Supervisors approve surge protector purchase

To shield the courthouse from any further equipment and electrical damage caused by lightning strikes, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 Tuesday morning to approve the purchase and installation of a surge protector.

Jasper County Maintenance Director Adam Sparks presented the supervisors with the low bid of $1,885 from Drewis Electric, Inc. Remaining bids from DePenning & Associates, Inc. and Van Maanen Electric, Inc. were estimated at $2,732 and $2,879, respectively.

This small cost for a surge protector, Sparks said, may protect the courthouse from being damaged by future lightning strikes, although he cannot 100 percent guarantee if it will work.

However, if the surge protector does work, Sparks suggested it could prevent the county from losing another $60,000 worth of damages.

"So our plan is to try to put one of these surge protectors on the courthouse main panel coming into the building, which should — supposedly — protect it from lightning strikes," Sparks said. "It is a very small fee for what it can protect if it does work."

In October, the Jasper County Courthouse was struck by a bolt of lightning, which shutdown office operations for a time and damaged cameras, server power supplies, network switches, the link to Jasper County Public Health, network drops and other various equipment.

Sparks described the surge protector as a “small box that is literally six-by-six inches square” and will mount off to the side of the panel, and supposedly save the courthouse from the lightning strikes.

“It’s supposed to eliminate it,” Sparks said. “But all we can do is try. I personally can’t guarantee that it’s going to protect everything but all I can say is it’s a very small fee to give something a shot that they say will work … I think it’s something we definitely need to try to try and protect our equipment.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com