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03-11-2008 ERMU MIN ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES REGULAR MEETING OF THE UTILITIES COMMISSION HELD AT UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM March 11,2008 Members Present: Jerry Takle,President;John Dietz,Vice Chair;Jerry Gumphrey,Trustee Staff Present: Bryan Adams,General Manager;Glenn Sundeen,Line Superintendent; David Berg, Water Superintendent; Theresa Slominski,Finance Director/Office Manager; Troy Adams,Engineering Manager;Judy McSpadden,Recording Clerk 1. Call meeting to order March 11,2008 President Jerry Takle called the March 11,2008,meeting to order. 2. Consider Utilities Agenda Bryan Adams added an item to discuss under Other Business. John Dietz moved to approve the March 11,2008,Utilities Agenda. Jerry Gumphrey seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0. 2a. Election of Officers for 2008 At the March 3,2008,City of Elk River Council meeting,John Dietz was appointed to replace James Tralle. John Dietz moved to nominate Jerry Takle,President;Jerry Gumphrey moved to nominate John Dietz,Vice Chair. Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0. 3. Consider Consent Agenda John Dietz had some questions on the financials and also questioned what the percentage was for the CIP fund spending requirement. Staff responded at this time it is 1.5%of gross revenue. Jerry Gumphrey moved to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: February Check Register February 12,2008,Minutes Financial Reports John Dietz seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0. 5.1 Staff Up-dates Bryan Adams reported of the joint venture with Connexus to test a new LED street light. One will be installed on the Orono dam bridge. At the recent MN Rural Water Association meetings,water contamination in the flooded Rushford,MN area was discussed. It was discovered that several abandoned wells were not sealed. Jerry Gumphrey asked why the water and electric usage is up. Staff responded it was due to the Data Centers coming on line. Theresa Slominski informed Commissioners that bill processing is now being done in house. A new stuffing machine should be arriving soon along with a new printer capable of Page 2 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission March 11,2008 printing the numerous bills. John Dietz asked of the cost associated with purchasing new machines and bringing the bills in house versus having them out-sourced. Staff responded. John Dietz also asked if there were many bank pay customers and if thought was ever given to offer an incentive for customers to sign up. Jerry Takle asked the status of the final bill from Billflash. Staff responded that final payment has not been made. The barcode on the payment stub is still in the testing stages but seems to be working well. A new part time accountant started Monday and will be a great asset to the Utilities. David Berg informed of the progress of Well#9. A pumping test will be performed this week and the building contractor should be on site next week. Staff is checking irrigation meters prior to them being installed this spring. John Dietz questioned the status of the customers who have not hooked up to the Municipal water supply. Bryan Adams responded a list will be compiled and it will be noted on the abstract of the property with the County. Prior to the property selling,the owner would have to connect to the municipal water supply. Troy Adams reported 13 security system sales for the month of February. Staff is converting meters in apartment buildings to radio read. Water tie cards that diagram the water line to the customers building in the past have been documented on a recipe card and put in a file. They will now be scanned and documented on the computer for future use. A new handheld reader was recently purchased to cover an area that has had problems in the past with radio reads. The new handheld can read this area without problems. John Dietz asked why security system sales are down. Troy responded a lot of the systems are installed during home construction through another company in joint venture with the builder. The monitoring fees of the other companies are higher. With the advertising that is being done,more customers are transferring over to our services after their monitoring contract runs out. Glenn Sundeen said crews continue to trim trees along with addressing maintenance issues that arise. USG recently performed an infrared study on our electrical lines and equipment. Some pictures of their findings were reviewed. John Dietz asked how often this service is performed. Glenn responded every three years. John Dietz also asked about the status of the street lights on the Hwy 10 corridor downtown. Staff responded they are scheduled to be installed by a contractor this year,and the utility would change bulbs when needed. Jerry Takle recently met with Steve McDonald,auditor for Abdo Eick&Meyers,LLP. A list of information was shared with the commissioners. 5.2 Review Arc Flash Requirements Approximately 20 years ago OSHA adopted 1910.269 which states clothes worn by linepersons cannot make the injuries worse from arc flash. Arc flash is the light and heat energy given off in an unintentional electrical contact between two energized conductors or an energized conductor and ground. Section 410 of the National Electric Safety Code(NESC)requires employers to do an arc flash assessment by January 1,2009. The employer shall require employees to wear clothing or a clothing system that has an effective arc rating not less than the anticipated level of energy. NESC is more focused on the primary electrical current,however,most incidents occur with the Page 3 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission March 11,2008 secondary current. John Dietz asked how often the arc flash incidents occur,Glenn responded, not very often. Staff is in the process of compiling an arc flash assessment analysis. 6.1 Review Electric&Water System Mapping Elk River Municipal Utilities water distribution system is below ground and approximately 70%of the electric system is below ground also. Accurate mapping of the electric and water distribution systems for operations and maintenance is critical. Abandoned electric and water lines will also have to be located. Previously United Services Group documented and maintained our distribution maps. Troy Adams has since brought the mapping in-house. Troy Adams presented the map books for the electric and water distribution systems. Map books are currently printed for the crews to have with them in the field. The future to mapping is in the Arcview and GPS programs via laptop computers. The City of Elk River is currently utilizing this method. This method is costly but can be updated daily on the laptops versus updating map books periodically. 6.2 Employee Compensation Survey In April,employees typically make their compensation increase request. In preparation of this,staff has surveyed the seven comparable adjoining electric utilities for position salaries. Does the Commission have any other issues they would want surveyed? John Dietz requested a survey on the health insurance percentage paid. 6.3 Review Options for Jackson Street Water Tower The 2008 budget for the water department contains a$40,000 item to demolish the Jackson Street tower. This same issue was discussed in 2002. The Heritage Preservation Commission appeared before the Commission at that time to request a delay. The possibility of utilizing the tower for digital communication to help pay for maintaining the tower delayed the need for demolition. Minor repairs were done on this tower in 2003. In approximately 2004, communication antennas were placed on this tower but the communication company folded and the final lease payments were never made. Staff has been marketing antenna placement but has been unsuccessful due to tower location and not being tall enough. The deterioration of this tower is now an issue. The repairs would cost an estimated$55,000 to$60,000 whereas the demolition would cost approximately$35,000. John Dietz asked if the Historical Society has been notified of this,and if would they want to share in the preservation costs. Staff responded they have not contacted them as of yet,but will ask. Jerry Gumphrey will address this at the next City Council workshop. Consensus is it would be too costly for the Utilities to solely assume repairs and liability. If other contributors are willing to help,the tower could be saved. Other Business Vivian Schmidt,a long time employee of 30 years,will be retiring the end of May 2008. Staff is in the process of finding a replacement for this position. There will be promotions within the office which will open up a position for clerk/receptionist. This hiring process will be started Page 4 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission March 11,2008 next week. John Dietz asked if the staff would be having retirement party in recognition of her years of service. Staff responded,definitely. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission will be Thursday,April 17,2008. President Jerry Takle adjourned the regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission at 5:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, J adde Recordin Clerk 7/)"' / zf' Bry dams Gen Manager