ERMUSR MISC MEMO 11-13-2008Elk River
Municipal Utilities
13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430
Elk River, MN 55330-0430
November 5, 2008
To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
Jerry Takle
John Dietz
Jerry Gumphrey
From: Troy Adams
Subject: Miscellaneous Issues
Phone: 763.441.2020
Fax: 763.441.8099
Enclosed is the packet for the Thursday, November 13, 2008 regular commission meeting at 5:00 p.m.
Please note the time change.
Electric usage is up 6.6% year to date. Water usage is down 2.5% year to date.
Quotes for frost trenching for the 2008-2009 winter season came back lower that last year. Midwest
Diversified Utilities had the low bid.
At the October utility commission meeting, street lighting was added as an additional item to the agenda.
The question pertained to requests for street lighting and if there was a policy to address requests. ERMU
has anon-written policy. The approval for the request would require a signed petition from the neighbor-
ing residents. Also, the approval for the request would require the spacing to the next street light to be
farther than 300 ft. The inquiry discussed at the October utility commission meeting has yet to be
submitted to staff.
At this time, the ERMU proposed policies are still being reviewed by Gray Plant Mooty attorneys at law.
The revisions to the policies recommended by the Commission at the October utility commission meeting
have been passed on to the attorneys.
The contract for the power plant roof repair has been signed. McDowall Company is waiting for
materials and plans to begin as soon as possible.
Attached is an email from an ERMU customer praising the good customer service provided by Michael
Price and Adam Freiberg of the meter shop.
The question has been raised by staff regarding FR clothing for those changing electric meters. Currently,
water operators do change out electric meters but do not have FR clothing. (Verbal Discussion)
Yage 1 of 1
Adams, Troy
From: fames tralte [jtralle9@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 2:08 PM
To: Adams, Troy
Subject: good service
November 2, 2008
Dear Troy,
I'm writing about two of your employees who, I believe, have gone above and beyond what I consider to
be good customer service.
I have had a bit of a problem with getting my new Steffes ETS heaters to communicate with the ERMU
controllers. Mike Price and Adam Fryberg both helped to solve the problem with the controllers and get
my heaters up and running as they should.
Mike took the manual for my Steffes heaters and the 12 volt transmitter with him to study. Adam made
sure that when the controllers were malfunctioning I had heat. He then called and left messages twice to
make sure I knew what they had done and how to contact him.
Both of these employees should be commended for their efforts to make sure my heaters worked and all
the communication issues between the controllers were solved.
Sincerely,
Jim Tralle
ERMU customer
11 /5/2008