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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=I7zx3DOFEJo

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I'll call to order the public utilities commission meeting uh for Thursday, April 28th, 2026. Uh we'll get into our agenda. The first item is our consent agenda. I don't think there's any discussion unless there is from the commissioners. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion. >> I'll make a motion to accept the consent

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agenda. Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Not. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, now we get into employee of the month. >> Yeah. Thank you, uh, Commissioner

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President, uh, commission. I'd like to, uh, nominate Ann Krent as employee of the month. Um, and joined the PUC in October of 2025. So, a recent employee coming from Brown County. She's responsible for processing electric distributions, work orders, invoices,

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purchase orders, um trouble tickets, public interface, and much more. She kind of uh wears a lot of hats. Um as she continues to learn and master her responsibilities and routinely suggests ideas of how and how processes and communication can be improved, always with an eye towards customer service and

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organizational efficiency. Most recently, uh she took on the challenge of streamlining the residential and commercial service request process. Um, Ann is the kind of person that not only comes up with an idea, but takes action to turn those ideas into reality. Her improvement-minded, actionoriented

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disposition is a real asset, and I am very pleased to recommend her as employee of the month. >> Excellent. I'll make a motion to recognize Anne Gronnard as employee of the month for March 2026. >> I'll second that. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion?

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If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Ann. Next up, 2.2 annual distribution energy resources. Derek, good evening, commissioners. Uh, Derek

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Nelson, energy services representative. Um, so what you have before you is what's called the distributed energy resources annual reporting. Uh, there's four filings within the whole report. In years past, all the filings went to the Department of Commerce to then uh, you

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know, go to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. At some point, you know, four or five years ago, they split some of the filings up where some of those could be um given to a local governing body such as the public utilities commission. I submit

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everything still to the Department of Commerce and I bring it here just to cover the basis. Since things change from year to year, it's just easier to do both. So, this is something I bring to you um yearly. It gets filed around by March 1st of each year. What this

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report um shows, there's different filings. There's four different filings. It lists um all locations within from the prior year that have been submitted uh applications that have been submitted, withdrawn, interconnected, uh active applications, and then of course

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everything from prior years is within that report. Along with that is our average energy retail rate which would be the net energy billing for any location that's 40KW or lower and then our avoided cost rate for any location

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that's interconnected that does not meet the net energy billing. So, uh, attached to the agenda item is obviously the summary of the agenda, which I'm sure you've had a chance to look at, and then all the filings that were reported to

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the state, such as uh the cogen power production rate, which lists all that um all the rates for interconnected uh facilities, and then also a PDF of an additional report that gets sent to the

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state listing all those locations. Um so we have 37 active locations in Newam that are about net total of around 406 uh kilowatts. Um and then also there's also you know if there's things that got

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decommissioned or withdrawn through past years also and things can get with withdrawn for numerous reasons. Um there's some on this report um that seem extremely high. So it could even be they submitted and paid for an application and they just totally um put the wrong

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information. So um as you can see there's also some other graphs um that we have to report such as the estimated uh energy production of those facilities. So this is just kind of a simple algorithm that we use to calculate the KW of those facilities. So

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it's not actual meter data. It's just based off the system size and some other factors. And then I have it broken down into how many there are of each kind of size throughout the community. The largest being a 50KW, which is the EDA,

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EDDD's um EDA's uh Broadway house on 300 North Broadway. and then a graph that kind of shows from year to year um total system sizes from year to year uh number of systems submitted and interconnected

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yearly and things like that. So yeah, any questions? >> Looks like it fell off quite a bit. There's only one that >> Yeah, I mean as it kind of states, excuse me, it's anywhere from average is zero to three. you know, we could get zero for a few years and we could get

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>> seven or eight the next year. It kind of depends on, you know, people seeing other people doing it maybe and then looking into it and, you know, acting on that that decision. >> I don't have anything further. >> I'll entertain a motion unless there's

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some questions. I'll make a motion to receive an order file the annual distribution distributed energy resource interconnection report. Als >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh, is there any further discussion?

