“Dave Swenson and Arlene Chambers go through a packet of information about a generator the Langley Community Club purchased for the Brookhaven Hall.Matt Johnson / staff photoThe next time the power goes out at Brookhaven, the people living there will not have to go through the night cold and hungry.Aiming to give the largely senior citizen population at the Langley public housing development a warm, lit place to weather winter power outages, the Langley Community Club made its largest donation to date this month when it purchased a 10,000 watt generator for Brookhaven Hall.Due to be installed by October, the propane-fired generator is large enough to run the blowers for the hall’s propane furnace, power the hall’s refrigerator, and keep the lights on through extended outages.The club’s president, Dave Swenson, said keeping the hall powered and warm during outages will give Brookhaven residents a place to go when their apartments go cold and dark. That is exactly what has happened several times during the past three years.Power outages were never a problem at Brookhaven until Puget Sound Energy pulled its South Whidbey generator out of Langley several years ago. The generator had served the community during power outages for 25 years.During one of the recent outages, an elderly Brookhaven resident had to be treated for exposure. They huddled in their own little apartments there and stayed in bed to stay warm, Swenson said. That doesn’t have to happen again. For $10,818, all paid by the Langley Community Club, the hall will get the 50-inch-long, 35-inch-high generator installed. Club member Arlene Chambers said the donation is a large one for the club, but is something she felt needed doing. She, along with club members Emil Lindholt, Ruth Turner, Ethel Waters, and Jean Matheny talked it over at a meeting last spring and decided to spend the annual interest and part of the principal of the endowment the club uses for its charitable activities.Why not just do one big thing, she said.Still in a wood crate outside Brookhaven Hall on Monday, the generator seems too good to be true for Chambers, who in addition to being a Community Club member is a Brookhaven resident.I just can’t believe that it’s sitting here and I’m leaning on it, she said.Swenson said the Island County Housing Authority – the agency that operates and maintains Brookhaven – had tried to budget for a generator in past years, but never came up with the money. The agency will pay to switch out the hall’s electric stove and oven for a gas model to make the hall’s kitchen outage proof and will pay for the man hours necessary to start it and keep it running during outages.Swenson said the generator the club purchased is one of the quietest on the market, has low emissions, and requires little maintenance. “