6.1. ERMUSR 03-09-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Phone: 763.441.2020 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 Fax: 763.441.8099 March 2, 2010 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities commission John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey Daryl Thompson From: Theresa Slominski Re: Staff Update -Office Mayor Stephanie Klinzing's Random Acts of Kindness challenge involved her visiting the Spectrum High School and suggesting they could help raise money to contribute towards helping out individuals with their utility bills. We were contacted by the school and were told that they had raised $300 to help out a family (or families.) Each student had taken a thermometer replica (of the Random Acts of Kindness thermometer downtown) home and was asked to contribute $1 if they could. There are 210 students at the school and those who could bring in $1 did, some brought in more, one brought in $10, one brought in $50, and the school contact contributed some amount out of her own pocket to make it an even $300. Michelle, from our office, was able to identify the perfect family to benefit from the kindness. The family had been in a car accident right before Christmas with all members being hospitalized. The family wasn't eligible for any financial assistance from the various state and local agencies and were struggling to pay all their bills. We had to protect the confidentiality of the family and couldn't share much with the students but did share a little bit about the circumstances of the family so they could see how their contributions made such a difference. It really helped this family get caught up and have this one less bill to worry about. To try and remedy the glue not sealing on the eco-envelopes, our supplier picked up the remaining envelopes and re-applied the glue. We will be using these envelopes this month and we'll note if there are any improvements. The auditors are here this week. As mentioned before, we have a new auditor lead this year, Andy Berg, as Steve McDonald has taken on more managerial responsibilities at the firm. I will provide more of a verbal update at the meeting.