  

Midwestern Engineers CEO Mark Sullivan asked what dollar amount they should attach to the breaker issue on the punch list. Burch responded that it should only cost a couple hundred dollars to fix.