WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=dCB86tzczJ0

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: dCB86tzczJ0):
- 00:00:00: Roll Call and Open Forum Introduction
- 00:00:33: Pete Gresik: Moratorium on Tachinate Harbor Water Treatment
- 00:07:02: Consent Agenda: Modification to Park Hiring Memo
- 00:08:34: New Business: Fourth of July Fireworks Funding Request
- 00:13:59: Parks Capital Purchases: Golf Course Equipment Upgrade
- 00:15:45: ETIP Technical Assistance Project: Distribution System Upgrades
- 00:31:50: ETIP: Load Forecast for Utility Data Analysis
- 00:35:46: ETIP: Project Details and Solution Identification
- 00:43:57: Administrator Report: MCMA Conference and Geothermal Rebate
- 00:50:57: Additional Updates: Coast Guard Review and EDA Introduction


Part: 1

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Michael Gary, myself, Bill Loves, and Ben Peters. And our city attorney is Mia Benson this evening. And that's no one else on the line, right? Okay. All right. So, there's roll call. And with that, we'll move on to open forum. Um,

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who's over here for open forum? if you would like to sit underneath that chair and make sure you introduce yourself and we all lot up to five minutes per topic for you to speak.

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>> Um, thank you. I'm Pete Gresik from G&G Septic and thanks for my concerns. I came here today to discuss the moratorum that was placed on the water treatment plant that used to accept the water from Tachinate Harbor.

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Um, I just want to give you a little background. We've been hauling the water out of there for over 20 years and it's a stable site. There's no more activity going on. So, the chances of it changing are really slim. I mean, it's it's uh,

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like I said, it's not active. There's been a lot of act lot of discussion about taking this water. I feel the decision should be environmentally driven with a little minor concern in economics. Um, Dr. Scott Warner at the water

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treatment plant. He's comfortable to continue to be able to treat the water as he had in the past with his new technology. He is meeting and exceeding the mercury limits. He's really doing a good job. A lot of improvements.

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I want some facts that I'd like you to consider about mercury. You know, it's everywhere. It comes through the most of it is airborne and it comes through the um sky. though and rainwater can be 5 to 60 parts per trillion. The average

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rainfall in this area is supposed to be around 10 parts per trillion. I'm giving you these numbers because I want you to see what the pond is actually at. Um the Grand Marray inflow is at 30 parts per trillion. The pond at Tachinite Harbor

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is two parts per trillion. So discharge into Lake Superior from the MPCA is set at 1.8. So the water in the pond is so close to being able to be dumped directly into the lake. The treatment is minimal.

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So when we haul the water, it actually dilutes the strength of mercury coming into the plant and at times it was even helpful, you know, putting more oxygen in. The MPCA approved and considered granary wastewater the best option to

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treat this water. So during the moratorum we are hauling to duth the water from the plant to WLSD and discharging it into Lake Superior. The same treatment ending up in the same

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place as it would if we hauled it here. Um and there's so much runoff in the spring of the year, so many billions of gallons, it it doesn't make any difference if it's there or here with the the small amount that we're we're putting in.

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Environmentally, my concern is that we are burning more than twice the fossil fuels driving to Duth. The heavy traffic, the construction on London Road, there's a safety, you know, brings a safety issue into it. It just isn't

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feasible to haul it that far. Um, so I'd like you to consider that. in economical advantages that I put a few notes is last year the PUC collected $53,000

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for taking this water league. The labor is minimal. There is no extra work at the plant. It comes in on the inflow. It grabs onto the the um products they have in the in the tanks. And they they're going to do a couple

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tests. So that will be there will be some testing procedures and prices. I don't know what that is. And the other thing is for economic for the city with no back haul. I used to haul water back. So when I haul sledge from the city, they were given credit

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for half of the back haul. Now that adds up to a lot of money. It's about $20,000 extra to haul the sledge from here if we don't have a back haul. Um, and with fuel going the way it is, it could even be more than that.

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The other thing I would recommend, you could raise the rate a half a cent a gallon for that leade and it would still be a good deal. That would give you about $80,000 worth of income to help with the treatment plant and the upgrades and

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just maintenance. The other thing that it's good for is it supports a full-time job in the county and two part-time people. It's a big part of my business. All fuel I purchase in the county. So,

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the trickle down effect will be felt. It helps a lot of people. I know it's not on the agenda, but I wish you I would consider some discussion to see if there's any way we could take the water here on a temporary basis. And the

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reason for that is that it's time to haul the city sludge again. And we're so short, we can't do both. We can't haul the water. And this and I I called today to get some quotes to try to get some subcontract subcontractors to help me.

