07-08-2009 ERMU MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILTfIES SPECIAL MEETING OF THE UTILITIES COMMISSION HELD AT UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM July 8, 2009 Members Present: John Dietz, President; Jerry Gumphrey, Vice Chair; Daryl Thompson, Trustee Staff Present: Troy Adams, Director of Operations; Theresa Slominski, Finance Director/Office Manager; Mark Fuchs, Line Superintendent; Wade Lovelette, Technical Services Superintendent; Judy McSpadden, Recording Clerk Others present: Vance Zehringer, Zehringer Consulting; Lori Johnson, City Administrator; Peter K. Beck, City Attorney from Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett Bruce Gomm, General Manager of Willmar Municipal Utilities; Bob Schulte, CEO of CMMPA 1. Call meeting to order July 8, 2009 John Dietz called the July 8, 2009 meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. 3.1 Review and Consider Big Stone II Participation and Wholesale Power Suppiy Options Troy Adams stated the purpose of this meeting was to follow-up on some of the outstanding questions. and for the Commission to decide if they were going to recommend supporting the Big Stone II project to the Elk River City Council. Troy reviewed the projected funding needed for the Big Stone II and they are $100 million for construction costs plus $23 million interest during construction for a total of $123 million. At this time Troy Adams introduced Bruce Gomm, General Manager of Willmar Municipal Utilities (WMU) as they are similar in size to Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU), and are onboard with the Big Stone II project. Bruce Gomm the General Manager of WMU for the past two years said the unanimous decision to go with the Big Stone II project was already decided prior to his arrival. He went onto say he was skeptical of this project and looked into it further. WMU's power contract with GRE expires in 2015. The WMU Commission felt there was nothing out there right now with future costs continuing to rise. Bruce Gomm added that the WMU Commission felt so strongly about the Big Stone II project they recommended buying 30 megawatts instead of the 20 megawatts they were initially going for and the Willmar City Council also unanimously chose to sign on. Vance Zehringer inquired what the status would be if a large entity pulled out of the project. Bruce Gomm stated others would step up. Bob Schulte said others have stepped out of the project but others have increased their requirement as was the case for WMU. Bob Schulte said this is a ten year project and wanted to address concerns about there not being a shovel in the ground to date but it takes five years for the pernutting and planning process and another five years for the construction.