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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmin of light commission 10/15/01 " .. REeE.\VED '; (', r. r:" ((~ n F FleE r' ' '" J, '. '.,C ' . .., .... .". ''''L[) i'lrd;~;!. it 1'1fJ.SSACflUSETTS Present: Chairman Brad Willst Clerk Lou Amorusot Dan Donovant David McCarter (present from 7:45 p.m.-9 p.m.) Town Manager: John D' Agostino Light Department Director: Jack Beliveau Light Department Financial Officer: Kimberly Stoyle LIGHT COMMISSIONERS' MEETING 0 I NOV - 9 At111: It 8 Minutes of October 1St 2001, 7:30 PM Motion: To go into Executive Session to discuss pending litigation and negotiations and return to open session at conclusion of discussion. (AmorusolDonovan) 3/0 Passes Roll Call Vote: Donovan-ayet Amoruso-aye, Wills-aye The board reconvened in open session at 8: 17 p.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. ,,-... Minutes of August 6,2001. Motion: To approve the minutes. (Amoruso/Donovan) 4/0 Passes Executive Minutes of August 6, 2001 Motion: To approve and not release minutes. (AmorusolDonovan) 4/0 Passes Minutes of September 12, 200 1. Motion: To approve the minutes. .0 (Amoruso/Donovan) 4/0 Passes Director Beliveau mentioned Chair Wills' request of a review of executive minutes for the past six months. Previous executive minutes are still active and cannot be made public at this time. He also mentioned the Gilbert Street Substation Dedication at 275 Gilbert Street is this Saturday, October 20th, 2001 from ten a.m. until two p.m. The dedication will be at ten a.m. Following the dedication refreshments will be served. Questions and Comments ,,-... Airport Commissioners Jeff Sienat Lou Andrewst Howard Fiske and Phil Phiner were present to discuss, at length, burying 150 feet of wires on Fruit Street and the home being built/sold at the end of the relocated runway. They stated the wires are a hazard to navigationt whether the house is built or not, because they are hard to see. Cost and methods of securing the money for the project were brought forward. They decided to " .. (' see if there is a safety grant available. It was decided that they should come back later with more information. Director Beliveau stated he did not think it a good idea to bury the wires at thi~ time. Altering the wires at this time could create an action for the homeowners' to sue. (Commissioner McCarter departed.) Light Department Director's Report r Financial Report - August 2001 Ms. Stoyle went over the financial statements with the Light Commissioners. It was a good month. Our sales were up 16%. Our Purchase Power was up 2%, which is promising. I had a Net Income before PILOT of $268k. If you look under Misc. Credit for Surplus we had a one time $534k credit which was do to our increase in our flush of funds that we receive every year. We had a bond refinancing that allowed us to have that one time credit. It's actually a prior period adjustment. It gives us a bottom line net increase of $756k. YTD Net Income was $1, l77k and if you take the one time credit out of there we would have had $666k, which is right in line with our projected earnings. We are on target for our earnings for the year. With the substation complete our Net Utility and Plant is up 90% over last year. We're at $11,056k. In August we had seven outages and, only t a squirrel caused one outage. We had a few overloads. Director Beliveau said we are still tree trimming. We have a contract for tree trimming. A lightning storm with high winds caused a tree to come down. Under projects we have a web page. Net work with the Town is on hold. The Inventory Bar Code System equipment is in and we are waiting for the final conversion to the general ledger. We're running all the tasks and making sure all is a go and hopefully by the end of next week we'll be all set with that. We will have our Gilbert Street Substation open house this Saturday, from ten until two. The public is invited. We will have the dedication right at ten o'clock. Phase One of the SCADA system is complete with the original equipment. They are in the middle of Phase Two, which they are referring to as their expansion phase and they are incorporating all our new equipment into that. The West Street Bridge we need a detail officer to complete. We are in the distribution work phase. We will now be pulling cable in. At this time we will have to close one side of the road for just hours at a time. No major disruptions. r September looks like a profit. The security lights bill is averaged for the year. It should be the same every month. ~ Purchased Power- New Contract, NYP A, Hydro Quebec We need to buy more power. I have prepared an RFP with a request for proposals and we are ready to advertise that. The market is quite favorable right now. The prices are coming in at around $34/$35 per megawatt hour on a long-term basis. I think this is an opportunity for Mansfield to acquire inexpensive power for the future, for the next ten years. And we may not see this window of opportunity again. We're doing essentially what all our neighbors are doing at the same time. Hydro Quebec has stopped serving Mansfieldt as well as everyone else in Massachusetts. We had three megawatts of power under that contract which expired on September 1 st. So, we need to make up for that. Any New York Power Authority, NYPA, is giving significantly less power than they have in the past. So, we've lost some relatively cheap power. We have to replace that and we're ready to go with something on that. We're looking to buy ten megawatts of power. It would be on a contract basis. It's about $34/$35 per megawatt hour. Right now our average cost is $85 a megawatt hour. Some of the nuclear plants we have a share in the energy cost is only a half a cent a megawatt hour but the carrying cost in loans is eleven cents. So we end up paying eleven or twelve cents per kilowatt-hour. MMWEC is refinancing $1.1 billion of debt. We are a good portion of that refinancing. MMWEC's