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Um I should probably won't say their names, but a reputable company. He was $500 a trip more than I charge the city for hauling the sledge. So it's considerable that it would have to be.

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Um, so again, I just like to emphasize it's not being treated any differently in Duth than it is here and it's ending up in the same place. So, I guess that's all I have. I hope you'd

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consider it. And uh, if you have any questions or any concerns that you have, I'd like to can address them. I don't think there's anything in all of this for us this evening. This is still

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an in process for us and certainly anytime there's a major conversation, it needs to be an agenda item. >> Yeah. >> So, and this is not a time where we would ever be able to make >> No, I wasn't expecting you to say, can we >> No, I was just having you discuss it.

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And uh I've talked to both people on the PUC and both of them are comfortable. They both said that they think that that's where it should go. So you have some support from your PU. >> So anyway, thanks. Yep.

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>> Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else here for open forum? All right, with that we'll move on to the consent agenda. Um, any changes to the consent agenda or the regular agenda? Additions, changes at

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all? >> The park hiring memo is going to have a slight modification. We're hiring that person. Um, got to skip ahead. Sorry. >> Okay. Yes, we do need to >> Lynette who is listed on the memo as

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washroom custodian and park office clerk will actually be at the golf course. >> Oh, okay. All right. So, still within the parks group. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Okay. Golf course. All right. Um, anyone else have anything?

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All right. Would anyone like to make a motion, excuse me, for the consent agenda as amended by the change in the parks position? >> I would make that motion. >> I'll second.

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>> All right. Um all in approval for the consent agenda as amended. >> I I >> All right. Thank you. All right. Then we'll move on to new business. Um, it's already May and all those summer

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things start coming up really fast. I thought it was important um to discuss Fourth of July fireworks for this year. As you'll remember, last year the um Lions Club said they would no longer be

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involved in the Fourth of July fireworks. And um it's still purchasing and ordering is still done by Kim Lenel and he would be making one joint order for Fisherman's Picnic and Fourth of July.

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So to help speed that all along. >> Um this would be a good time to do that. And you have the updated info on some of that. >> And it's it's now occurring to me why you were asking the questions you were before the meeting because there isn't the memo in the packet.

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That's why >> now it makes a lot more sense >> why I thought I answered those questions for you. So, I'll answer them quickly now. >> Fourth of July fireworks are coming up. Last year, the change was made where the lions are no longer responsible for the

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Fourth of July fireworks. >> This year, uh, well, I'll stay with last year. What happened last year was the city paid for half of the $10,000 firework cost for the Fourth of July and Visit Cook County local businesses. as others came up with the rest. This year,

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Visit Cook County has $2,500 for the show. So, we had five, four or five that we were going to put towards it last year. This year, the price, if we want to keep the same show, is $7,500. So, that's the ask tonight is, do we

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want to fund the same show for $7,500? And if so, we will make it happen. And just a quick reminder about the rest of that process. All the fireworks for all the shows get purchased by the city. That's just needs to be purchased by the city to make it the process easiest. We

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don't actually arrange the shows. We have local pyro technicians who are licensed who work directly with the vendors to put the package together, order the materials, we get the invoice, we pay for it, they handle all the storing of it, they set the shows up. And if you recall last year, they had a

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new system of actually doing the shows as well where it's all automated. It's really quite lovely. It's a lot of fun. I thought the show went great. >> Excited to see it again. >> Yeah. >> So, >> so that's the ask. >> So, that is our ask. And that's Thank

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you for getting the numbers. >> Yeah, >> because that was the part it's like, okay, >> that was the missing. We need 5,000 of them last year. >> Yeah. And I think there was a little snafu this year >> in a certain grant application is my guess.

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>> Well, I don't really remember there being a grant application, so that was probably >> Oh, no. But you wouldn't. This was unrelated to anything that the city >> but we received notice from Vizook County about the $2,500 for the 4th of July, and it made me start asking some

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questions about, well, how did this get on the table at all? Um, so next year I think we'll probably be on the table ourselves with an application. >> Yeah. >> Got it. >> Just to handle it completely. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. >> So it'll be a bit different.

