Oxford’s Board of Education unanimously approved the purchase of a 13.2 KV electrical switch gear at Oxford Middle School and Lakeville Elementary at its Dec. 12 meeting.

According to Director of Maintenance Tony Sarkins, the current switch gear has had many issues in the past with its reliability due to age. The switch feeds electricity to both Lakeville Elementary and Oxford Middle School and divides up the voltage between the two buildings.

By replacing the switch, officials say they would be avoiding the risk of power interruptions to the schools, should it ultimately fail.

“The switch needed to be replaced about four or five years ago. It’s had some failures on it in the past and it’s just in bad shape. It’s preventative maintenance,” said Sarkins. “It’s one of those things where we could get lucky and it could last a couple more years. But if it does fail, it would be really hard. We’d have to go out with temporary generators, we might have to run them for months.”

Oxford Schools received three bids for the primary switch, with the approved bid being offered by Detroit-based Park Electric Company for $45,400. Following the inclusion of labor and hookup costs, the total cost of the project is estimated to be $70,000.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Sam Barna, the district had originally budgeted $100,000 in its capital projects fund for the replacement of the switch gear and is now looking at an approximated savings of $30,000 after Park Electric’s bid came back lower than expected.

Barna added during the meeting that the purchase of this switch gear is not the responsibility of DTE Energy Company and that it is owned by the district.

The project, which is estimated to take a few days to complete, will likely be done during the district’s winter break and will not affect school hours, according to Sarkins.