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>> If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Next up is Dan and electric system reliability. >> Yeah. Hello, commissioners. that time of year again where we're doing our re reliability indexes for the electric

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distribution system. Good news is is we've actually changed it a little bit this year to make it hopefully a little bit more well new anyway. Again, this is is the power where you where you need it when you need it is the gist of the whole deal. Um

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this is one way to benchmark ourselves against our colleagues and We'll call them competitors or the industrial or the investor owns. This is we currently use APA is power track. It used to be e rellia tracker

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that provides this little report and you see the information about that on the screen. Um just as a summary this is the equation on each one of these on how they're developed. It's a for like safety is a total number of outages over

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the total number of customers. Sad is the sum of all outage time. So it's not the number of customers. It's how long everybody was out divided by the customers. And then the sum of outage time divided by total number of outages

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is the Katy. Those the top three are the three main ones everybody really looks at. And then average service system average service availability index is just that is what's the average of how often you are up and available for the

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customer to be used. Um and this is right out of the e-re tracker report. This is where they compare us. Again we're region three just so you have some background who we're comparing them ourselves. So it's not somebody in Florida or Texas or

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whatever. So safety again this year we did really really good. You can see on the on the bar graph there we're way way down. One thing to always remember with new we've got a very small footprint. So one major

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weather event or something can really throw us into a you know in a bad way. You can see in this graph here in 10 I believe that was before I come to town here. We had a major weather event. That's why it was so crazy high. In

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2014, we had a squirrel take down a substation and caused all kinds of havoc. So that was why we got a big spike there. And in 19, we had a rabbit that was fine nice enough to take down a major switch gear and affect a whole bunch of people. So it wasn't for the

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wildlife, we'd look pretty good. Sadi, again, we're looking really good compared to all our customers. Again, though, always remember, we're one bad weather event away from serious, but

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we're holding our own. You look at the graph there. And some things you'll notice certain people quit having to supply their safety SDK to the PUC and stuff. That's why like Minnesota and Ottertale Power aren't on there anymore. They've kind of buried it in their

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documentation. and I've not been able to find it in a public format. Katie, again, we're really looking wonderful compared to our colleagues again. It's almost, knock on wood, it's

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that good. Next year probably won't be that good. So, um, the gist of this one, this slide is 99.999% of the time when you hit the light switch, the lights comes on. It's very

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seldom, but they do not come on in the city of New Orleans. Notable outages, and this is interesting if you look at it, like the February 6th one had 939 customers. If that outage wouldn't have

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happened, we would have had like nothing to talk about today because you look at the number two was 17 customers. So, one or two big outages drives a lot, but we are we had a total of I think six. I always take the top four to bring to the

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commission. And you look at number four, there's 10 customers for that's pretty minor. I'll take that every year. Um, here's just a list of the things that we do. Trying to reduce our outages,

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replacing components, cables, tree trimming in the winter months. That's what our crew is doing. It's too frozen to work underground. We're testing our We got a regular program on testing poles, but we do have above ground, so we don't have rotten poles that are failing. We don't know about. And 5-year

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testing on breakers, switches, and relays. We just literally got done doing that this year. and everything did went good this year. Um, these are completed projects that So, Oops, sorry. Um, replacement of the

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relays. We wrapped that up. Replacing the breakers. Two of three are done now in Center Street. This fall when we do that transformer that'll be coming shortly will be the third one for Center Street. Then we have two more left to do

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in Southside that I didn't put on here. That's in the future. We've replaced all the RTUs throughout the system. Future projects. Well, there's the transformer. Uh power plant. We're in process of

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doing some upgrades and some switch gear, some of which we will be talking about later. And we're working towards a new substation up there by the airport area. Uh different keys again, planning and

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design plan maintenance. We're always talking to you about something. 20-year system plans on the 20-year system plans we do every 10 years. Basically, it's a fresh look as we work our way through the list. They never actually go 20 years. It's just keep looking. But it's

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a 20-year look ahead. We build in a lot of redundancy underground components and SCADA systems. Um, also knowledgeable operators with the people on call with the power plant and our

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alignment and stuff. We always having training. We've got a backup feed on 23rd north and back up by our internal generation again at the power plant. We have 21 megawatts of steam about 50

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megawatts of at the dual oil turbines. Again, pre preventive maintenance replace. Oh, I went through that slide. Sorry. Conclusions. We're very reliable, better than most in the region, including vestrons.