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>> And so thank you Visa County for >> Yes. >> coming up with that without us asking. >> So much appreciated. >> So any thoughts? >> I mean I would make a motion to approve

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it. I think hopefully we'll have more input next time around, but it does seem like, you know, it is a benefit for the whole community. So, we haven't and we haven't really been doing it, you know, before now. So,

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and that seems like a city thing. >> Okay. Is that a formal motion? Oh, >> that would be my motion. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I'll second. I'll support that. >> Okay. Any thoughtsful? >> No, I I think we have to make it happen,

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but we need to try and do better in the future years. >> Yeah, >> it it really was something that happened with total confusion that had nothing to do with us. >> Yeah. >> So, we Yeah. >> Yeah.

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many many many years to see that you know maybe not for the Fourth of July but fisherman's picnic how that could be you know lodging dollars could should be used for that right I mean or could be >> so that would make a lot of sense

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>> and I would I kind of thought about last year's running late but I would like to somehow start a few activities here for Fourth of July we used to at least have a kitty bike parade for heaven's sakes and we don't really do anything, but it takes a little bit of planning and thinking. I don't know if it's too late,

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but um just to have a few things. There's plenty of people who know nothing about Tafty that are here in town and ask like, "What you got going on for the day?" And we don't really do, but anyways. Okay, that's an aside on

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that. So, all in favor and approval for 7,500 to be spent for Fourth of July fireworks, >> I I >> I All right. Very good. Thank you. Um, parks capital purchases. And that

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would be page 18. >> Now, I kind of wish Craig was here. Yeah, I was just saying I think the premise here is that these were discussed in detail at the park board and they have a recommendation in front of you. So y

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>> this is really for the golf course these capital purchases and um trying to maintain the facilities up there using the same uh equipment that we have been using and this grinder is

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is the best deal we're going to find and it really does allow Paul to do a great job maintaining the grass up there by keeping the reel sharp. So, we we definitely want to do that. And then the next one, there was some back and forth on whether or not we were going to be able to buy some used carts on an

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opportunity that Paul had in front of him. He he presented that to you when when I think when Dave was here for his report, and those disappeared. And so, this was our backup plan is kind of same budget. We're going to buy less carts, but they're going to be brand new.

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>> So, um please approve both of these purchases. >> Yeah. Motion to approve the uh parks capital purchases as presented. >> Yeah, I'll second that. >> Right. Any further questions or discussions?

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>> All right. All in favor of the capital equipment purchases for Glunt Flint Hills Golf Course. >> I I unanimous. Okay. That brings us up to our ETIP technical assistance project.

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>> That's right. the feature item on the agenda tonight. Shane's going to be going through a presentation. There's a detailed document in the packet for folks to look at. This is the actual technical scope of work that we've been discussing and have tenatively agreed

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to. But what we have for the meeting is a brief slideshow that's designed more to talk to the public about what this project is. So, we're going to go through that. Shane's going to lead us and please stop with any questions that

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folks might have. If anybody really wants to stare at these slides closer, we can send you a meeting link and you can join and watch. Yeah. So, I have the fun job of giving someone else's slides. These were created by our

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ETIP group. So the city is working on this project with uh the department of energy um one of the national labs in our case it's the Berkeley National Lab and then we have a regional partner and our

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regional partner is Slipstream and we've been meeting with them twice a month January February March and I think we had one meeting in April kind of uh putting the answering the initial questions, putting the scope work

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together, and we're just about to dig into the actual project, which is to answer the question of how do we plan for making upgrades to our distribution

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system, the utilities distribution system, and do that in a way that we can anticipate future load growth and meet some of our energy goals and plan and

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and be resilient and to whether it's outages or weather or just what what how can we learn more about the distribution system. So it is a national program EIP

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easier way to say it than EIP or or what does it actually stand for? um probably on the last slide >> energy >> the secret >> energy and technical we'll figure it out but EIP uh is the government's acronym

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for it and it's run out of the national lab of the Rockies that's the >> that's the hub for it that that lab used to be called ENL which in this slide it's still called ENL but uh it's a pretty select program there's only a

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handful of small communities that that get this grant each year. We are on there are two tracks. We're on the technical deep dive track. So longer timeline, much more involved process. They're not helping us figure

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out what we need to know. We know what we need to know and and they're going to get answers for us. And this slide, you know, how did we get here is an interesting one. We wrote a grant to study the distribution system

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and it was a state level grant through the University of Minnesota. Uh, and we were invited to apply for that grant. And then when we submitted our proposal, they said, "We're going to have a grad student work on this and they're not ready. This is

