6.1e ERMUSR 06-13-2023Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
FROM:
ERMU Commission
Thomas Geiser— Operations Director
MEETING DATE:
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
June 13, 2023
6.1e
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• Staff have been attending meetings with Sherburne County to plan for the County Road
44 project.
• We had to send 2 of the fuse pads that had been repaired back in due to the same
issues. The vendor currently has 4 of the 12 we ordered in for repair. We received the 8
that were fixed. Irby Utilities is still assisting us with resolving the issue.
• ERMU staff have been discussing plans for the open house at the field services building
on August 24.
• ERMU and the Elk River Fire Department had a Dark Sky tabletop exercise on May 15.
This allowed us to talk through scenarios in the event that the city were to have severe
weather come through town that affected services.
• Staff is working through a lot of commercial services coming down the pipe.
• ERMU and City of Elk River staff participated in Minnesota Municipal Utilities
Association Safety Coordinator Joe Schmidt's Annual Review.
• American Flags were installed May 18 along Main, Evans, and Jackson Streets on behalf
of the American Legion. The flags will be take down before November 1.
• ERMU hired Temporary Line Worker Jack Gebhardt for the 2023 construction season.
• On Wednesday, May 24at 2:27 p.m. Ames Construction struck one of our underground
main feeder lines near McDonalds, causing an outage for 728 customers. Power was
restored to all within an hour.
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• There was a kickoff meeting with Core & Main on May 31 for the upcoming Advanced
Metering Infrastructure project.
• Staff is fitting in time to shop for a couple pickup trucks as we are unable to receive
them through the state contract due to supply shortages.
• A transformer at Commercial Asphalt had a fault which blew its cover off. The cover
then went through their overhead structure and landed about 100 feet away. Pictures
below.
• On Monday June 5, myself and others conducted two interviews for the vacant water
operator position. We hope to put out an offer out this week.
• A few ERMU employees helped the National Weather Service (NWS) with installing a
Cooperative Observer Program temperature sensor at our new field services building.
The sensor will make it possible for NWS to create weather records for the area and
monitor real-time and long-term climate trends. A letter of appreciation is attached.
ATTACHMENTS:
• Letter of Appreciation — National Weather Service Twin Cities
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