6.1b ERMUSR 04-08-2025Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
FROM:
ERMU Commission
Sara Youngs — Administrations Director
MEETING DATE:
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
April 8, 2025
6.1b
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• Office walk-in traffic for March consisted of 123 customers, averaging 31 customers per
week over the four -week period.
• ERMU disconnections for March: The Cold Weather Rule is in effect, meaning customers
cannot be disconnected until 30 days after they receive their disconnection notice. The
cold weather rule ends at the end of April.
o Cycle 1— 12 disconnections.
o Cycle 2 — 6 disconnections.
o Cycle 3 — 9 disconnections.
• During the month of March 2025, the customer service team entered 38 payment
arrangements with customers. During March 2024 there were 34 payment
arrangements.
• A significant amount of staff time is dedicated to the Advanced Metering Infrastructure
(AMI) project, including daily follow-ups with customers and coordination with both
internal and external teams.
• Customer service staff has started making outbound calls to schedule water meter
replacements for customers with ERMU's water department. At the moment, we are
scheduling ten appointments per week with plans to increase this number as the water
department gains additional resources.
• As the AMI project transitions in-house, I want to take a moment to recognize Michelle
Venema, our billing specialist, for her exceptional efforts during Allegiant's involvement
in the project. Michelle carefully reviewed the daily meter exchange files to ensure the
accuracy of customer billing statements. This was no small task and required significant
attention to detail and organization to meet our billing deadlines.
• The IT team has been collaborating with the city's IT staff in preparation for the
upcoming Information Security Committee Tabletop Exercise. This interactive exercise
will serve as a valuable opportunity to assess and strengthen our defense strategies.
• Currently there are ten active residential solar photovoltaic projects planned or under
construction in the ERMU service territory.
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• In the last 30 days, combined the level two chargers located downtown and in the
parking lot in front of ERMU had 32 sessions and provided customers with 383 kWh of
green energy.
Over the past month, the credit and collections specialist and administrations director
met with our current collection agency, as well as three others, to ensure we're getting
the right level of service while keeping our collection fees competitive.
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