5.5. ERMUSR 03-18-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Eric Volk - Water Superintendent John Dietz—Chair Al Nadeau— Vice Chair Daryl Thompson—Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: March 18, 2014 5.5 SUBJECT: Frozen Water Services BACKGROUND: Elk River, like the rest of the Upper Midwest, is having an unprecedented amount of frozen water service lines and even frozen water mains. To date we have had 41 services freeze and 2 water mains freeze. There are 5 services that will be frozen until the ground thaws and the service thaws in the spring. Those residents are currently being fed by garden hose from one of their neighbors. One of the water mains that is frozen is a private main serving Pearle Vision. We hooked Pearle Vision up to the hydrant out in front of the building. The water main at 8`h St and Gates Ave froze up leaving 4 residents out of water. We ran a fire hose from the apartments on Freeport St to the hydrant at the dead end on 8`h St. By hooking up the two hydrants, we were able to back feed into the water main to two of the residents. We were able to hook up the other resident to the neighbor next door. DISCUSSION: The water department has been informing residents to check the temperature of their water. If the temperature is below 40 degrees then the resident is being given the choice of running a pencil width stream of water 24 hours a day. If the resident chooses this option, staff has been informing them that they will only be billed at the first tier and we will average their sewer charges using the months that they did not run water continuously. For residents that have had their services freeze up, we inform them of some plumbers we are aware of that thaw frozen services. After the line is thawed, they will also have to run their water continuously. We are billing them at the first tier and averaging their sewer rates using the months they were not running their water continuously. For the handful of residents that are out of service due to our water main being frozen or their water service can't be thawed are being billed for the water they used in the same month in 2013. We will average those residents' sewer rates on the months before their service froze. Those residents do have water from an alternate source(i.e. neighbor, hydrant). For the kind neighbors who have so graciously allowed us to supply others with water from their house, they will be billed for the water they used in the same month in 2013. We will average those residents' sewer rates on the months before they were hooked up to their neighbor. .,' INATURE Page 1 of t Reliable Public Power Provider P OWERED To SERVE 60