6.1. ERMUSR 03-09-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ji Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 March 4, 2010 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey Daryl Thompson From: Troy Adams Subject: Staff Updates -Director of Operations Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 The week of February 22"d, Commissioner Jerry Gumphrey and I attended the American Public Power Association (APPA) Legislative Rally in Washington, D.C. Attached for your reading is APPA's Legislative Rally Key Message Points. Also attached is Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association's (MMUA} Federal Position Statement. This MMUA document nicely covers Minnesota utilities' position with these national issues. During the rally, we had the opportunity to address our representatives about two issues important to Minnesota public power. These issues were climate change legislation and railroads. This was my first time attending this event and was a great learning experience. The intention for me to attend was to learn the system. However, I had the opportunity to be more involved. MMUA asked me to speak about our position on climate change legislation with our District's House Representative, Michele Bachmann. Overall, this was a great learning experience. The MMUA legislative Conference is March 24-26. Thursday morning March 25`x' is when we meet with our legislators at the Capital. The program information is attached. We have budgeted for two to attend. Typically, ERMU sends one Staff and two Commissioners to the APPA National Conference. This year this conference is in Orlando on June 19-23. This event is included in our 2010 budget. APPA has also scheduled a Leadership Workshop this year. This workshop will be held in Portland on November 3-5. There isn't any program information for this workshop available yet. This workshop may be snore appropriate for me to attend this year than the National Conference. This event wasn't included in the 2010 budget. Once the program information and costs are available, I may recommend that I attend the Leadership Workshop in lieu of the National Conference this year. I will provide information at a future commission meeting. On March 15t Staff met with Connexus staff regarding the upcoming territory acquisition. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity to meet and to set a date for the acquisition change over. The date, weather permitting, has been set for May 11 `~'. Enclosed for your reading are the current issues of the MMUA Resource.