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too big." And that project got passed around and eventually we were invited to apply to the ETIP program. And with the national labs and their scientists, they're definitely capable of taking on this question. And in the

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meetings that we've been having with them, it's pretty exciting the amount of knowledge and experience and inquisitiveness that they're bringing to the to the table. So, it's an exciting it's like it's really exciting that that

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Grand Marray is part of this this national program. This pretty selective competitive our project was compelling enough for them to want to take it on. So, we'll back up a little bit and kind of talk about where the project fits in

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with the greater scope of the grid. And we've got Gramate Public Utilities is we're all the way on the distribution side of that slide. Simp covers generation for us. And then

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transmission is a complex issue that we'll just say we're not in charge of transmission. >> Simpa covers that too. >> Simpa covers that too, but there's probably more involvement to it. And and and then you get to us and

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this uh this is just showing that supply is coming from generation. Everything else is using that electricity. So there's there's use at the transmission level, there's line loss, there's and

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then end use distribution, our customers and and um commercial customers and and residential customers. >> My favorite part about this slide is the factories. >> Yeah, I like that. >> That represents the city of Grammar. Three factories.

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>> Yeah. So our grid, our distribution system, we're fed by the single line that's coming up the shore. It's just one line. There's no redundancy in it. It comes to the substation up at the top of the hill.

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And then on that substation, there are four circuits, two of which are live, and the hospital circuit and the downtown circuit. And everyone every one of our customers is connected to one of those two separately wired circuits. Uh

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and yeah and then it feeds the customers from there. Um like I said single giving someone else's presentation single transmission line coming into our distribution system. And

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I guess I'd point out that in this slide it it is showing that we do have our own generation the power plant up there. It's a diesel power plant. If there's some issue with the transmission line, whether it's planned

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outage or it's down for some reason, we can disconnect from the transmission line and run the power plant and it powers the whole city as long as we have diesel and as long as it's operational and we can we can just be a little island and run it, which is very unique

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and to a to a utility to be able to just we're small enough but yet have this facility and we can run the the facility when we need to um or when Simpa calls on it, we have a capacity um contract with them.

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So, yeah, like I said, two circuits feeding the city. And one of the kind of specific questions that this project is going to consider is would it be beneficial to us to rewire and add in a third circuit? We've

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got the space at the at the substation. We could add a third circuit into our distribution system. Who should we put on that circuit? Should it just be essentials? Should it be just should we distribute distribute

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all of the power evenly between the three circuits? This is a question that EIP's going to help us ask. They're going to use utility information and and modeling to help us figure out what is the best way to go if we should add a

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third circuit. I mean maybe the answer is we we shouldn't and that our load is evenly distributed well enough on those two circuits and that we have enough um capacity on those circuits to continue to operate. >> So adding a third one simply is in is

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that for potential growth >> or it's for it could be for potential growth. It could be for resilience. If a whole circuit goes down or or part of a circuit goes down, you got three circuits less less customers on each

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circuit. >> Okay? >> Each of our circuits is fused as well. And when there's a fault, >> the fault goes back to the next fuse and and opens it. So that if it fault is at the end of the line, the whole circuit's not affected. Just the end of the line

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is affected. But if the fault is at the beginning of the line, the whole thing might be affected. And if the fault's big enough and we don't know where it is, it can affect the whole line. And so a recent wintertime outage was like that where a significant chunk of one of our circuits was out for a period of time

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and we didn't have uh we we it took some time to figure out where the fault was because it was underground. And so this was one of the origin stories of our search here and our questions is is is there a way to build more resiliency into the system so that we can insulate

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our customers from potential outages like that and maybe if we split them up into smaller groups add a circuit would be one way to do that. >> Right. And so when you were saying the hospital line that's just the name of the line. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's >> it's a weird circuit because it

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literally goes um >> from a substation up to County Road 7 and then east and everything east of town, but it also goes down to Highway 61 and west and everything west of town. So that's the hospital circuit, but it is >> Does it go to the hospital?