approach is to refinance the loans so they are paid of years sooner. The eleven cents per hour of carrying charges are the costs that will go away. r- Project Status- Gilbert Street Open House Gilbert Street is on line, supplying Mansfield. We have been trying to notify the public when doing cut overs in their section of town because when we do a cut over, it cauSes a momentary disruption in power. We try to do it in a four to five a.m. time frame so as to minimize the inconvenience to anyone. We're having the open house this Saturday, October 20,2001, from ten until two. It will be a chance to show the public what we've done out there and recognize some of the individuals that have contributed to it. Fork Lift Procurement We need to buy a forklift. We have looked at purchase versus lease. Motion: To buy or lease, which ever is more economical, a forklift. (McCarter/Amoruso) 4/0 Passes Signs on Poles ,-- Besides the ascetic clutter it is a safety hazard to have nails in the poles. The poles have to be cut up when they are taken down. The nails are shrapnel when cutting up the poles. The public should not be putting nails into telephone poles. It is against the law in Massachusetts to put nails into telephone poles. Also, the town should not be doing the clean up of yard sale signs. ~ ~ ,--. Motion: To charge ten dollars per sign left on the pole. (Donovan) No Second Hold motion until next month. Linemen's Rodeo We won a Second Place in the Elbow Division. An elbow is a device used on an underground transformer. The linemen maintain their professional skills. Congratulations go to Jay Thompson, Ralph Bellavance and Tim Moran for a job well done. (Commissioner McCarter Departed) High Street Yard - RAM plan Release Abatement Measures - what it stands for is a Massachusetts that is law part of the clean up process. We discovered some volatiles that were in the groundt probably since we purchased the property in 1968. We inherited the problem. We are now working to mitigate the problem and hopefully correct that as best as the state will recommend. At this point in time, it appears that paving it and putting in storm water collection and oil water separators are what it is going to take to straighten this out. ;- Old Business Deposits The Director asked that the Light Company be allowed to change the present policy on deposits. He stated that the present system of requiring a deposit from every customer is inefficientt cumbersome and costly. Also, the Light Company is required to return the deposit to the customer before it would generally be needed. Most people who default on an electric bill don't do it in the first year. It generally happens somewhere down the road. He requested the deposits be based on customer history, at least with the residential customers. If a service is terminated, then, to get back ont require a three-month deposit. At this point, we have a track record. May even extend to certain small businesses if they have some credit history in Mansfield. I think this can be taken into consideration. When we get to the point where we are turning off their lights, then we need to be in a position to require a deposit. Motion: The deposits on commercial and industrial done on a credit worthiness basis. That it be discretionary, not to exceed three months; but discretionary based on a credit history. Deposits shall be eliminated on residential customers; however, up to three months deposit could be required of any customer that is terminated for non payment in order to have service restored. (Amoruso/Donovan) 3/0 Passes ,,-... .. r- Payment in Lieu of Taxes This issue was postponed at the last meeting because all commissioners were not present. Two are missing tonight. Town Manager D' Agostino would like it discussed in case there is to be a change in the policy. He and the Director were in agreement as to a future PILOT of $300,000 plus 10% of profit. According to Mr. D'Agostino, the 10% would go to free cash. Postponed again, awaiting a full board. North Common- Holiday Lighting Last year we were unable to place permanent lighting. There was discussion of the postponement of the railroad station project. Where do you want to go with this for this year? Last year costs were estimated at $35k for a permanent underground installation. The Bopard believed the entire common was going to be excavated so the project was delayed. This year the railroad station completition date is uncertain. Director Beliveau asked for the Board's wishes? After a discussion of the available options, it was decided to do nothing this year. r- Commissioner Donovan asked for an exaplanation of the $20k for Misc. Income Deductions in the financial statements. Ms. Stoyle noted we had Robotics Program, Candy Cane Program, etc. New Business Cable TV Selectmen have expressed varied opinions on this subject. Director Beliveau suggested a referendum to learn the sense of the voters. Do they want the Light Company's pursuit of cable or not. Items discussed were local versus regional cable, programming, channels, cost, services and how and when to put it before the voters. Postponed until all board members are present. Date of next meeting: November 6, 2001, 7:30 p.m. Director Beliveau thanked Marianne for her services as note taker at our meetings and again mention that we welcome anyone coming forward that is interested in the position. Marianne started by filling in for the last note taker who was unable to attend two meetings due to personal family issue. Finally, the note taker announced she could no longer do it. Marianne continued on and the position was offered to the public again. The job pays $75 per meeting regardless of the amount of time that is involved including attending the meeting, taking notes and preparing those notes for the Light Department within a week of the meeting. r Adjournment r Motion: To adjourn at 9:50 p.m. (Donovan! Amoruso) 4/0 Passes ~.;J(~~M~ SIgnature of Clerk II / ~./ Date 0 Approval (' ,,-... I T