The Benton Public Utilities Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, December 14th at the Electric Utility Building, 1827 Dale Avenue. The agenda follows, as well as minutes from the previous meeting.
NOTE: Social distancing will be enforced for all attendees. Staff reports may be submitted in place of required attendance. Guests must adhere to precautionary guidelines as issued by the Governor’s office and State health officials. Audio recordings of the meeting will be available upon request.
AGENDA
1. Call to Order
2. Prayer
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Roll Call
5. Approval of Minutes from the Meeting of November 16, 2020.
6. Departmental Reports
A. Employee of the Month -Brent Davis
B. Submersible 60 HP Pump Bid -Greg Becker
C. Approval of Share Board Applicant -Cindy Hawkins
D. November Financials -Karen Scott
E. 2021 Proposed Budget -Karen Scott
7. Old Business
A. Net Metering Ordinance -David Vondran
8. New Business
A. Resolution for Appointment of New Commissioner Chair
B. Appointment of Officers for 2021 Chair
9. Announcements
A. Next Commission meeting date Monday, January 4, 2021
B. January 18th meeting date falls on Martin Luther King Day. Change or Cancel?
10. Executive Session
A. Executive Session
11. Adjournment
MINUTES:
CITY OF BENTON UTILITY COMMISSIONERS MEETING
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2020, 6:00 P.M.,
ELECTRIC UTILITY BUILDING
1827 DALE AVENUE
The City of Benton Utility Commissioners met in regular session Monday, November 16, 2020 at the Electric Utility Building, 1827 Dale Avenue.
In Attendance:
- Doug Stracener, Chairman
- Charlie Best, Member
- Jim Martin, Member
- Gary Ferrell, Member
- Phil Miller, Member
- David Vondran, General Manager
Chairman Stracener called the meeting to order with all members in attendance. Member Martin gave the invocation and Chairman Stracener led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The first item of business was approval of the minutes from the regular meeting of November 2, 2020. Member Ferrell made a motion to approve the minutes as presented and Member Martin seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and unanimous approval given.
Departmental Reports
- Employee of the Month Brent Davis
Mr. Davis said the October employee of the month was Juan Suarez from the Electric Department. He was actually nominated by two people. During Mollie’s time that she was out for two weeks Mr. Suarez stepped up and helped Ms. Craig and Mrs. Wilson and according to them he was a source of information and they said “he didn’t lose patience with us while we were doing dispatch and we really appreciated his help.” They felt that he had stepped out above and beyond his normal role to help them continue to provide the dispatch service the facility needed.
- October Financials Karen Scott
Mrs. Scott said on the first page is the total revenues versus expenditures for the current month as well as a comparison to 2019. You will see that for the month we had a loss of $57,876 bringing our year to date revenues over expenditures to $5.947 million. I would point out that in October of 2019 we did have $848,000 of contributed capital that was included in revenue and the bulk of the difference in revenue for the total was electric. Electric was off $645,000 from October of last year. Last year’s total electric sales were $2.45 million and this year it was $1.85 million. I didn’t check it, but I think if I am not mistaken, October of last year was fairly warm so I believe that is what caused that. On page 7, is our bad debt analysis. In October we had write offs exceeding collections of $8,498. Our year to date write offs are $37,385, $75 more than total recoveries and last year we were at $30,797. We are about $7,000 worse off than last year. Again, on page 9, I would like to remind you that the condensed financial statements have contributed capital. Year to date water has $131,000 and wastewater has a total of $352,000 for a total of $383,000. Also, at your seats I gave you a new page 13. I was reviewing the packet this morning and I failed to change the explanations by service. The numbers don’t change at all. Electric has $148,000 profit, water had $54,000 loss, wastewater $151,000 loss for a cumulative of all services of a $57,000 loss. In all cases, revenues and expenditures were below the expected budget. Mr. Dewayne Hood, Water Distribution Manager has been doing some of his pipe repair that he has contracted for to kind of escalate some expenditures. Mr. Nathan Schultz, Wastewater Conveyance Manager has almost wrapped up with pipe bursting. We have a couple of purchases for your approval tonight that in the past you had asked