George Wilkes
Grand Marais Public Utilities Board members Tim Kennedy and Karl Hansen were ready to welcome newly appointed PUC member George Wilkes to the board on Wednesday, January 21, but unfortunately Wilkes wasn’t able to attend the meeting.
Wilkes replaces Adam Harju who served one term. Harju said his schedule wouldn’t allow for him to serve a second term.
Although Wilkes lives in Croftville—which is outside of the city limits—he still lives within the area covered by the PUC so he was able to accept a seat as a supervisor.
“With George missing it wouldn’t be right to appoint a chair or a vice chair,” said current PUC Chair Karl Hansen.
Hansen also tabled a request to appoint a PUC representative to the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA).
The PUC received two requests for sewer credit. One came from Ron Lund of Lund’s Cabins. One of the city’s meter readers noticed high water usage and notified Lund. Lund found that a water line to a cabin had broken, spilling 30,800 gallons. He had it fixed and PUC credited him $275.66.
A second request came from Pat Curtis who had a water line break on November 28 under her house. Curtis stated that the valve upstairs wouldn’t completely shut off and she was unable to get a repairperson to come right away. She also called both the PUC and water plant in an effort to have the line shut off at the street, but because it was a holiday weekend, no one was available.
Curtis lost about 20,000 gallons of water, causing a bill of $179. The board tabled that matter because Water Plant Manager Tom Nelson wanted to look into it further.
Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor asked to extend the Lake States Tree Service contract. Lake States was hired to clear some rights of way in the city, and Taylor said with low snow amounts, “this is a perfect time to have this work done.”
Taylor asked the board to extend their stay and get Second Street and County Road 7 done near the hospital. To date Lake States has been paid $10,000. Cost for two employees and a bucket truck and chipper are $1,000 a day, said Taylor.
Kennedy asked how much work needs to be done, and Taylor said he could keep them busy for a long time. City Administrator Mike Roth said there was plenty of money budgeted for this work, so, until the weather turns bitterly cold or a lot of snow falls, Taylor will keep Lake. States working on tree clearing around city lines for the foreseeable future.
Leave a Reply