About MMU:

Marshall Municipal Utilities

"Providing Hometown Reliability"

Board Meeting Minutes

March 9, 2010

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

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

The following bids were opened February 24, 2010, for replacement of a number of MMU’s radios.

	Land Based		Mobile		Handhelds		Upgrade
	Inspection	Replacement	Inspection	Replacement	Inspection	Replacement	License
KC Wireless Independence, MO	N/A	$259 - $265	N/A	$259 - $265	N/A	$180 - $233	$155
L&B Electronics Eldon, MO	No Cost	$360 - $390	No Cost	$360 - $390	No Cost	$300 - $510	$150 - $200

Administrative Services Director Ken Gieringer indicated the KC Wireless bid includes a $45 per radio installation charge and the L & B bid includes a $50 per radio installation charge. On a motion by Mr. Fricke, seconded by Mr. Hird, the Board approved the purchase of approximately 26 mobile radios from KC Wireless.

The following bids were opened March 2, 2010, for a cargo-style vehicle to be used in the Internet De-partment for splicing fiber and maintenance of our SCADA system.

	Bid	Make and Model	Delivery Time
Elmer Hare Ford Sales Marshall, MO	$20,840.00	Ford Transit Connect	10-12 weeks
Midway Ford Truck Center Kansas City, MO	$21,339.46	Ford Transit Connect	July 2010

On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Fricke, the Board accepted the bid from Elmer Hare Ford Sales for $20,840.

Director Gieringer indicated if the new bucket truck is received by March 18, 2010, the old 1997 bucket truck will be consigned to a sale on March 30, 2010.

The Board was given a draft ground source heat pump incentive program for review and comment.

The following bids were opened March 2, 2010, for cooling tower fill replacement.

	Primary Bid Price	Alternate Bid Price	Technical Field Supervision
Cooling Tower Depot Raymore, MO	$56,507.00	$12,322.00 **	Rate sheet attached to bid
Evaptech, Inc. Rothville, MO	$52,641.00	$60,436.00	$1,000 per work day
SPX Cooling Technologies, Inc. Overland Park, KS	$40,421.00	$47,098.00 (1) $48,929.00 (2)	Rate sheet attached to bid

** This figure is probably in addition to the primary price

Electric Production Director Jim Johnson explained that a project supervisor would be hired for technical support and MMU personnel would perform the work. On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Hird, the Board accepted the primary bid from SPX Cooling Technologies, Inc. for $40,421.

Director Johnson reported there was a tube leak on the Unit #5 boiler that has been repaired. The issues with the generator seal have been resolved and the unit was run for about three hours at 50% load on March 5, 2010. MPUA has requested that Unit #5 be started again on March 22, 2010, and run through April.

The pellet boiler was shut down on March 5, 2010.

Employee Relations Manager Megan Baldridge provided management’s recommendation for 2009-10 wage and pay ranges, which includes a 2.75% adjustment to all pay ranges except six (the other six are four at 1.75%, one at 1.25%, and one at 0.75%), merit-based increases that would total slightly less than $44,000 annually, and pay adjustments for individuals who have sustained good job performance to main-tain their progress through their pay range (at an annual cost of less than $113,000). After discussion, the Board tabled a decision on the wage and pay ranges until the next meeting, on a motion by Mr. Fricke, seconded by Mr. Hird.

Ms. Baldridge explained that adding a fitness reimbursement benefit for membership to an approved fit-ness facility such as the YMCA or Snap Fitness would enhance MMU’s wellness program. The reim-bursement would be for an individual employee membership fee up to $30 per month. The employee would be required to participate in activities at the fitness facility at least ten times per month. On a mo-tion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Fricke, the Board approved adding a fitness reimbursement benefit effective April 1, 2010.

The current Personnel Policy requires employees to schedule and take a full week of vacation at least once per calendar year. Ms. Baldridge indicated some employees find this requirement to be cumbersome and would prefer to use it in smaller blocks. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Fricke, the Board approved, effective April 1, 2010, modifying the fourth paragraph of Part 5 of the Personnel Policy to read:

Vacation time can be used by nonexempt employees in increments of not less than 1 hour and by exempt employees in increments of not less than 4 hours. Requests for va-cation require advance notice and Department Director approval.

New MMU employees currently receive 80 hours of vacation time on their 1-year anniversary date and then begin accruing vacation each pay period at a rate determined by their years of service. Ms. Bal-dridge reported a number of utilities and municipalities allow employees to begin using vacation once they have been employed for six months. On a motion by Mr. Hird, seconded by Mr. Heinzler, the Board approved, effective April 1, 2010, modifying the third paragraph of Part 5 of the Personnel Policy to read:

New, full-time employees shall be credited with forty (40) hours of vacation after suc-cessful completion of their probationary period (normally 6 months) and another forty (40) hours of vacation time on their first year anniversary date. After that time period, beginning the next pay period, they shall accrue vacation time per pay period according to the following schedule. Employees surpassing an anniversary that results in an in-crease in the number of hours accrued per pay period shall realize that increase begin-ning the next pay period. Vacation time shall be credited only for completion of a full pay period. Employees accrue paid vacation according to the following schedule:

At past Board meetings, the Board has discussed the possibility of paying overtime for all time worked by MMU employees on out-of-town mutual aid events. Ms. Baldridge indicated this would require a modi-fication to the Personnel Policy. On a motion by Mr. Heinzler, seconded by Mr. Mills, the Board ap-proved, effective immediately, modifying Part 3, paragraph 7, of the Personnel Policy to read:

Any employee who is assigned to work away from the City of Marshall to provide mu-tual aid assistance to another entity shall be paid according to this Mutual Aid Pay pol-icy from the time they depart MMU’s facilities to travel to the entity being assisted until such time as they return to the MMU facility. All time worked during the mutual aid assignment will be paid at time and one-half. An employee who is further required to lodge overnight shall be paid up to 8 hours straight time for each night that lodging is required as determined by the Department Director.

A discussion was held on inflow and infiltration (I&I). General Manager Kyle Gibbs explained that in 2006, amendments to Ordinance #7074 were submitted to the city, with no action taken by the city at that time. MMU management met with city officials March 8, 2010, to discuss the issue and have determined changes will need to be made to Ordinance #7074 to satisfy EPA and DNR. Proposed changes to the or-dinance will be submitted for the Board’s review at a future meeting.

Electric Distribution Director Jeff Bergstrom reported it has been determined that the conduit from the North Street Substation to the Power Plant contains asbestos. Upon further review of the original con-struction drawings, it was discovered that all the conduit in the North Street Substation is composed of the same material. The first phase of the new cable installation is complete, but the remaining two phases will be postponed until the asbestos issue is resolved. An outside contractor has been consulted for op-tions to take care of the problem.

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

	WATER OPERATING FUND		$	  172,060.50
	ELECTRIC OPERATING FUND		$	1,120,524.34
	SEWER REVENUE FUND		$	  129,683.88
	INTERNET OPERATING FUND		$	   10,739.80
	NATURAL GAS OPERATING FUND	$	      136.44
	ELECTRIC CONSUMER DEPOSIT FUND	$	    2,650.00

On a motion by Mr. Fricke, seconded by Mr. Hird, the regular meeting adjourned at 10:32 a.m.