6.1.a. ERMUSR 03-17-2015 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
John Dietz—Chair
Al Nadeau—Vice Chair
Daryl Thompson—Trustee
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
March 17, 2015 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Updates—General Manager 1
DISCUSSION:
• This month in the history of Elk River Municipal Utilities: On March 7, 1948, the diesel
power plant located at the Elk River Dam went on line providing electricity to Elk River,
Zimmerman, Dayton, and the surrounding rural areas. #acenturyofservice
• I have talked with American Public Power Association staff about the Spring Education
Conference. They had asked if I would be able to give a presentation on the Performance
Metrics and Incentive Compensation Policy that we'd developed in 2012. This
conference is in Colorado Springs early May. Due to scheduling conflicts, I've declined
their request to present at this conference but potentially I will give that presentation at
the APPA National Conference this June in Minneapolis, MN.
• The MMPA Board of Directors met on February 24, 2015. It was reported that MMPA's
2013 Integrated Resource Plan was approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission on January 29, 2015. The Board had a planning session focused on
renewable energy. The Board also discussed MMPA's plans for natural-gas fired
distributed generation to meet the Agency's future power supply needs.
• On January 23, I chaired the MMUA Solar/DG Task Force meeting in Plymouth,MN.
Tom Sagstetter is also participating in the task force with me. The task force is working
to develop the municipal approach to solar. The areas of focus include: Education;
Development of model ordinance, interconnection agreement, and standard technical
requirements; Demonstration projects, project costs, and project production data; and
Rate design.
• On Friday and Saturday March 13-14, I attended a Rotary President Elect Training in
Rochester,MN.
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• Interviews for the Billing Specialist position were held on Friday March 6. This position
was posted internally. The vacant Customer Service Specialist position created by filling
the Billing Specialist position will be posted and advertised this week.
• An ad for the vacant Water Operator position was posted and sent to the League of
Minnesota Cities and The Elk River Star News. I hope to conduct interviews for this
position the week of April 7.
• Mark Fuchs, Eric Volk, and I met with representatives from TKDA, a full-service
engineering, architectural, and planning firm headquartered in Saint Paul, MN. We
invited TKDA to ERMU to get a better understanding on the process for evaluating our
field services and administration facility needs as we do some long term planning.
• My annual review is scheduled for the April Commission meeting. An online survey will
be used again to conduct the review. As in the past,this will be a 360° review with the
Commission, direct reporting managers, and the City Administrator participating in the
review process. If the Commission is interested in altering the review questions or
process,please provide suggestions or direction at the March Commission meeting.
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