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We've received an award for uh 6 years from American Public Power. And just as a side note, would you like to know when we signed up for ERIAT tracker? would be 2018 because we'd probably have a lot more years of that award if we would have signed up for ER reliive tracker

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sooner. So with that, any questions for everyone for me? >> No. Great job. Yeah, looks good. I will make the motion to receive an oral order filed the report regarding

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new electric system reliability standards and performances for 2025 in acknowledgement of the 2025 certificate of excellence and reliability from the American Public Power Association. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a

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second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. I >> opposed. Motion carries. Um next up is a PPA um certificate of excellence and reliability. >> Commission President Commissioners um associated with the report that Mr.

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Persig just gave um new is awarded a certificate of excellence for reliable performance from the American Public Powder Association. Um this is based on that incredible performance that that Dan outlined in that presentation that you just saw. Um, this is essentially

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just uh reviewing, receiving, and order filing um that certificate on behalf of the city. >> It just does say that we've got a pretty reliable service going on out there. So, it this reassures what we're doing. So, thanks Dan. >> Thank you.

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>> And I if I could just make a mention that is I I really want to highlight that this is a a huge team effort. Um we have our um power generation and power distribution teams that are out there working hard every single day 247. Um

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whether it's you know rain or shine kind of a little bit like the postal service no matter what the weather is doing the job and um it really is absolutely incredible when you see the numbers and there are a lot of pages behind that report that are in here that if you read it you'll see that um new is very near

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the top in in reliable performance. So, we have an incredible level of service for um what we have and um I just want to say kudos to the the staff. They're the ones that ultimately make this happen. >> Fantastic. >> Agreed. >> Right. I'll entertain a motion.

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>> I'll make a motion to receive an order filed the award from American Public Power Association to the Newm Public Utilities Electric Distribution Department of the Certificate of Excellence in Reliability for 2025.

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A second. >> Right. There's a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Dan, you're up again on switch gear. >> Yeah, this is u

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replacing two of the relays in the power plant switch gear, which we just mentioned in the moment ago. This project is part of the eight breakers that you all approved or received an order filed last month. Um

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we got discount pricing by buying a block of them. This would be to install two of the breakers and the relays that are associated with them. We'll be eliminating several relays and replacing one relay now goes to each breaker. Uh

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one of the breakers I think has four relays currently and the other one has three. So we get some it's not one to one we do eliminate a bunch and this would be the engineering the install everything else to get that two bays done of that switch gear of the eight we've talked about in the past

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and one of the budgeting items to mention is that yes we spent 307,000 I think I have it here somewhere already and we only had budgeted 215 we had another 92,100

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that means we are about 185,000 over budget. Well, the power plant just last month also um sold 5 megawatts capacity for $390,000. We just received those proceeds. This is

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unbudgeted revenue. So, we're asking if we can maybe flex 190 of that to keep on going with these projects and get done with this as soon as we can. That leaves 200,000 yet that no that's still

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unbudgeted revenue. And as a side note, the auction auction just happened I think Monday and we haven't heard the results. Remember we had about another five six megawws for most seasons still left over. So we'll hopefully be seeing

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some more pretty good revenue. Any questions? I don't recall selling before did we normally auction off? >> We used to we always sell our excess but prices used to be nobody cared. It was

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so small of money but recent with the retirement of coal units and some of the data centers and all the demand on the electrical grid. Suddenly our capacity is at a premium. >> Good. >> So we're kind of fortunate right now in cashing that dividend. >> Yeah. I don't recall the the dollar

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values being this high before. No, it was pretty minimal. >> Yeah, take it. >> All right. I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to accept the proposal from Power System Engineering Incorporated for engineering and

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construction support for the relay replacement for 331A and 331WC in the amount of $92,100. >> I'll second that. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I.

