Waste Water plant superintendent Tom Nelson used the light mounted on his cap so he could read his report to the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission board on April 30.
Unlike Nelson, the board sat in a dark room, which was only dimly illuminated by natural light through the windows.
No, this wasn’t an initiative to save electricity for the city, the power was out. The lights came on midway through the meeting right after the board learned that a wayward squirrel that met its end after tangling with a substation had sabotaged the town’s electrical system.
Don Wilson appeared before the board and asked some questions about his personal electric bill and the electrical bill sent to the American Legion, which he helps to oversee.
Specifically, Wilson wanted to know what the customer charges meant on his bill. “What does that entail? My customer charges on my bill were 44 percent of the bill. That seems out of line to me,” he said.
Board member Tim Kennedy told Wilson that those charges covered putting in and maintaining the infrastructure.
“Not too many years ago my electric bill was $6,” Wilson said.
“We really haven’t raised your bill the last five or six years,” said City Administrator Mike Roth. But Roth said the new bills broke out expenses so customers could see where their money was going.
“Am I the only one complaining?” Wilson asked.
“Well, we don’t get a lot of complaints about the bills,” Roth said, adding that the fees were set and everyone was charged at the same rate.
“I wonder how long people on fixed incomes are going to be able to live in Cook County with the rise in taxes and PUC bills,” Wilson asked rhetorically.
“It’s an expensive proposition to provide services. We can’t give them away,” Kennedy said, adding that it would be nice to lower the rates, “but we can’t.”
Nelson asked the board to approve the purchase of a Ford truck from Sonju in Two Harbors at a cost of $30,699. He told the board he had a similar bid from a dealer in St. Cloud, but he said just the expense of picking it up and then having it serviced in St. Cloud would push the costs far in excess of the vehicle from Sonju. The board voted unanimously for the purchase.
PUC secretary Jan Smith asked the board to forgive some bills that the city wasn’t able to collect.
“Who are these bills from?” asked PUC Chair Karl Hansen.
“These are old bills, mostly from renters that have skipped town,” said Smith.
“We didn’t feel it would be right to turn off the power to these places because it wasn’t the owners fault. I do this every two years. I ask for these bills to be taken off of the books. This is less than it has been,” Smith said.
The board agreed to take $1,554 off the books.
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