Broadband is on its way. Grand Marais Public Utilities Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor told the Public Utilities Commission in September that Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. had started installing the main fiber optic lines through Grand Marais that will eventually make their way throughout the entire county. PUC Commissioner Karl Hansen said he heard it would be awhile before individual buildings get hooked up and the new ultrahigh speed Internet system goes online.
Lines painted on the ground around town denote what utilities lie or will lie underneath: orange for phone, red for electric, blue for water and sewer, and white for broadband. Some of the broadband lines will be overhead.
New billing format
Utility administrative specialist Jan Smith talked about the new billing format the city will be using by directive of Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA), of which the city is a member. The new format will compare an individual customer’s monthly use with houses in Grand Marais of similar size and age. Enerlyte, the company tabulating the data, says these comparisons will generate conversations between family members and friends regarding how to reduce electrical use, Smith said.
Recent changes in the billing format have allowed room for a bar graph showing fluctuations in an individual household’s usage over the past year. Smith said this has been a popular feature that she will try to fit into the new format designed by Enerlyte.
A mandate instituted by state statute called the Conservation Improvement Program is requiring utility cooperatives to reduce their energy usage by 1.5 percent every year.
More power to Croftville
A process has begun that will amp up the electrical power available to Croftville and the area just north of it. The area has had periods of low voltage when electrical usage is high in Grand Marais. The project would connect the area to higher voltage already available on the system.
Electrical Superintendent Mike Taylor wrote a memo to the Public Utilities Commission board, saying, “In 1998, a longrange engineering plan was developed to convert our 4.16 kv system to a 13.8.” A new 13.8 kv substation was feeding the entire system by 2007.
“Part of the plan was to use temporary step-down transformers in areas…that weren’t rebuilt,” Taylor wrote. These include the Old Shore Road and a line above the Holiday station (already completed), Creechville (about 50 percent complete), Thoreson’s Road, Rosebush, Eliasen Mill Road, and the Croftville area. “Croftville is the next area the Electric Department would like completed,” Taylor wrote.
Some of the distribution lines in Croftville cross private property in places that would be hard for heavy equipment to reach. The work will not include changing the lines leading to individual homes.
“For quite some time we’ve had some low-voltage problems out there,” Taylor said, “particularly at the end of the line.”
Funding for this project is being set aside in the budget.
New hydrant parts
Fifteen hydrants throughout Grand Marais recently got their “guts” replaced, according to City Administrator Mike Roth. The hydrants are old, and while city workers have known that they could turn the water on, they were not sure if they would be able to turn the water off again.
A healthy budget
On October 3, Administrator Roth discussed with the board his budget recommendations for 2013. He recommended no rate increases and reported that capital improvements funds are healthy.
Helping keep costs down was the fact that the city has not replaced Steve DuChien in the Public Utilities Department after his retirement. Roth said he would like to see how it goes being down one member of the crew.
No large water infrastructure projects are being planned for the next five years, Roth said, but money is being set aside for a new public works facility that would be used for utility staff headquarters, storage, and working on equipment.
Roth told the PUC board that the wastewater treatment plant is one of the city’s biggest customers. Its September electric bill was about $6,000.
The sewer fund has about $1 million and the plant is healthy, Roth reported. The city has not always had healthy fund balances, Commissioner Tim Kennedy said. “It’s a good position to be in.”
Roth concurred, saying that five years ago, the Utilities Department had no reserve fund. They could pay cash for projects at this point, but borrowing money is really cheap right now, he said.
Water revenues for 2013 are expected to exceed expenses by $39,385. Sewer revenues are expected to exceed expenses by $93,790, and electric revenues are expected to exceed expenses by $109,000.
Factors influencing the positive budget figures include reducing staff by not replacing DuChien, refinancing bonds at lower interest rates this year, and Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA), the city’s electric cooperative, not increasing its rates for 2013. SMMPA does expect rates to go up 7 percent over the next three years, however.
The commissioners approved the proposed budget on October 24.
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