6.1. ERMUSR 02-14-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River ---~ Municipal Urilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 www. elkrivemtili ties. com TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Troy Adams, P.E. -Utilities Director John Dietz -Chair Daryl Thompson -Vice Chair AI Nadeau -Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: Febru 14,2012 6.1 SUBJECT: Staff U dates -Utilities Director DISCUSSION: In late 2011, the Commission asked staff to reseazch restrictions and regulations for signage on the Power Plant. The only restriction would be size. The signage would be limited to 96 square feet. Staff has talked with two different local sign companies. An update will be provided at the time of the Commission meeting. On January 31 s`, I attended the Environmental, Energy, and Natural Resources Committee meeting to sit in on the initial hearing of HF 1923. The sister bill in the senate is SF 1560. These bills propose to eliminate the 2008 water conservation law that required ERMU to invoke our water conservation rates. Because ERMU has already implemented our water conservation rates, it would be difficult to eliminate them without having a shift in revenue source. That is because when ERMU implemented this rate structure it was done revenue neutral. To eliminate the third tier in our rates would result in revenue erosion and would necessitate a shift to recover that revenue from the rest of the water customers. So, those on the extreme end of water use Typically for sprinkling would get a rate reduction and the typical residential customer would see a rate increase. Currently there are about half the Minnesota cities that have implemented the required rate structure and the remaining cities are required to implement a conservation rate structure by 2013. Because of this split, this is a politically difficult issue to resolve. At this time, the League of Minnesota Cities will be organizing a conference call and/or meeting during the week of February 6`h with both cities that have implemented a conservation rate structure and those who haven't. Although this is a sepazate issue, this is closely connected to the private well drilling legislation HF135/SF64 proposed last year. An update will be provided at the Commission meeting. Staff, along with two Commissioners, attended the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association 2011 Legislative Conference in February. On Thursday, February 8~', the conference travels to the Capitol to meet with our legislative leadership and discuss public utility issues from main street Minnesota. An update will be provided at the Commission meeting. PBYYwwE'R~`EB Bl' POWERED T O S E 0.V E