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>> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Um, next up 3.2 is Senator Substation Firewall. >> This, um, is in support of the transformer that we have ordered that's supposed to be here right about Labor

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Day. Our goal is to get that installed in the month of October. Um, with the lead time on this firewall, we we normally would put this in the bid for the contractor as part of their ancillary, but with this lead time to

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have our schedule met to get this done in October, the we have to order the firewall as the owner to keep things trucking. We have a walk through tomorrow to for our pre-bid selection of

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the contractor to install the substation and the breaker. We're replacing a breaker at that time. Also, um this firewall is needed because our site

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constraints. We built our two transformers way too close together years ago. There's no way to spread them out with this footprint with structural steel and just the land we have. So this is a best management practice for the

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substation transformer. >> Is it required? >> It the most insurance is required and it is a best management practice. So we elected not to ask the insurance just go ahead

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and do it. and we have to file sorry but um to have our outage 120 days ahead of schedule. So we're firming up our dates right now to make October work and that's because this is all tied to generator number

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seven which we have in the market and that's a ISO requirement. We give them 120 days warning. Any more questions or have I confused everyone? No, no, I'm good. >> I'll make the motion to authorize city

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manager to accept the quote from Dura Systems for a substation firewall in the amount of $44,000. >> I'll second. >> Uh motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh next up is

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emergency water treatment plant for uh roof repairs. Commission President, Commissioners. Um, a couple of months ago, uh, we discovered that there were some, um, uh, rotting pieces of plywood and some leaking, cracked seals on the roof of

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the water treatment plant. Um, at the same time, they were scheduled to install some new solar panels up there that you probably saw in the newspaper. And if you see, take a look, look, they look pretty good. Um, we wanted to make sure that not only we got the roof taken care of, uh, for the sake of taking care of the roof, um, but making sure that it

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was ready to receive those panels so that you don't have to take them off, um, uh, after the fact. So, due to the timing, um, with spring rains that we've had recently, getting ahead of those, and with the installation of uh, the solar panels, uh, we needed to get this taken care of. And so, um, this is a

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receive an order file of the quote and the work that's been been done for, um, the repairing that roof. was successful and and we're very pleased to have it done. >> We did this in February or March. >> Uh uh April >> already. Okay. >> April. Early early April.

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>> I don't have anything. >> I'll make a motion to receive an order filed to quote from AR Construction LLC in the amount of $11,700 for the emergency repairs of the water treatment plants roof. >> I'll second it. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. Um, is there any further

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discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Now up to well 15 rehab. >> Yeah, there'll be two agenda items related to well rehabilitation. Uh, well number 15 um and well number 25. Um, as

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you know that these wells were scheduled for rehabilitation by by surging them, purging them, mechanically surging them um to sort of clean them out and get them back to where they needed to be. Uh this particular well uh was down to uh 40 gallons per minute and it was

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designed for just under 500 gallons per minute. So that is one clogged well. Uh we had received a quote and a purchase order from Schaefer Well Company of about $51,000. Um when the work was all said and done um it was $160,000.

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It took significantly longer. So this is a notification of a purchase order overage. the work has been completed. Um it will be funded uh out of um uh reserves, the unrestricted cash um or um

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a loan from an interfund loan from the natural gas department which is an agenda item for your consideration a few items later. Unfortunately, this is um you know a direct result of not looking at the wells for 30 years. These are two wells

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that were the worst that we had talked about rehabbing. >> I'm not sure I'd say they were the worst, but they were the ones that we could rehab. Um, some of the other ones are in need of a complete replacement. So, the fact that they can be rehabbed, I think, says that they were worth rehabbing.

