“Lightning struck the wastewater plant and took out a component of the control panel,” said Water/Waste Water Superintendent Tom Nelson to the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) board on September 16.
The lightning hit the plant during the evening hours. Nelson said he and his staff had to operate the control panels by hand until the panel was back up and running. “We can’t let the pumps run dry. Instead of a $1,000 fix it could have been a $10,000 fix if that had happened,” he said.
Grand Marais Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor sent some of his crew to the plant to make the necessary repairs and get the pumps running again.
In another incident Nelson said a homeowner living along the old Gunflint Trail (on Fifth Avenue West) had sewer back up into his basement.
“This will be a potential claim against the city,” said Nelson, adding that he had a company come from Duluth to clean the basement.
Nelson said he thought a rag had clogged the clay tile line, but it was now cleared. He said the line should be replaced when the county works on the road.
Taylor said lineman Jeff Eliasen was in Marshall, Minnesota for some overhead line training.
His crew responded to a “squirrel outage” on Labor Day weekend, replacing a blown fuse at a substation. Taylor also said his crew had been busy replacing step-down transformers and taking down problem trees when time allowed.
As part of routine maintenance, United Service Group came and charged the batteries in the substation control panel and checked fuses. Taylor said this is done every three years. Taylor also had the oil in the substation transformers tested as part of yearly maintenance.
PUC Clerk Jan Smith recommended crediting David Grimstead $3,430.16 for a long-standing water leak that was repaired one year ago.
Several years ago, said Smith, she told Grimstead that the water usage at his rental cabins was increasing monthly, but because Grimstead had just purchased the cabins, he wasn’t aware of what the normal usage was. “David thought the tenants were running water during the winter months to prevent freezing, but the water usage continued to increase,” Smith said.
Finally, said Smith, the leaking became very bad and Grimstead traced his water lines and found the leak, calling Tom Nelson to look at it. The leak occurred from 2012 to 2014, said Smith, with the water running into the ground, and not back into the city’s water treatment plant for treatment.
The next year Grimstead kept track of his normal usage ($125 per month) and that was the base Smith used to determine what his refund should be. The board voted unanimously to send Grimstead a refund check.
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