6.1. ERMUSR 04-13-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~cel Energy daes not charge the customer to repair a secondary electrical service line; however, they do charge a ~2 a month fee to cover those types of repairs. This article unfairly portrays municipal utilities in a negative light. Zn almost all cases Elk River Municipal Utilities owns the secondary Tine for residential customers from the transformer to the meter. Because ERMU owns these lines, the customer would NAT pay for the repair or replacement for these lines. tThe exception being, if the line would be damaged by fault of the customer, the customer would be financially liable. For example, the custome~• was building a deck and ran apost-hole-digger through the secondary line.) Elk River Municipal Utilities does this without charging a ~2 monthly fee as Xcel does. The secondary lines that ERMU installs now are placed in a flexible conduit specify to protect the line from gophers and accidental dig-ins. This significantly reduces the risk of outage related to these lines. ~n fact, these secondary lines in flexible conduit may last So years before failing due to age, Staff has been looking into reformatting some of our tri-fold bill stuffer brochures. Durblll-stuffing machine has a difficult time processing some of the tri-fold brochures and this is an initiative to improve efficiency. By reformatting the brochure information onto an 8.5"xl 1"unfolded paper and allowing the machine to fold the brochure with the bill should improve the process. This reformatting also creates more usable space for information. The desire to improve efficiency is pared with the desire to create a better vehicle for communication with our customers. The brochure information on conservation, security systems, and rebates will be communicated in a newsletter format, This also gives staff the much-needed tool to communicate with our customers and address timely subject matter, for example "gophers chewing an wires". In March, ~ attended the MMUA Legislative Rally. This was similar in nature to tlae APPA legislative Rally in Washington, D.C. At the rally I was asked to speak to our legislators about renewable energy and the legislative impact to our customers. The presentation went well and it was a great learning experience, The 2014 State Position Statements are attached for your review, On March 22"d, I met with Connexus to discuss a number if topics including the upcoming territory acquisition. At this meeting we also discussed exploring an agreement foz• future territory acquisitions, The discussion revolved around the territory acquisition template that the municipals and cooperatives were jointly working on in 24D8. This template was the basis for the resent Lyon~Lincoln and Marshall territory acquisition agreement signed earlier this year. ~ have provided that agreement to Connexus fo~• review and will be scheduling another meeting to further discuss this topic. The 24t~' annual Elk River Business Expo will be held at the Elk River High School on April 11t'' from 10:44am to 3;DOpm. Elk River Municipal Utilities will have a booth at the event. The date for the State of the CitylAnnual Report has been scheduled for the May ~7t~' City Council meeting. Enclosed for your reading is the current issue of the MMUA Resource,