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>> It does. Good. >> And you're going, you know where that is? >> Yeah, we were part of that problem. Yeah, >> we have a generator that runs the whole facility, but it's it was kind of mysterious to

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me. So, I went around, I saw where the line men were, then I I kind of figured it out. >> Yeah. >> As to, you know, what what happened where and potentially how long. >> Okay. >> So, this is this is getting I'm getting

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this is the Christmas tree lights. you could narrow it down faster. You would have lights go back at the same time. >> Anyways, >> kind of. Yeah. >> So, we spent some time in these meetings

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in these initial meetings with the the whole ETIP team and just just developing goals for the project. What do we want to accomplish? And, you know, here we go. the the goals that we want to accomplish um they're associated with

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the climate action plan. They're they're for anticipating load growth, whether that's new customers or customers using more electricity or transitioning more of their electric usage or just their their lives to electric, you know, I mean, if people

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are getting electric vehicles or if they're transitioning to electric heat or just using more electricity in general, understanding that that's going to have an impact on our system. Um, and then

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a big part of this is how can we be more resilient cuz we are remote and we do get pretty intense winter storms. We get summer storms too, but um it's it's those super windy winter storms uh when

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everyone is running as as much as they can. you know, it's it the power goes out when people are running their stuff full boore and that's that's when you get the outage and that's when the guys are out digging in in the mud. Well, in the frozen ground in the middle of the night

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when it's 20 below and so if they don't have to do that, that's ideal. So this slide is just kind of demonstrating that we do need to meet demand no matter what the demand is. If if people are

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going to be electrifying and using more power, we've got to step up our infrastructure so that it can it can meet that demand. And and but that doesn't mean we go and just okay let's just replace every transformer with a

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huge transformer so that nobody's you know nobody's power goes out. Uh it has to be done in a in a in a more economical way than that. uh and so how do you plan for upgrading the system

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that we have which is a complex system and a large system given the staff that we have three linemen and so yeah taking all of those things into account for planning for the future and

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that's that's the origin story for the other part of this original grant was asking ourselves that question the well what if we get a lot of at home car charging stations, what effect would that have on our grid? And you know, it

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really fine grained like this block, what effect would it have? Or overall in the circuit, what effect would that have? And asking those questions kind of led into what the tool is that they're going to be developing for us. And the idea is that it'll be about

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predicting load growth and then planning for load growth. So also exciting. Yeah. And so one of the the deliverables for this grant is a a load forecast and

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it's these are examples. This they haven't done the load forecast yet, but we're going to give them as much utility data as we can and it will be scrubbed of confidential information. It will just have energy usage amounts and and

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we'll be able to see, you know, year-over-year because we do have quite a bit of util. We have we have a lot of data that our meters are collecting constantly just collecting data and, you know, so graph on the left, we'll be able to see year-over-year how much

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energy usage is changing and how much demand is changing. And you know energy usage is just kilowatt hours used by customers. In this graph it's gawatt hours which is a huge number. Ours won't

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have we won't go to gigawatts. >> Probably not. >> Probably not. Uh and then yeah, we'll we'll also be able to know peak demand where those where those peaks uh are happening if our if our peaks are

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growing year-over-year uh or not. And that'll help us understand how energy is being used. And then graph on the right is, you know, hours of the day, when are people using energy? This is is just an example, but

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you know, in this graph, it's like, okay, people are waking up and starting to use power at about seven and then they go to work and then at between 3 and 7 p.m. they're coming home and they're using power and so usage goes up and peaks

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spikes at that time. I just want to pause for any questions on the load forecast because it's kind of the the base of everything that we build towards in the project. >> Do do they are they able to say to that you

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need you know a population growth of you know a thousand people to really have much of an impact on your system. You know what I mean? Like is there a point where it's like oh we got a hundred new people whatever right? But then they get to this point like, oh no, that really

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does make a >> we want to ask that question at different levels. So systemwide, we want to understand when are we going to hit some capacity issues, but even more importantly in localized areas, we want

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to understand, okay, if we've got a transformer group here that has this many houses on it, what if it has this many houses on it? And we'll have a few scenarios that we'll be testing and they'll be something like that. What if we added 200 homes? What if we added 200

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more apartment units? What, you know, what does that look like? And I don't know what those scenarios are going to be yet, but that's the idea of develop the tool and then test it out using that kind of questioning. And then it's and maybe this comes up

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later, but so here's us, but we're surrounded by the whole county. And then of course the tribe at the very end of the line. How much of even maybe none of this affects them or at some point does some of it or just the fact that it's all one

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line that comes up and feeds us all. Does that have any impact in any of this kind of work? I don't think the work we're going to do for our own load um forecasting is something that would affect