about, expenditures and projects that had yet to be done. They are also gathering a list for me of projects that were budgeted but haven’t been done that we will talk with you about for the 2021 budget. Mr. Vondran said he would like to ask of the commission if it was be possible or prudent if when we file our financials to bring them into the record for filing and future reference. If we could also include a potential 5 to 10-year project list that may adequately reflect the use of any funds that may be currently shown on our financials revenues over expenditures. This is just for your consideration. Chairman Stracener asked if this would be updated each month and Mr. Vondran said yes sir. Mr. Vondran said that way if our financials reflect that we are saving for a project then that project would be identified to anyone reviewing the financials. Member Ferrell said that he had a question. When we do the pipe gallery that we just approved last meeting which is about $1.5 million are we going to take that money and put it in a separate account and ear mark it as that project? I know you love different accounts Mrs. Scott. Mrs. Scott said that project is not in the budget because it will be an asset. To give you some examples, the 114 Project is not in the budget for that purpose, the I-30 expansion but I can do whatever you desire Member Ferrell. Technically that $1,000,000+ is not in the budget right now. Member Ferrell said he understood but it is money that has got to be spent on that project. Mrs. Scott said they can certainly ear mark it. You are talking about ear marking funds, right? Member Ferrell said he thinks we have to ear mark those funds as we dole our projects to make sure that we know that that money is set aside. Mrs. Scott said they absolutely can do that. Mr. Vondran said if were to do that then that would be reflected on the one page in the financials that summarizes the restricted accounts, and we wouldn’t have to include this 5 to 10-year list. Member Ferrell asked if wanted to include this list with the financials or if he wanted to include it with the budget. Mr. Vondran said it is just for your consideration and the 5 to 10 year capital list has only been included tonight if we had time and we were to adjourn the regular meeting and we wanted to take a look at this project list in our work session. I understand that you haven’t had time to look at the list and I am not asking that you incorporate it into tonight’s financials. Its just for future consideration in those instances where our financials show that we have considerable revenues over expenses. I want to be transparent in why. Member Best said he guessed that he was ready to make a motion to approve the financial reports as presented. Member Martin seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and unanimous approval given.
- EQ Basin Fence Expansion Bid Greg Becker
Mr. Becker said he was here to get the approval of the EQ Basin expansion of the fence. We are of course going with the lowest bid which came in at $19,850 by Nichols Fence. This came about because the city was actually getting complaints about kids and people going out there and riding bikes. The Mayor was getting complaints, they were putting comments on Facebook and really a lot off issues with people going out there when they shouldn’t be. We decided to go with a fence just like the existing fence that is shown in photographs 6 and 7. We are going with a fence just like that Commercial grade, 6 foot tall fence with 3 strands of barbed wire on top. Its mainly to keep people out of it and to keep them from tearing it up. We don’t want to put some cheap fence we want to put something that is going to look nice. Member Ferrell asked if this fenced the whole lot and Mr. Becker said it was going to fence the back portion that is not currently fenced, and it should keep everybody out of it. I have gone over there numerous times and have had to chase people off. Member Martin asked if that was where the spoils were pilled was it not? We had a lot of excavation and it was mounded up there at one time. Mr. Becker yes sir, that was the area that used to flood. Member Martin said that was right behind the Habitat for Humanity houses in, there right? Mr. Becker said yes sir. In fact, that is where the complaints are coming from in the Habitat area. The lowest bid came in at $19,850 and that is roughly about 1,200 feet of fence. Member Martin asked if that was in the budget and Mr. Becker said yes sir. Member Martin then made a motion to approve the recommendation to fence that area of the equalization basin. Member Best seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and unanimous approval given.
