okay uh I got a PowerPoint presentation that if I can get it up on a on screen oh there it is all right so this will just be a a quick update on the the department a little over overview of a review of 23 and then uh at the end I'll talk about the cold weather rule can thank you well that's why you got to be here before I did that's why you're asking the questions about pulling it up on Zoom yeah oh I'm sorry I just figured you were being an overachiever oh no um I I I I was informed that the front one didn't work so there was a reason behind that question gotcha is that better you guys are not they don't go rolls this way they go that way can we kill these two I've heard rumor we've been in the dark yeah that's good okay um so in uh 2023 we did uh add or replace one of our linemen that left uh with an apprentice his name was Sam Hoffman came to us from Cottage Grove uh young guy real ambitious and uh he seems to be fitting in really well with the crew uh he did replace uh Jared Krueger who had been on our crew for uh actually close to 10 years at the time that he left so it was definitely a big shoes to fill uh we currently staff seven line workers a utility locator uh the superintendent and then myself the director uh we do have the most senior staff member in the city Dave Hosk he's 39 years of service um by the end of uh this year two of our three current apprentices will be in the final years of their apprenticeship books uh we do the Northwest Lineman College uh apprenticeship it's four years of books with a test each month uh and then we also our uh in May this year we'll be getting the replacement for our uh one of our bucket trucks and then we're also replacing a one- ton pickup okay uh so a little review of 2023 we began the Lily Redevelopment um relocating a main feeder that ran along the north side of the property uh it's about 1,200 ft of lines that were needed to be relocated we do have the section between where the building is right now um gone so that they can work uh but other than that we're still in the middle of that project just uh with the the equipment taking almost a year and a half to get in for that job it's actually supposed to be getting here in March and then we'll hit the ground running with it again uh we did we were able to complete um relocation of under or overhead to underground uh in the third and Ivy area uh was about 1,00 ft of U single phase primary and then we were also able to finish installing the services to the uh Carry Lane development uh we actually had two of them in January but otherwise yeah that job is complete um as a total uh utility sold just shy of 71,000 megaw and had revenues of 11, 191,000 uh we have 6,637 electric meters in our territory uh and then the little bit you see after that that 369 participating in our clean energy program essentially what that is is through our um Avant and our power agency we have an option when you sign up for a service uh where you can elect to pay an additional one two or $3 and it uh essentially guarantees that we will have enough clean energy to supply your household um I did just have a meeting with our power agency it was our board meeting and we're at roughly 44% um clean energy as a as a power agency um the a average residential rate uh was about 16 cents kwh uh in total we had 42 power outages uh one of which was quite an outlier it was a shared pole with XL on 120 where a drunk driver took the pole out the reason it was an outlier was we had to wait 4 and 1/2 hours for XL to repair their line before we could energize our line underneath uh with that there was 589 M affected and uh the average aage time was around 30 minutes okay last my in 2024 uh we're looking uh we have a couple of ambitious projects and I'll I'll touch on them briefly one by one uh it'll be about 4,000 ft of overhead to underground uh 9,000 ft of replacing old underground and then tentatively 1,000 to 50 00 ft of new construction with finishing the Lily and uh whatever potentially happens with the Delaware development uh the Outlook is roughly around the same amount of megawatt hours sold and with outages it's always tough to tell but we're usually around that 40 to 60 Mark for the year uh there was no base rate increase for 2024 and uh yeah we'll go into the uh the projects one by one here so here here's the Lily Redevelopment we did talk about this uh for 2023 as well it's in the middle of its job um we do have all the conduit in place and uh some of the wire we're just waiting for the equipment to come in and then we'll we'll finish that job up um with that there's going to be a new service to the Lily Redevelopment uh we'll have to put a 500 KVA pad mount for that building and 150 KVA pad mount for um the Weber building across the street um and then the equipment we're waiting on is the fuse protection uh that's what's been the delay for a majority of what we're doing right now is waiting for that stuff uh okay we can go to the next one this is uh one of the bigger projects that we're going to uh begin here in the spring it's uh kind of you can look at the map in almost in two sections the part on the left is the the western part of the job and that's all overhead primary that we'll be putting underground and then the section on the East is older uh underground primary which was put in in uh 1987 so we'll be upgrading that to uh to newer with that we were going to be putting eight new padmount Transformers and uh we'll be fusing it from the overhead that's on uh County