Residents of Grand Marais will see an increase of 2 percent in their public utility bills for 2015. Public Utilities Commission member Adam Harju and PUC Chair Karl Hansen voted for the increase at the commission’s Wednesday, October 22 meeting. Tim Kennedy was on vacation in France and was unable to attend.
City Administrator Mike Roth said residents whose average water/ sewer electrical bill was about $170 per month would see an increase of around $3.40 per month.
Originally Roth recommended a 2 percent raise for water and sewer funds, but asked for no increase in the city’s electrical rates.
Roth, who recently attended a meeting with Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA), said SMMPA wasn’t calling for any raise for its customers for 2015, butwouldbeaskingfora4percent increase the next year and a total of 6 percent over the next 4 years. “If you want to mitigate increasing rates 3-4 percent next year, you could raise electrical rates 2 percent now,” Roth said. “You could also do no increase this year, but it’s inevitable, you will raise rates next year.”
“My thought is to do 2 percent this year and 2 percent next year with no increase the third year,” said Karl Hansen.
“I’m all for staying ahead of the curve.Weshoulddoa2percent raise this year,” said Harju. With that Harju moved and Hansen seconded to increase the rates for 2015.
The new rates will go into effect in January 2015 but won’t show up on people’s bills until February, said Roth.
“The increase prepares the sewer/water and electrical funds to meet its obligations and to contribute to two city council priority projects— the public works facility and First Street area reconstruction.
“We were able to function with no increase in 2011-2013, and a 2 percent increase in 2014,” said Roth.
In other business, Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor said due to old equipment, money would need to be spent to upgrade the computer system that operates the city’s generators. Cummins NPower, LLC, presented two options. One suggestion was to replace the hard drive at a cost of $10,470; the second was to upgrade the Granit touchscreen to an Advantech touchscreen at a cost of $63,968.
“My question to you Mike is that if we buy the $10,000 hard drive now, are we going to have to buy the $60,000 touchscreen next year?” Hansen asked.
“I hope not, but I really don’t know,” said Taylor. “I’m relying on what they [Cummins] are advising.”
“How old is the hard drive?” asked Hansen.
“More than 10 years,” said Taylor.
“Yeah, it’s time to replace it,” laughed Hansen.
“So far we haven’t had any problems with what we have right now,” said Roth. “You really don’t need the latest and greatest equipment to make the system work.”
The board approved Taylor’s request to replace the hard drive and it will be installed soon.
Tom Nelson, water/sewer plant manager, said his crews had been busy putting in a 2-inch copper line for the new microbrewery on 3rd Ave and Highway 61. “It’s been kind of a hard wrassle,” he said of the task.
He also said he had an unexpected visitor to the water plant.
“I discovered a juvenile timber wolf at the water plant,” said Nelson, who added the wolf posed no threat.
The wolf had long legs, and was black and shaggy. It walked out of the grounds and into the woods upon being discovered, said Nelson.
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