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those other users. Um unless our forecast would predict something where the transmission line itself would be put to the test, but I don't I don't even think we're going to ask those questions. Will the work would be useful to our neighbors is a different question. And I think we'd love to share whatever we

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learn with uh our neighbors in Arrowhead and and Ingram Portage. And you know, this is open book. We want to be as beneficial as we can be and and share all this knowledge. >> Yeah. You know, the tribe's busy doing

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things about resiliency and all of that as well. I mean, like you say, is it a good opportunity for sharing and learning about informed decisions? Yeah, I think

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when you get outside of our substation and start talking about the transmission line, I think we did we determined that it's got plenty of capacity for what it needs to serve as far as like is it giving us enough electricity for what the demand is here. You know, outside of

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our system, we're super small and we just don't use hardly any power at all. like compared to the other simple cities where we don't even equal 1% of their entire gener like we're just so small. But then once we get inside of our system and

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look at from the substation to our customers, then it's just becomes a normal distribution system of well, we do have this infrastructure in place and how do we account for load growth and and

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resilience? But outside of us, we're tiny but not insignificant. We hope that >> so going into a few slides here of what are the what is the project going to

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actually do and the first one we've been talking about load forecast. We're going to identify how is the load going to grow or change determine what kind of data they need. They will the Berkeley lab scientists and and the ETIP team

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they'll use the data they'll run some models. they will give us a a load forecasting tool that we can use into the future. Not the the analogy we've been using throughout the the process is they've been asking do you want a fish

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or do you want a fishing pole? And the load forecasting tool is definitely a fishing pole that we can use to catch a fish instead of just get the fish. um they don't know yet what that tool is going to be. So that's early days,

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right? We know what we wanted to do. We've talked about some options for it. They'll look at existing programs that are is there anything that's of the right price and scale that might work for this or is this an Excel spreadsheet? It could be as simple as that although I'm sure it won't be a

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simple one. Um but that's kind of the next step is take a look at the data and then start trying to figure out which tool is going to be the right one to use here. >> Yeah. So that'll be the load forecasting tool and then the needs assessment aspect is more the outside of the load

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forecast like what do we want to accomplish for reliability? What are our goals for reliability? What are our goals for resilience and sustainability? So, this part is yeah is going to be

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more of a framework. It's not so much like plug it in and go. It's using what we need, the city's needs are to upgrade the distribution system. And

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this one we'll learn a lot about as we as we continue on the process and and learn about the system itself and using the information from the load forecast and then the solution identification aspect. They're going to give us some solutions

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to plan for our distribution system plan, future infrastructure um investments and help us develop. They'll have some scenarios that they develop that will

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help us make planning decisions. We want the fish and the fishing pole this time. We there was some conversation and when we think about the resources most of the resources will be used to develop the planning tool and then a smaller amount will be used to do

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the needs assessment and an even smaller amount will be used to come up with a solutions conversation. And we didn't want there to be just here's how you do it now go do it. We also wanted to try to benefit from outside knowledge and expertise and get a few ideas seated

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into that conversation in the beginning. I'm approaching the end of my slideshow. What we're already on. The first step is to update update with milestones. The scope of work was the first milestone to accomplish and the next step is

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they will ask us for lots and lots of data and we will help them get that data and then they'll be building that load forecasting tool and yeah the timeline again is two years and I think the clock started running in January.

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So it's a long-term project. They're going to they're going to Yeah, it's a deep dive project. Um, we weren't given a number for how much the grant is, but we were granted $50,000

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to cover staff time that we put into this project. But like the Berkeley Lab and National Lab of the Rockies and Slipstream, we don't have we don't even have the budget for what they're going to spend on this. We were curious and we asked

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for that earlier on and there was some conversation about whether they could tell us >> or whether they even knew. >> But I think we did agree it was going to be somewhere in the realm of like $350,000. So not insignificant. Quite a bit of

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work that is to our benefit. That's great. >> Um, so when you look at your project schedule, do you guys meet in a regular basis or is this part of where you get them their data and then they'll be busy for a while and you won't do much until

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you hear back? Is it that sort of a >> We were meeting twice a month early on. We're gonna it's gonna become probably more like once a month >> for the next little while as they get the data and then it's it's it's dynamic but >> it's really nice to have I mean it's

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it's a little confusing to have so many layers of like we've got the national lab we've got flipstream we've got um and then Berkeley Labs it's but lots of people thinking about it and keeping it on track >> and I'm not sure I'm sure well I'm not