Road B to the South uh and then we'll also be putting in it for various street lights and uh feeds to the backyards okay this one's a little bit of a crude map um but it's a map it's a job that we started in 2022 if you can believe it um and it was the fuse cabinets that we were waiting on uh they are coming in in March and we will complete that job as well this is the shauni chipa area uh in this area almost all the wire is pulled in all the Transformers are set once we have the fuse protection in place we'll finish pulling the last bit of the wire in and then transfer everything over to the uh the new underground but it will be replacing uh the existing uh what we call radial overheads uh where you can't feed it from either direction it's all from One Direction okay uh this one uh was one that uh Brian had brought up to me but uh with uh the potential for Road reconstruction uh something an area that we were told to look at was Gerald and Mohawk um this would be eliminating two radial overheads and looping them underground um we'll need roughly four padon Transformers for this and it's going to be about uh 3600 ft of uh underground primary and 500 ft of secondaries okay uh this was kind of a preemptive job for um the Delaware development but there's a main feeder that runs along the north side of 17th and we would be replacing that uh with underground uh and with that the fuse protection is all coming in for that in March as well uh we are also getting a a switch gear which is a a mechanism for switching to different feeders uh to feed different uh uh tap lines uh that'll be coming in that our goal is to put that on the would be the northeast corner of Delaware in 17th uh right right in the Green Space there uh with this it'll be 6in conduit because it's our biggest wire that we put in the ground uh the same size conduit that we used for uh the Lily Redevelopment as well all right uh those were kind of a little brief overview of those jobs and then uh at the end here I just want to touch on the cold weather rule a bit um basically the cold weather rule is a State statue that was put in place uh the specific parts for the public utilities I'll kind of touch on those um if you're under 3,000 billable accounts then it doesn't apply to you which is not us uh our responsibilities are to give 30 days prior notice to uh disconnection for non-payment um if they're unable to pay uh they can apply for um an inability to pay form and uh they can make arrangements with those arrangements you're allowed to um make the payment within five business days of the due date uh anytime outside of that then the utility has the right to disconnect you again um we are also required to provide uh summary of your rights and responsibilities uh the list of contacts uh for resources and then uh give them a right to appeal as well so the customer's responsibility is to when they get the notice from the utility is to contact the utility make arrangements based on their um household income and then keep to those payment plans uh if the arrangement can't be agreed upon the customer can appeal with the Public Utilities Commission um and they can request that the payment plan be extended outside of the cold weather rule as [Music] well um what we can and can't do um we cannot charge a deposit or delinquency charge um there's no full disconnects during this period And so what we do is we limit the power 30 minutes on 30 minutes off until the arrangement has been paid or the full amount has been paid and like I said you have five business days with within that uh agreed upon due date um we do provide that right to appeal in the written notice and it's a commission approved uh right to appeal uh and then us as the utility uh finance department mainly um is required to report weekly and monthly the number of currently disconnected and reconnected the number of pass due accounts and uh details of the number of cold weather rule protection requests [Music] so we send out the notices on September 1st that um from the month from the time of October 1st to April 30th is the cold weather rule um and basically giving everybody the details that they need um and that 30-day notice uh customers have uh if they are limited or disconnected uh they have until 4:30 each business day to make a payment to be reconnected in the same day otherwise uh they'd be restored the following business day and I I just put a note at the end there that you know our new uh system that was put in place not long after I started um Brian was the one that got that all started was our Ami Smart Meters they give us the ability to remote connect and disconnect people and the thing that's been beneficial of that has been well a number of things but there's a limiting program that you can send remotely we don't have to send we used to in the past go out with a mechanical device that we would install in the meter socket put the meter back in and then when they paid their bill we'd have to go back out and pull that device off and put the meter back in it saves us time and money it saves uh what we used to have to do was have the the the person that's on call stay late an hour on Cuts day just because we knew knew that they would be coming in and that it just didn't make sense for them to go home and come back so they'd stay an hour uh once a month and then essentially had till 4:30 for those payments so we had people coming in on overtime to uh to reconnect these meters um but that's yeah just one of the benefits