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>> Yeah, they're in in sorry condition. >> If you have any questions, I'm happy to entertain them. I'll make a motion to receive an order filed for the overaged charges related to Schaefer Well Company PO 26005

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rehabilitation of well 15. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Now on to uh well 25.

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>> Mr. resident commissioners. Uh similar situation um for this well thankfully this one did not take um uh quite as long but it took 138 hours uh to do when uh 80 hours were budgeted. So um again

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still took a considerable amount of time to to get that level to where we wanted to. Again got it back up to a little over 500 gallons a minute um when it was down to about 70 gallons a minute. So um in the end it proved extremely worthwhile. I mean, instead of having to go out and drill a new well for a couple

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million dollars, we're able to spend a couple, not even a couple hundred thousand to get these things um back to their design capacity. So, as long as we maintain these activities going forward on a more routine schedule, we should have more predictability when it comes to how much it should cost to do. This

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is just um a shot in the dark from not having it done. And so, you know, is it significantly more than the $50,000 PO? Yes. Did anyone know that it should be $50,000? I don't think so. It would be very hard to say.

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>> And the running at 300 versus 500, it just saves on wear and tear. That's right. It's not running for >> Yep. You're running it at that uh that sort of that high efficiency part of the pump curve. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> Right. I'll make motion to receive and order

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file the overage charges related to Schaefer well company purchase order 26008 rehabilitation of well 25 second. >> All right we have a motion and a second. Um is there any further discussion? If not all in favor say I. >> I.

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>> I. Motion carries. Um next up is a inner inner fund loan transfer. Yeah. And this is related to the previous agenda, previous two agenda items as well as a couple of other things. Uh previous three agenda items, excuse me. So, uh the fiscal year 2026

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budget uh has a capital schedule of course and um throughout the year we've had a number of um unbudgeted capital items come up. Um whether that be uh working on the roof, whether that be emergency repairs to the elevator that was in the water treatment plant, whether that be the wells. Um, and then

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there's two additional wells this fall that will be completely essentially reconstructed. The well overshoots, if you guys remember talking about that, those have also come in higher than expected. Um, it seems like it's not a surprise anymore when things come in over budget. Um, but what that does is

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it reduces our our unrestricted cash, right? So if you're if you're paying for those un unrestricted cash and there are certain targets that help us maintain our bond rating um to have that cash on hand and um the further you bring them down that's sort of the trade-off. You can you can utilize that money but it

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affects your bond rating and your flexibility for unexpected items. So um what we are proposing to do here is to take an interfund loan from the natural gas fund which is um has a relatively higher amount of cash on hand than the water fund. Um included in the fiscical

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year 26 budget was already a million dollar loan that was that you all approved as a part of the budget process. This is increasing that to 1.5 million and then the the rate on that would be 3.72% which is equivalent to um uh trying to find it here. essentially

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what um what any of those unrestricted cash funds earned. So you're not sort of robbing the gas fund, right? You're getting them what they would have gotten either way. Um so this helps us maintain um our cash balances and also making

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sure that uh the gas fund is made whole. And just one more note, apologies. Uh I just wanted to point out that uh at the starting of the year, the natural gas fund was projected to have reserves at 176% of their target. um this additional loan would bring them to 161% of their

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target. So, it's still a the natural gas fund remains in healthy position. >> Good, good, good, good. Um and we'll actually need a a resolution for this to offer a resolution. So, if somebody wants to >> Oh, I apologize. That might be my fault

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that I did not attach one of those. >> We have probably missed doing that in the past. I talked to Beth once the agenda came up. Okay. >> Okay. So, we want to offer the resolution to approve. >> I'll offer the resolution to approve an

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interfund loan transfer of 500,000 from the natural gas division to the water division for repayment over four years plus 3.72% annual interest. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Um, is there any further discussion? Now,

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we'll call the role. >> Commissioner Skillings? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Williams? Yes. >> Commissioner Bugler. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Shaughness and Commissioner Visser. >> Yes. >> All right. Next up, Courtland Lift Station. >> Might ask Mr. Okconor to help me out on