- Dri-Prime Pump Bid Nathan Schultz
Mr. Schultz said they did sealed bids for the bypass pump that was in the budget. We had 10 bids and of the 10 of them only 2 had exactly what the specifications called for and one was almost there but not quite. Bertem Products came in on their Option 1 that I highlighted, and they came in at $59,850. Instrument and Supply came in and they are the one that didn’t quite have it, but they were at $59,250 and Jack Tyler came in at $56,894 and that was with spare parts and everything. With apples to apples they came in at $52,000 but with the options that we added it bumped it up to $56,894. They were the lowest quote that came in with the specifications that we required on a bypass pump. Member Martin asked Mr. Schultz who he was recommending, and Mr. Schultz said he was recommending Jack Tyler who came in at the lowest bid out of those three for the bypass pump. I did an explanation of each one and why they didn’t come in the spec’s that we required for bid. Member Ferrell asked if Jack Tyler was on the second page and Mr. Schultz said the 3rd one. Chairman Stracener asked Mr. Schultz, looking at your write up there seems to be only one other one that meets specifications. Mr. Schultz said yes sir, the only other one was Bertem Products on their Option Number 1 and ISI came in meeting most of the spec’s but the impeller was a closed impeller, not an open and with all of the rags and stuff that we are getting it just twists it around the impeller and clogs it up. That is why we spec’d out the open impeller. Member Martin said but all of them knew the spec’s going in and Mr. Schultz said yes sir, a lot of time just put throw in there to get the bids out. A lot of these are construction dewatering pumps they are not for sewer and so the impellers are not hard iron. They are weak impellers and with the stuff that comes through our wastewater its just tearing up the impellers. That’s why we spec’d the hard iron impellers. Member Martin asked if it was in the budget and Mr. Schultz said yes. Member Martin made a motion to accept the staff’s recommendation to award the bid to Jack Tyler Company for the Dri-Prime Pump. Member Best seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and unanimous approval given.
- HD Commercial Slope Mower Bid Steve Robbins
Mr. Vondran said he would present on behalf of Mr. Robbins. We have a Water Purification employee whose spouse is COVID positive, so the employee is therefore quarantined and any staff member that has been around that employee is taking precautions and that is why Mr. Robbins isn’t here tonight. We went out for sealed bids for a commercial slope mower. A lot of the submittals that we received were for the zero-turn deck type mower which do not have the capability of allowing the operator to lean as they are mowing a slope. So, the Kit Kwik piece of equipment was the only one that actually met the specs, and it has been submitted for your review and approval. It is a very specialized piece of equipment. Not very many manufacturers and definitely not very many manufacturers reps in our area. Member Martin asked if we had any of this company’s equipment in inventory at this point in time? Didn’t we buy some of this type of mower sometime in the past and Mr. Vondran said yes sir we did. When I came on board, we had 2 and between the 2 we did a pretty good job of keeping one of them running and the other one was for parts. We did purchase a new one after about 2 years so that would be 2 years ago, and it is solely the one that we rely on. The 2 that we originally had have gone by the wayside and are not operational. This would actually be our 4 in ownership or in inventory but really the first 2 are not operational, and number 3 cannot keep up. I don’t believe it was a Kut Kwick brand make. Member Martin said so we don’t have any experience on this type, but this is the only bid that you have on the articulating mower. Mr. Vondran said yes sir it is. Member Martin said it does have a roll bar does it not? Item Number 17 is the roll bar. Member Ferrell asked if this was in the budget and Mr. Vondran said yes. Mr. Vondran said this is the mower we use on all of our basins and all of our levy’s. Member Ferrell made a motion to approve the Kut Kwick Corporation mower as presented and Member Best seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and unanimous approval given.
Old Business
New Business
Member Ferrell said he had a question. Uncollected bills and notices have we done anything and where are we at to date. Mr. Vondran said the first shut offs will be on November 17th, which is tomorrow. Member Ferrell asked if we knew how many that was, and Mr. Vondran said he did not. It’s the first billing cycle so it’s a smaller billing cycle. Cycle number 4 is the majority of our bills. Chairman Ferrell then asked where we were with the hospital. Mr. Vondran said they had made contact twice and he hasn’t heard back. We can send them a bill and that will probably spark a phone call.
Announcements
- Next Commission Meeting Date: Monday, December 7, 2020
- Employee Christmas Luncheon, Tuesday, December 15, 2020, 11:30 a.m.- 1p.m. Chairman Stracener asked if there was anything new to report on how that is going to go down and Mr. Vondran said no sir, he is still working with a caterer that can serve individual plates. Chairman Stracener said you are not going to be able to do that the State guidelines are no buffet type. We need to stay in line with those recommendations. Vondran said absolutely. Member Martin said he might announce that they too will have a pension fund meeting at 4:00 p.m. on the 7th preceding the Commission Meeting. We think we are making progress and at least understanding what we are dealing with. We are going to eat that elephant one bite at a time, and it is going to take a little time to get there.
Member Ferrell made a motion to adjourn into a work session and Member Best seconded the motion. A vote was taken with unanimous approval given.
Meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
___________________________ ______________________________ Doug Stracener, Chairman Madeline Wilson, Recording Secretary