By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
CLAREMONT — Getting four 100-gallon tanks of propane to the top of Green Mountain in Claremont is no easy task.
And it’s also very costly.
The tab was $10,140.
While that probably seems awfully high to the average homeowner using propane, there’s more.
The cost of the propane in those four tanks, the labor of workers involved and electronic monitoring has been budgeted at $2,900 by the Sullivan County Commissioners.
That brings the total bill to $13,040.
Depending on the amount of usage for the generator on the Green Mountain site, the tanks are usually swapped out every four to five years.
“This was the seventh time the tanks have been moved over the years,” according to Sullivan County Sheriff John Simonds.
The propane is used to power the emergency generator to allow continued communication in the event of a power failure where the communication tower is located on Green Mountain.
Sullivan County maintains a building and tower on the top of Green Mountain in Claremont, which is utilized for radio communications for multiple Sullivan County police, fire and EMS services
On Monday, just after 9 a.m., JBI Helicopter Services from Pembroke flew into an open field off Barton-Whitney Road in Newport to airlift the four full propane tanks, one at a time, from that field to the grounds outside the building on Green Mountain.
The helicopter then hauled one of the empty tanks back to the starting point, dropped it off, and returned with another full tank. That trip was repeated two more times to complete the job.
The propane was supplied by Eastern Propane of Claremont and Eastern had a crew working to disconnect and connect the tanks on site. Additionally, it had a crew member on the ground in Newport to assist the helicopter ground crew with the transfer of the tanks.
“I have been researching other options for the transfer of the tanks but due to its location on the top of the mountain, moving them by air is the most viable way at this time of making this happen,” Sheriff Simonds stated.
“The terrain does not allow for an easy way to access the site. The cost has gone up over the years and due to the increase, the County Commissioners asked me to explore other less costly options to the county,” he said.
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