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this one if you would. Um I I know I was scheduled to present this, but um I think since he's here, I'm going to defer to the real expert who can probably rattle it off the top of his head. Um, as you as you know, there's a just to get started, there's a project

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to rehab um the Courtland lift station um for $56,000. Um, this is a sort of a subsection of that project. And this is for the liner system. And I apologize, I just put Dan on the

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spot right now. >> I got it here. >> I got it here. Um so we we had a study done by Bolton and Mink did an infrastructure and a uh condition assessment. I think most of you guys heard that a year ago or better. Uh one of the recommendations was to rehab

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Courtland lift stations. So back in the mid90s we agreed to take all the city of Courtland's wastewater and they paid for the whole system, paid for the lift station on our property, but with that agreement we were required to maintain that building. And it's been

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uh we're pushing 30 years right now and it's falling apart. Um a lot of H2S hydrogen sulfide gas with the with that uh wastewater that travels that many miles through a a sanitary sewer. So we've got three of them coming up here in a row. Um anyway, back to the Bolton

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Mink. They they estimated a little over 2 million to rehab this building. And we're sort of doing it without any engineering. We're doing it with uh getting quotes for for projects and then just and then just bidding the equipment. I think in February we brought $380,000 worth of replacement

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equipment. So the first one here is $89,000 to uh line uh with Spectre Shield, the lift station and and the channel where the water runs through the the building through a small uh bar screen and uh through a grit chamer and

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a grit classifier. There is only one quote on this. Uh R&H out of uh Lichfield Cooko is the only company that offers a 10-year warranty on their product. Um they're the only ones in the Midwest that do the Spectra Shield that

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offer that 10-year warranty and generally at least four if not 6 in thick. So that's what this uh agenda item is about. So, it's a full 10y year >> full 10 year warranty. So, in a couple

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years, if it starts breaking down, they come back and resand blast it, redo it. >> How old is this lift station? And >> 1995. >> Okay. >> So, we've we've actually reigned the the actual wet well where the water is is is

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held and then pumped through the system. We've relined it uh this will be the fourth time uh since '95. So somewhat frequent that we have to do this. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. >> I'll make a motion to authorize the city

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manager to accept the bids from R&H Painting LLC for the Courtland lift station and pre-treatment builder building lining system projects for a total amount of $89,275. I'll second.

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>> Uh we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. It looks like you've got another one. Dan. >> Either way, doesn't matter to me.

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>> You're on a roll. So, if you would, that'd be great. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Nope. It's my It's my fault. It's uh this one is um >> lift station equipment. >> Yeah. Minnesota mechanical solutions for the Yeah. lift station. This one's for

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38,640. >> So yeah, Minnesota Mechanical will be doing the uh the demo and the install of the 3 $90,000 worth of equipment that we brought to the commission back in February of this year. Um, and if if you

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think of uh $400,000 worth of equipment installed and only $40,000 to do that work, that's that's uh pretty good pricing. Um, so once again, it's just all to do with rehabbing this uh 30-year-old lift station. >> Got it. Okay.

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A motion from somebody. I'll make the motion to receive an order filed the quote from Minnesota Mechanical Solutions, Inc. for the installation of the Courtland Lift Station Requipment Replacement Project in the amount of $38,640.

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>> Second. >> Uh we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. >> Motion carries. Next up is also the Courtland lift station uh for plumbing services.

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>> Clen. Yeah. >> Clen. >> Yeah. And this is receive order file class and mechanical to replace all the plumbing in the corn lift station. All the water lines and >> sounds good. >> And hopefully this may be the last one

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for the rehab of this lift station. But it >> it'll be completed after these. >> Well, we're we're looking at potentially a furnace next fall. We've been having problems with the furnace. And it's not your typical furnace. It's a explosion proof uh air makeup. It's

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probably about a $50,000 furnace. >> So that'll probably be good for 10 years. I mean, with this replacement on the frequency we've been going >> Well, we just got 30 years out of this lift station with with uh you know, some sand blasting and painting um interior

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building and then the rehab of the wet well numerous times. Um, when I said three times, it's actually been four times cuz one of the one of the initial companies we hired back in probably the early 2000s gave us this warranty of three, five years, I believe, if not

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only three. And within a year, it was pretty much the same. So, they came back and redid it. And then, of course, we looked at a different avenue and a different company to try to get more time out of it. >> All right. I'll make a motion to receive an order filed. the quote from Class of

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Mechanical Incorporated for plumbing services for the Courtland lift station equipment replacement project in the amount of $7,680. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Um, is there any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. >> I opposed.

