The Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) tries hard to collect the money its customers owe for electric, water, and sewer service. And it does a good job getting most of it.
On December 6, public utilities commissioners voted to write off $4,306.80 in bad debts incurred between August 2007 and May 2010.
Fourteen of the 37 write-offs were final bills unpaid by customers when they moved away, ranging from $17.28 to $86.69. Ten of them were penalties for paying final bills late, ranging from $1.89 to $7.08. Two were bills for deceased customers and one regarded a bankruptcy. Several had been sent to collections, with $747.11 being the largest amount owed.
The total amount written off represents only about one-tenth of one percent of the approximately $3½ million the PUC generates in revenue each year.
Fire at Sherco 3
A November 19 fire at the Sherco 3 power plant in Becker, Minnesota has left Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA) without 85 percent of its energy-producing capacity. This could potentially affect Grand Marais, since it is one of the 18 municipalities that make up SMMPA’s energy cooperative. The Sherco 3 facility is jointly owned by SMMPA and Xcel Energy.
A November 19 email from SMMPA Executive Director/CEO David Geschwind to SMMPA member municipalities said the damage could cause the unit to be out of commission for a year, although they didn’t have enough information at the time to know for sure how long it would be.
Another memo from Geschwind two days later said the agency’s $1 billion insurance policy might be adequate to address the equipment loss. The agency had already purchased a portion of its energy needs through February “at decent prices,” Geschwind said.
Until the coal-fired plant is back up and running, SMMPA will be buying most of its energy off the open market, Grand Marais Utility Administrative Specialist Jan Smith said.
Sewer hookup question answered
Water/Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson brought new information regarding a residential sewer pipe that was reportedly not hooked up to the city pipe until several years ago and then found to be a perforated pipe, both situations leading to raw sewage going into the ground.
Judie Johnson had asked the PUC to refund several years’ worth of sewer bills she had paid, saying that her pipe had not been hooked into the city’s sewer system until street work was done several years ago. The city then consulted the engineering firm that had done the work in the street running past her house and was told that her pipe had been connected, but it was perforated. The city then sent a letter to Johnson directing her to connect the proper type of pipe to the city’s system.
Nelson told commissioners the information they received from the engineers as well as the information Johnson had received from the contractors who had done the street work was wrong.
Johnson recently hired a firm to install new pipe from her house to the street. On December 1 when the new pipe was being installed, Tom Nelson saw firsthand what was really there. The correct type of pipe had indeed been connected to the city’s sewer system. A separate perforated pipe leading nowhere in particular was also found under the ground, functioning as nonsewer drainage.
Nelson asked Johnson to let him explain the situation to the commissioners at this meeting and invited her to attend the next meeting, which will be December 28 at 3:00 p.m. at City Hall.
New commissioners needed
The city is desperately short of commissioners for two of its boards. Hal Greenwood’s second term on the PUC will be up at the end of the year, and since he cannot serve another consecutive term, a replacement is needed. The PUC board is comprised of only three people. Besides Greenwood, the current board includes City Councilor Tim Kennedy and member-at-large Karl Hansen.
The Grand Marais Planning Commission is in even worse straits, with five new commissioners needed, representing the entire five-member commission. Two of the current commissioners could serve another term and one will be appointed from the city council, but if the two currently on the commission decline the opportunity to serve another term, four new members from the public will be needed.
City Administrator Mike Roth indicated he was quite concerned about filling all the open seats on the planning commission.
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