VILLAGE OF MORRISVILLE WATER AND LIGHT DEPARTMENT
November 16, 2009
MONDAY 6:00 PM
Water and Light Office
The meeting duly noticed and warned was called to order at 6:00 PM.
PRESENT: Trustees: Tim Sargent, Ed DeBor, Wally Reeve, Peter Bourne and Dana Wildes
Staff: Craig Myotte, Jim Fontaine, Penny Jones and Linda Osgood
1) PUBLIC MEETING:
No members of the public were in attendance.
2) CURRENT PRIORITY PROJECTS:
The Board reviewed the status of the current priority
projects.
3) MANAGEMENT REPORT:
The divers were in and cleaned the debris out of the
Cady’s Falls units. We conducted our
winter capability audit at Green River on Friday but have not received the
results yet. We lost the flashboards at
Dam #2 over the weekend but are still generating at 2 megawatts.
The WWTF contract is still holding to schedule. They will need to come back next year for
final paving. They are currently
installing aeration in #2 SBR. There is
a meeting on the water meter project tomorrow.
Only 6-8 properties remain to be metered due to past water/sewer
“vacancies” being overlooked.
The casing is under the railroad and Route 15A for the
reservoir project. They will tap the
main line tomorrow and close down the job site by 11/25. The road is finished but a lot of mulching is
still needed.
Line crews will begin installing Christmas decorations as
soon as MAAC delivers the trees. We are
slowing replacing the broken windows at Plant #2 and Gatehouse #2 with
plexiglass at approximately $200/window.
Office staff has been busy giving delinquent electric
customers their winter verbal notice per Public Service Board rule. There is a hearing on Friday with the PSB for
the Raymond Belanger billing issue. The
Trustees asked staff to verify if we needed a lawyer present. We have a commercial water customer
complaining that they received estimated water bills for three months that were
actually estimated too low.
Employees received their retroactive raise for 17 weeks.
Penny will begin the 2010 budgets soon. Transmission costs are $72,986 over budget
but our budgets are only as good as VELCO’s projections. The Trustees asked why net assets at the WWTF
would drop after a $5 million upgrade.
This was due to some of the bond anticipation note being transferred to
the WWTF. Penny noted that the net
income will not be a trend going forward.
The Trustees wondered if we could train two people to run the WWTF and
cross train them to also run the hydro plants.
Craig is reviewing the joint ownership agreement between
Barton & Orleans to determine if we can use it as a model. He is also setting up a model to calculate
line losses. Craig tried to get permission to open a switch to prove the new
flows but VELCO stated they would prefer to run computer simulations first.
Craig set up a meeting of the Lamoille County Shared
Services Group which consists of MW&L, Stowe Electric, Hyde Park Electric
and VEC. We could possibly piggyback on
VEC’s smart metering project and other technologies.
The Board had a lengthy discussion about the services
VPPSA provides. The Board asked staff if VPPSA’s services are competitive with
services others could provide for us. The Trustees asked staff to prepare a
summary of pros and cons and to look at the cost of services provided in more
detail in 2010. The Trustees want to make sure we have the overall picture and
would like to know what our alternatives are and what those alternatives will
cost.
Trustee Wildes asked Jim to approach the developer on
Cottage Street and offer to split the cost between the 4” pipe the contract
wants and the 8” pipe a hydrant would require as an incentive to hook up. Six metered water and sewer customers would
pay for the difference.
4) APPROVE MINUTES OF MEETING HELD NOVEMBER 2, 2009:
In Agenda Item #10, Other Business, “stimulus funds”
should be replaced with “EEU funds”.
On a motion by Trustee Wildes, seconded by Trustee Reeve
and unanimously approved, the Board approved the minutes of the November 2,
2009, regular meeting.
5) APPROVE LIEN:
Tabled until next meeting.
6) DISCUSS HYDRO REPORT
AND FUTURE POWER SUPPLY STRATEGIES:
The Trustees reviewed the latest SPEED summary and future
requirements. As far as SPEED is
concerned, the two crest control projects and the bypass generator are expected
to qualify. Replacing the 600 kW machine
may only partially qualify. Including the EM Wind Project, we may even end up
with a SPEED credit surplus and sell the excess SPEED credits. Trustee DeBor
verified that SPEED credits were not dictating the replacement of the 600 kW
unit, we would replace it anyways. Can
we start all these projects in 2010? Yes
we can.
7) RATE MITIGATION STRATEGIES:
VEC may have another block of work for our crews in 2010. We are going to revisit rates with them if we provide them with similar services like we did in 2009. Stowe may also be looking for services.
One of our line trucks did not pass its dielectric test and has been parked. The suspension is shot, the body is badly rusted, and the bucket needs replacing. The Trustees discussed options to repair, replace or lease. Trustee Bourne asked staff to determine what is the value of a 10-year lease versus owning a truck for 10 years that then has no resale value.
9) EXECUTIVE SESSION:
At 7:30 PM, on a motion by Trustee Bourne, seconded by Trustee Wildes and unanimously approved, the Board went into Executive Session to discuss rate mitigation strategies.
At 8:19 PM, on a motion by Trustee Bourne, seconded by Trustee Wildes and unanimously approved, the Board came out of Executive Session.
8) OTHER BUSINESS:
Tabled until next meeting.
10) ADJOURNMENT:
At 8:20, on a motion by Trustee Bourne, seconded by Trustee Wildes and unanimously approved, the Board adjourned the meeting.
___________________________________
Edward DeBor, Clerk