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>> And just to note that Commissioner Williams is >> I'm going to abstain due to potential conflict of interest in >> noted. Um, is there any uh what are we in? Motion second. All in favor say I.

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>> I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Uh, next up is switch gear building um for the W wastewater treatment plant. >> Yeah, this is again um switch gear building for the wastewater treatment build building plant. We are totally

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moving the location of the switchgeear. So, this will house it in its own building. Uh, it's hard to explain where it's at, but on its own, away from H2S and as much of the environmental things we can, and away from where staff is occupying

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offices and stuff like that. Some of the current switch gear is in an office, which is probably not a great place for it. And some of it is in some pretty hostile environments. So originally, if you will recall, we came and was just

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going to do switch gear A and then we came back and did a change order. Now we're doing about 65% of the switch gear throughout the whole facility. This building would house all that equipment. One of the b obviously you see the dimensions on the building here, but one

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of the real benefits of doing it this way, they can install the switch gear, energize it, and all have have it ready to go without disturbing the operation of the wastewater plant. And then load by load they can switch them over on the plant, the staff and the electricians

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timeline. So we don't have to have a all hands on deck panic trying to do this because we have limited time that the wastewater plant and some of their processes can be down. This is also set up. We are in the switch gear. We've set up for adding

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some new blowers and a generator. And this will all be built to accommodate everything that we put in the design already. >> Yeah. And this falls under the complete project, correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. This is all part of the This is one we're kind of doing it at like we

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did our 20th Street lift station. We're doing it in house. We're ordering the equipment. Um AR is going to build the building. We also did something similar like this in the wastewater plant where our electrician is the lead installer. we get some time and material help from

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maybe another vendor and to help control costs and stuff and to do it on our terms. We're doing as much of this as we can ourselves. >> Got it. Okay. We'll entertain a motion for that. I'll make the motion to authorize city

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manager to accept the quote from ARR Construction LLC for a new building to house a new switch gear for the wastewater treatment plant in the amount of $82,5287. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion

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on that? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next up is uh we'll need a resolution appointing New Public Utilities representatives to Minnesota Energy Community Energy. Yeah, Commission President,

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commissioners. Um, New has is a member of the Minnesota Community Energy, also known as Minnesota Municipal Gas Agency. Uh, New was a founding member back in 2007 and we have a recently signed contract with them for gas. Um my predecessor, Director Manderfeld, was

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New Alm's representative since its initial founding through her retirement at the end of December. Um the agreement for the Minnesota Municipal Gas Agency requires uh the governing body, so this body to um pass a resolution appointing

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another representative um recommending myself uh be the representative and then uh an alternate being David O'Brien, the natural gas supervisor. With that, I'll offer the resolution appointing utilities director Brett

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Fleck as the prime as primary and natural gas supervisor David O'Brien as alternate representative from the New Public Utilities to Minnesota Community Energy. >> I'll second that. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Um, is there any further

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discussion? If not, call the role, please. >> Commissioner Skellings? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Williams? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Bugler? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Shaughness? Yes. >> And Commissioner Visser. >> Yes. >> All right. Last up is our uh report of claims.

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>> I'll make the motion to accept list of claims in the amount of 3,827,543. >> All right, we have a motion in a second. Um, is there any further discussion on the report of claims? If not, all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Last up, is there any additional comments from our

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commissioners? If not, we're adjourned. Thank you everybody. We'll take a fivem minute break before heading into a work session.