Facing unexpected failures in critical utility equipment, Richmond City Council members approved emergency purchases to prevent disruptions to essential services. The approval came during a recent meeting as city officials outlined the need for the emergency purchase after multiple issues arose at the North Lift Station, reducing system redundancy and increasing the risk of operational problems. “At the February 24 council meeting, you approved for us to purchase one VFD (variable frequency drive),” said City Administrator Tonya Willim. “We brought you two quotes at that time, one for one purchase and a quote to purchase all three. Since none of those were budgeted, we decided to purchase just one VFD. While I was on vacation, we had one of the two that were remaining blow. We did an emergency purchase for those two other VFDs, so we will be getting a total of three VFDs.” The emergency purchase of the two additional variable frequency drives totaled $31,250 and was necessary to…