that we've had now that we we have the smart metering and uh everyone in our department is trained on it everybody in finance is trained on it um but that was real brief uh that was basically what I had on the cold weather rule uh if there's anything you had questions for me on that or on the projects I'll be uh happy to answer what I can or questions in general I just want to say thank you for um the work you and your team um do it was very insightful for me to be able to go to the open house and um you all did a really wonderful job providing a little bit more context for um Commissioners to kind of understand a little bit more about the work that you do and I think that's very helpful um and I think it builds really good relationships and so just want to thank you for uh you and your team for um helping helping helping in that event um I have uh yeah I'm I'm curious on um where you're at in terms of the supply chains we were having obviously big issues and it seems like there's some things that might be um still lagging but can you speak to that yeah so um we have seen a lot of the uh lesser um equipment and uh materials start to come back uh there's stuff now that we uh in the past year we'd be waiting 10 to 12 weeks for it to come in and we're getting it the next day or a week later um it's just kind of as the stock comes in you just got to kind of time it right um but with the bigger equipment the those fuse cabinets that I talked about the and still padmount Transformers um you could be waiting up to a year for something like that to come in and it's kind of the new nor as of right now and so we have been trying as a department to just forecast as far ahead as we can for projects that not only 2024 but 2025 and Beyond and just try to take on as much stock as we can that makes sense um with the amount of space we have and with the the budget that we have to to purchase these things um but I think we're doing a good job of trying to get ahead um there are still some things that I ordered like those fuse cabinets I ordered more than we needed for the jobs that we have uh but with the planning for 2024 they basically all are going to get used so uh it's something that I've already got quotes out for stuff to buy for 2025 uh just with the the nature of that that piece of equipment so I would say it seems like things are getting better just uh now with everything thank you and then also with the uh uh the open house uh the guys really enjoyed doing stuff like that cuz they I think part of it is that they're proud of what they do and they take a lot of pride in it and they enjoy showing people that maybe just haven't been involved with it before to get hands on or to see what they deal with every day so thanks for coming yeah it was a lot of fun you've got a person that can change fuses out better than half I'd put her up against i' put her up against half your crew I watched her yeah well we next time we'll get the extendo stick and get it up like 35 40 ft in the air you were up at 10:15 weren't you yeah probably 10 oh yeah any other questions or have you seen goad prices kind of stabilize a bit yet I mean during the peak of the pandemic I mean we Transformers prices doubled we had PVC that quadrupled I mean is some of that stuff coming under control a little bit um yes and no again kind of the same thing it's all um what you're looking at uh certain materials it seems like it's it's still high but it's stabilized at that high price um and I don't know if there's any forecast for it going back down uh but like with the bigger equipment the Transformers and stuff we have been looking in avenues that we maybe didn't always go with in the past um but there's a lot of shopping around you can do with that um but some of the bigger name uh vendors and Distributors they're they're still pretty holding high at the the higher price and I think it's just CU they have the name in the backing to to do that I just want to reiterate with what Lisa said you know thank you to you and your crew for all that you do really appreciate everything thank you quite the quite the people in around the area wish they had North St Paul I have people here in Oakdale and different places because you guys do such a great job of of being able to take care of it and so it's greatly appreciated I'll make sure the the guys all get the message I just I want to thank you too for cleaning up the mess you inherited so it's great to know everything are smooth now and that to really to reiterate everybody up here uh especially John uh or mayor mongi sorry um we're very fortunate we're very fortunate for you we're very fortunate for public works for no removal there's a whole lot of things that we take for granted in this city and don't realize what it is and as you cross the borders into other communities so just a huge hearty thank you for me thank you all right that's it appreciate it y have a good one thank you you've got another 20 30 40 minutes to go want to do something else can you sing can you dance can you thank Care thank you no peep that's just Finance yeah Finance buys food department doesn't electric burn it see you all right well any other business exactly I don't now what other business would be at a Workshop because you got to post things right correct correct so no other business agenda yep so so moved and's see if I can do this so moved council member cole' you get this second second council member Wong all those in favor say I hi thank you and see you at 6:30