Pulaski County Clerk Diana Linnenbringer has been charged by Commission members to inform all offices within the Courthouse of a planned power outage Saturday so the process of connecting electrical lines from the building to wiring for the new generator.
 The outage, which will begin shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, should last until noon.
“I’d say it’s probably a good idea to fire up that (backup) generator today,” Western Commissioner Dennis Thornsberry said during Thursday’s Pulaski County Commission meeting.
“I wouldn’t wait on it. I go with it today, just to make sure it works,” Thornsberry said, indicating if it didn’t there would be time to make necessary repairs so it will be operating Saturday.
“That’s probably a good idea,” said Presiding Commissioner Bill Ransdall. “If it doesn’t (run), we’ll probably have 27 lawsuits come Monday morning,” he said referring to the number of occupants in the jail.
Dispatchers at the Sheriff’s Department Thursday could not say whether the existing generator had been tested Thursday.
Commissioners asked Linnenbringer to inform county departments of the impending outage Saturday, so they may make arrangements to backup systems and shut down computers that normally may be left operating.
Piney River Contracting was awarded the bid for construction of the concrete generator pad while K. York Electric was awarded the electrical bid.
The generator is scheduled to arrive at the Courthouse at 8 a.m. Friday, Dec. 5.
The generator is a 12,600-pound diesel capable of generating 300 KVAs.