Marshall Municipal Utilities

Board Meeting Minutes

April 1, 2008

The Board of Public Works convened the regular session at 8:30 a.m. at the Marshall Municipal Utilities Business Office. Present were Spencer Fricke, President; Charles Hird, Vice President; and Jim Heinzler, member. Secretary Mike Mills was absent.

The agenda was approved as presented on a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler, the minutes of the previous meeting were approved as printed.

General Manager Kyle Gibbs reported six engineering firms submitted proposals for the five-year revision of the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans. The lowest not-to-exceed cost was $4,600. The next to lowest not-to-exceed cost was $4,800 from Black & Veatch, the firm that prepared the existing plans. On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Hird, the Board approved finalizing negotiations with Black & Veatch to conduct the five-year review and revision of MMU’s SPCC plans.

The bids have been received for the hypochlorite generation equipment for the Water Treatment Plant disinfection facility and are being reviewed by Shafer, Kline and Warren.

General Manager Gibbs reported MMU personnel have addressed several items noted on the EPA pretreatment audit of the Wastewater Treatment Plant and are reviewing several other items. A change is being made to a reporting form in order to comply with the letter of warning from DNR concerning the Wastewater Treatment Plant discharge permit.

Electric Distribution Director Jeff Bergstrom reported there have been several electric cable failures in the last several years in the area of South Lake Drive from Benton Street west, and the primary cable needs to be replaced. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler, the Board approved proceeding with this budgeted project. The new directional boring machine will be used for this project.

The following bids were opened on March 26, 2008, for the repair and replacement of the transmission line.

					Total #2	    Total #3	 
			Total #1    (Install Pole Top	(Install Pole Top	
		  (Pole & Crossarm   Caps & Reattach	 Caps & Reattach
		    Replacements)     Pole Grounds)	   Pole Grounds)	 Total of
		 (Line de-energized) (Line energized)	(Line de-energized)	#1, #2 & #3

PAR Electrical Contr.	$62,151.00	$30,028.00	    $7,681.00		 $99,860.00
    Clinton, MO
L.E. Meyers Co.	       $114,488.79	$36,671.66	    $9,820.70		$160,981.15
    Marshalltown, IA

Director Bergstrom indicated that MMU personnel would be able to rent equipment and do the work for items #2 and #3 in-house cheaper than the costs bid by PAR Electrical Contractors and L.E. Meyers Company. On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Hird, the Board approved accepting the bid from PAR Electrical Contractors for item #1 only at $62,151.00.

Administrative Services Director Ken Gieringer reported core drilling would need to be done at the site of the proposed warehouse in order to design the correct foundation. It was the consensus of the Board to postpone consideration of this project for at least a year.

Director Gieringer reported in order to provide more value to MMU’s Internet customers, the following modifications in rates and speeds are proposed.

	Current Rate	Current Speed	Proposed Rate	Proposed Speed

Tier 1	    $30		    1.5 Mbps	    $30		  3.0 Mbps
Tier 2	    $70		    3.0 Mbps 	    $60		  6.0 Mbps
Tier 3	    $105	    4.5 Mbps	    $90		  9.0 Mbps

Also recommended is a change from the provision for dedicated bandwidth to a negotiated rate. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler, the Board approved the rates and speeds for the three tiers of Internet service and the dedicated bandwidth effective May 1, 2008.

Director Gieringer reported the fiber installation crew has been using a line truck borrowed from the Electric Distribution Department when splicing the fiber lines. There are approximately 8,000 splices needing to be made this spring/summer, which would require the use of the line truck daily. The Electric Distribution Department will be working on a major voltage conversion project this spring/summer and will be using their line trucks. It was the consensus of the Board to request bids on a new or used bucket truck that would meet the needs of the fiber installation crew.

Electric Production Director Jim Johnson reported MoPEP has requested that MMU run Unit #5 through the month of April. Some of the maintenance planned in April and May on the unit will need to be postponed until October and as much done in May as possible. MoPEP expects that Unit #5 will need to be run again by June 1.

Employee Relations Manager Megan Baldridge reported a recent circumstance has brought to light a need for a procedure on how to handle vacation time when an employee (who has reached the 260-hour ceiling for vacation time earned) has a vacation scheduled and approved and then has that vacation time revoked by the Department Head due to workload. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler, the Board approved a procedure that will allow, in certain circumstances, an employee to either:

1. be paid straight time for vacation time, or
2. to accumulate vacation time over the 260-hour ceiling.

for a brief period when authorized by the Department Director and General Manager.

On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Hird, accounts payable were approved and warrants ordered issued from the following funds:

	WATER OPERATING FUND		$	 97,112.59
	ELECTRIC OPERATING FUND		$	708,050.36
	SEWER REVENUE FUND		$	100,135.04
	INTERNET OPERATING FUND		$	 12,642.84
	NATURAL GAS OPERATING FUND	$	  6,192.45
	ELECTRIC CONSUMERS DEPOSIT FUND	$	  7,030.00

On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Hird, the Board voted unanimously to adjourn the regular meeting at 9:35 a.m. and go into an executive session to discuss matters related to personnel (Mo. Rev. Stat. 610.021 [3], if authorized). Roll call votes:
Mr. Heinzler yes
Mr. Hird yes
Mr. Fricke yes