2.2 ERMU MINUTES 10-21-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6.1 Staff Updates Troy Adams was asked to fill in for Jack Kegel at the (Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MRSA) Manager Meeting last week. The intent was to offer out a hand to try and cooperate and improve our relationships with the co-ops. Troy Adams had one other update on the Elk River Municipal Utilities By -Laws. As we're looking at our policies, we're also looking at our by-laws that haven't been updated in a long time. Peter Beck will be working with staff endeavoring to bring back some more concise updated policies beginning with the by-laws. Theresa Slominski had a few updates. The Accounting Business Solutions (ABS) final training and processing has been moved back one week to September 29h through October P. Theresa added that she did receive the PCA for August and it should be a credit. We're going to wait to give a credit back to customers right away in case there are other PCA charges down the road; but ideally we'll give that back to the customer at some point of time. Theresa Slominski went over the Paymentus buyout information. John Dietz had some questions on whether we could pay the payoff amount in monthly installments or pay 1/2 this year and Y2 next year. The Commission directed Theresa to go back to Paymentus and request that we split the payoff amount between this year and next year. John Dietz requested the Paymenus buyout be placed on the next commission agenda for a final decision on whether we pay up front or in installments. Theresa Slominski shared that she attended the annual insurance pool meeting where she received our 2015 renewal projections for our health insurance; there will be a 9.9% increase. The Commission was in consensus to stay with the current insurance plan. Eric Volk said that the Zylstra Harley Owners Group (HOGS) painted the hydrants this past weekend. We'll invite them to our October commission meeting for recognition. Eric gave an update on the Morton Avenue watermain breaks. He shared that his whole crew, Mike, Angela and Pete did a really good job repairing the watermain. By doing the repairs ourselves, he estimates we saved over $15,000 in parts and labor. When you add that to the $25,000 we saved earlier this year by doing the valves at Well #7 ourselves, we've saved over $40,000 by doing the work in house. That's the direction he's pushing the department. Tom Sagstetter shared some details on what would be involved with installing hydroelectric generation on the Lake Orono Dam. Tom also sat in on a conference call sponsored by NISC to learn about the different approaches for pricing community based solar projects. John Dietz asked how the updated history report of Elk River Municipal Utilities was coming along. Troy Adams responded that it's in draft stage and that we're looking at sitting down with them to review the draft and to make sure we have our story woven throughout the report. The plan is that we have it back this year so that we can talk about having it published and bound to hand out for our 100 year anniversary next year. Page 6 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission September 9, 2014 32