Cook County News Herald

Three winners in PUC scholarship contest





Receiving the Grand Marais Public Utility Commission scholarship at the May 20 Cook County High School scholarship awards program were Zach Taylor and Mike Taylor. The graduates earned the scholarship based on essays entered in a contest. Also winning a scholarship, but not pictured was Sterling Anderson. Sterling received $200; Zach Taylor received $300; and Mike Taylor Jr. received $500. Mike’s winning essay on municipal utilities is below.

Receiving the Grand Marais Public Utility Commission scholarship at the May 20 Cook County High School scholarship awards program were Zach Taylor and Mike Taylor. The graduates earned the scholarship based on essays entered in a contest. Also winning a scholarship, but not pictured was Sterling Anderson. Sterling received $200; Zach Taylor received $300; and Mike Taylor Jr. received $500. Mike’s winning essay on municipal utilities is below.

All three entrants in this year’s Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) essay contest won money awards, and the first-place winner has been entered in the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association Tom Bovitz Memorial Scholarship Award essay contest, which awards $2,000 to its top entrant. Winning $500, $300, and $200 locally were Cook County High School Seniors Mike Taylor, Zach Taylor, and Sterling Anderson, respectively. The Taylor twins are sons of PUC Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor, but the judges, PUC commissioners Karl Hansen, Tim Kennedy, and Adam Harju, did not know the identities of the entrants when they evaluated the essays.

Below is Mike Taylor Jr.’s winning essay.

Municipal Utilities: Good for All of Us

Mike Taylor Jr.

In today’s savvy high-tech world of smart phones and smart cars, the world would not exist without municipal utilities to provide electricity to charge these devices. There are 125 municipal utilities in Minnesota, from small towns like Grand Marais to larger expanding cities like Shakopee.

Municipal utilities are community owned so they can provide safe, reliable electricity at reasonable cost while protecting the environment. Some municipal utilities also provide water, sewer and natural gas. Grand Marais Public Utilities provides power to 892 residential customers and 325 commercial customers along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Grand Marais buys power from Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Association (SMMPA) located in Rochester, Minnesota. They are a member of Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) and provide electricity, water and sewer within the city limits. Grand Marais Public Utilities employs two line workers, one electrical supervisor, and a bookkeeper along with office staff who work together on the day-to-day operations.

Some municipal utilities have power plants located in their cities to help generate power during high-peak periods. Grand Marais is fortunate to own a power plant. During 2012 the plant ran for 165 hours, burned 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel (all of which SMMPA paid for), and generated over 312,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Besides providing electricity, municipal utilities provide individualized service to their customers. In the smaller municipalities like Grand Marais, everyone knows everyone, so when there is a problem or idea for improvement, people know exactly who to talk to to find a solution.

In support of small utilities, MMUA also provides safety training and instruction for workers. But electricity is not the only service provided by municipal utilities; they also run programs to help reduce emissions and conserve energy. The State of Minnesota requires electric utilities to spend a minimum of 1.5 percent of annual gross revenue on conservation improvement projects. Grand Marais meets these goals by having customers look for energy star labels when buying appliances and light bulbs. Customers then bring items to City Hall to recycle and apply for a rebate. Reducing emissions will not only help the environment; it will also save you money.

In today’s world, municipal utilities are in every single person’s life. Imagine life without electricity; there would be no computers, television, cell phones. The winter would be cold without electricity to run your furnace. Water for drinking and bathing would need to be hand-pumped up to the surface. Without electricity, life would go back to the way our ancestors lived. I prefer to live in a time with electricity and all its modern technology.


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