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sure that our science scientists have other they they must have other projects, but um I'm sure they do. >> Yeah, it's sure a lot that they're going to be doing for us. So, >> okay. So, we should bas basically say

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that we are fortunate. Is that right? >> To have this handed to us in a sense, not that you didn't make application, but to have it get escalated to a point of We're fortunate, yes, that we that we met all the

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requirements for this because it's yeah, it's rural, small, coastal, and then like Great Lakes qualify as coastal. But if we just happen to not be one of those three things, then we don't qualify for it. But there are lots of cities like that in the United States and lots in

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Alaska. I can go back to that slide, but they were showing previous years um that the that the project previous iterations of it and it's Yeah, it's completely national. Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Great Lakes >> up and down both coasts. Yeah.

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>> Well, kind of neat. So, you'll just come back later on with updates. >> Yeah, when we have updates, we'll come back and keep you informed. So, this project really fits nicely into two of our citywide goals that we've been working on. The capital improvement

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planning. This is exactly what this is. >> And it's at a richly detailed level a capital improvement planning effort for the utility for the electric utility. >> It's also a GIS project. Although they're not developing a GIS system for

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us, we have wanted to make sure that their tools are geographically coded, that we can understand them geographically, that the planning tool isn't just a table in a spreadsheet, but that it's also able to use maps. I don't

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know how that's going to happen yet, but that's what I see this um coming. And so that's exciting. And really two great grantf funded projects going on right now. This one and the resilient wastewater

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project that we agreed to the MPCA grant agreement with last meeting. Uh this can be a full year of some work on these issues. >> Anyone else have questions? >> Thank you. >> What's that?

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>> Shame. Yeah. We should all work. >> It's likely an Excel. >> But maybe. >> Yeah, it's likely an Excel. I think unless they find an offtheshelf that's not too expensive that works. And there could be.

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>> Yeah. It's always surprising to me how there are literally thousands of municipal utilities all doing the same business and yet so many of the tools we use are one-offs that are just for us >> or our needs are slightly different in a

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way that makes it inconvenient to have a tool >> so won't surprise me if it's an Excel spreadsheet that they just built for us. Um, so I I was going to ask, but what about the So we've got diesel up there for the >> We do

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>> the generator. How long How long do we have usually? I mean, you know, >> until the diesel runs out >> like Yeah. until it just >> uh about two days. >> Okay. >> Just curious about that. >> Yeah. So, usually if there's an

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emergency, uh, the procedure for us is the plant goes on and somebody's calling the fuel company and dispatching trucks. Got it. Pretty quick. >> How'd that work when the ash pile let loose?

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>> When the ash pile let loose, uh, our plan was built in 2003. So, no ash piles in its history. Plus, uh we actually did have suppliers

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from Thunder Bay for quite a time. That's interesting. Thunder Bay. All right. On to administrator report. As I mentioned last meeting, I had the privilege of attending the MCMA conference last week

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at Madden's Resort with 275 of my colleagues, which is a record attendance. Um, the weather wasn't spectacular, but being together was. So, I'll just give two brief things. One of the presentations was called a nice

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bike. That's the name of a book that the speaker wrote and it's about making connections with people by noticing what's important to them and complimenting it basically. It's as simple as that. >> Uh as opposed to asking inquisitive

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questions about their life to just notice them first, which I thought was a good spin on >> how that issue's been brought up in other trainings with me and I I appreciated that. Um and then a sleep expert, a doctor who is a sleep expert

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gave a a presentation as well, which is really interesting. And the idea is that sleep is one of the three legs of your health stool with nutrition and exercise and equally as important and rarely ever talked about. like certainly not on the

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same level as a diet and exercise and yet critical to health outcomes and dispel the number of myths about things. Um we all do probably need seven or eight hours of sleep a night even if we don't think we do. This country is

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chronically chronically undersleeping >> and uh it is having an effect on us. So and of course she's a doctor as well. also was talking a lot about stories of people who came in with problems and had them fixed and had terrific outcomes.

