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MMUA past President Jerry McCarthy, who is slated to begin serving on the APGA <br />board later this year, has volunteered to serve as the convener of an effort to explore the <br />development of a gas agency. Should MMUA explore the development of a municipal <br />gas agency? <br />Finance Program <br />We're approaching the halfway point on committing the current $50 million bond issue. <br />Things have been a little slow this spring as a number of projects we have been working <br />on with cities have slowed down. Anthony does expect to be doing a significant number <br />of projects between July and the end of the year. We also expect to do our first out-of- <br />state financings for small projects in Cavalier and Lakota North Dakota. <br />One thing we've learned is that we are quite competitive for small projects, but we have <br />been just losing out on some projects in the $4 million range on fixed rate deals. (We are <br />still the best game in town for projects in that range if the city is willing to look at some <br />or all of the project with variable rate debt). <br />When we start working on the next bond issue, I hope to work with the various members <br />of the finance team to squeeze the costs a little tighter in order to make us more <br />competitive for those $4 to $5 million projects. <br />Is there anything else we should be doing to build support for the program? <br />Awards <br />MMUA currently has two awards -the lifetime membership and the President's Award. <br />This seems a bit skimpy sometimes. We don't have any awards geared to public officials <br />who are helpful to us, nor do we have any awards for utility staff or commissioners who <br />have a long history of working with their utilities, even though they may not have a long <br />history of involvement with MMUA. We also don't have any program for recognizing <br />milestones of staff service or exceptional performance. It seems to me that some <br />expansion of our awards program makes sense, though we don't want to go overboard. <br />Attached is a proposed awards program that Steve Downer developed and circulated for <br />discussion with the Communications and Member Services Committee awhile back. It is <br />modeled on the APPA awards program. It may be more comprehensive than we need as <br />a state organization, but it serves as a good starting point for discussion. <br />Should we expand our awards program? What kinds of service should we be prepared to <br />recognize? <br />10 <br />