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But there's some things we can do. Uh one of them is this the blue screen for a couple hours before you sleep. It's not good for sleep. Uh another one is caffeine which we are it's our number one drug. Um it

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affects sleep. Alcohol affects sleep. all these things do and really our bodies learn very very quickly to adapt to patterns and so just establishing some patterns about sleeping for a couple of days and your body gets used

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to it and and can be on board. So if anybody is thinking yes I could use some more sleep you have this power to make these choices and this doctor recommends that we do. I'd say uh the most powerful thing about this

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conference is the ability to connect with your peers. I met with two of them to talk about developing some leadership and team building training for our staff here which we're continuing to work on. Uh I got the tip from this organization. They

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have senior leadership that is people that are retired and and serving as adviserss. And they said talk to these five people. And then one of those people said, "I'm probably not the guy to talk to this person. She's the one you want to do." So those sort of connections are super valuable. And then

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I was a connection like that for a colleague as well who said who's curious about our reimbursement for uh geothermal and has their own geothermal project but doesn't know how to do the tax thing, which we didn't either. And I

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said, "Well, hey, we got a guy." and this fiveminute conversation could be the most valuable thing that he had at this conference. So, it's just really critical that we continue to make those connections and random organic things that turn out to be super valuable.

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Thanks for the opportunity. I'm going to keep going. >> Great. >> And speaking of, we have now submitted the paperwork for our tax rebate. And does anybody remember what the number was going to

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be? >> Thought I did, wasn't it? 6 >> 636. >> Well, that was the number of what we said it was going to cost, >> but not what we were going to get back. >> Oh. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Was it half that, wasn't it? >> It It's uh I think it was like 270.

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>> Yeah. >> And it's about 380 is what we're actually submitting for. >> So, we don't have it yet. Obviously, it's not in our hands, but we uh hired the right people, filled all the right paperwork. Our engineers and these tax

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consultants did a ton of work with MGAF to actually dig through and identify all the parts of the project that could potentially be related to the geothermal heating system. And all that work is going to bear fruit for us. So, >> awesome. >> It's great.

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>> That's great. >> Nice. And I'll pass the baton. Oh, >> said. Okay. >> I had three last day. >> Okay. >> I don't have anything either.

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>> Holy smokes. It's >> all on you. >> Bunch of little fans in here, huh? >> Oh, is it basketball? All right. I only have one thing. So, I did my every few months um email out to the Coast Guard

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contact and got an answer from him. And you maybe knew this and I forgot, but um they did finish they were here and did their environmental review last fall before the weather got bad. So, they are completely done with that except for writing up the final report, but you

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know, they were here and did the work. So, he said they're finishing all of that, getting him written, and then they'll have to get their approvals with an S. Um, but then he said the next step will be the title transferring process with us. So, that was a great update on

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that. Um, a little conversation and well, two things. So, I just spoke with Gary Latz and he said at the heights there are only five apartments left and several of those are studios which could be a little bit harder to do. So, that

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was good to hear. And if anyone has not yet met our new EDA director, no. >> Lucas, have you all met Lucas Wakefield? >> I don't think so. I have. >> Come on up, Lucas. Say hello. Um, and you had the update on the

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apartment. No, you moved into that one into the Heights, but you told me the Gunflint View was full except for their >> they they at the time that I was applying for a space at the Heights, Gunflint View had two rental assistance

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units left and no market rate left. So, >> but when I moved in, the Heights was only half full. So, you have more updated information than I do. >> Not fast. >> I have to press about five o'clock. >> Yeah.

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>> Anyways, >> good. >> Well, anyway, really quickly, if I can, um, my name is Luke Wakefield. I am the new uh, Cook County Grand Marray Joint Economic Development Authority Director. really happy to be here and wanted to come to the meeting tonight and

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introduce myself and hear about the work you guys are doing and see where maybe I can contribute some efforts. So >> yeah, thank you. >> Well, okay, Mike and I have met with this. So if you

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want to give a quick intro around the room. >> Oh, hi Gary or Michael Gary >> there. Sorry. Uh, obviously I'm on the city council. I I work up at the clinic and yeah, I'm on planning and zoning with Ben.

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>> So, fantastic. >> Bill Wis, city council, work at the hospital. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Ben Peters, uh, city council, planning, zoning, um, insurance agency in town, uh, major

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moose motel and just bought trailside resort cabins up the road. Um, so small business owner. >> Fantastic. >> Yeah, that's great. Well, it's a pleasure. Thank you guys for for having me and if you have any questions for me, please let me know. But >> thank you for giving me the time to

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introduce myself >> for meeting you. >> Thanks for coming, Lucas. >> Thank you, Lucas. >> All right. So, I guess that's it. >> Yeah. >> I didn't have any meetings. All right. Thanks, everybody.

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Thanks, Mia. >> Thanks, everybody. Have a good night. >> Yeah.