BPW considers refunds

The Kimball Board of Public Works was asked to review their utility deposit policy during their most recent board meeting, on Monday, Jan. 26.

The policy was questioned by longtime resident Harold Farrar, who was told he would have a $100 deposit when he recently moved his City of Kimball utility account.

“I recently moved to an apartment, but have lived here for over twenty years,” Farrar said. “I’ve had my utility bill taken out of my account basically since I moved to town.”

Farrar continued that to his knowledge there had never been an issue with his payments nor with his service and he thought the request for a $100 meter deposit could have been waived considering his payment history.

“I just thought I would bring it before the board not only for myself but for other people,” Farrar said. “At least in some case, maybe give the City Administrator some authority to use common sense and to possibly waive the meter deposit.”

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz stated that he did not recall the board reviewing the policy, but the service application spells out a $100 deposit for residential service and $250 for commercial service, in recent years. He added that no reference is made for a refund policy, though at one time it may have been contemplated.

“I think in the early 90s there was consideration whether or not to refund that deposit after so many years, but it hasn’t been common practice in recent years, ” he added. “If you want to start refunding deposits after two years, we are talking close to $100,000 to make sure those people are getting refunded.”

Currently the deposit remains on the customer’s account and is returned when they move or applied to their final bill, according to Ortiz.

“I always use the philosophy that if you are a landlord you are going to have a security deposit and you are not going to refund that to your renter after one year of paying their rent on time. You are going to hold on to that until they move out,” Ortiz said.

“Its my thought that there is a lot of value in consistency and if your City Administrator had the authority to override the message that was given up front by the gals, now there is dissension between you and the gals and we don’t want to open that,” Board President Jim Cederburg said. “If my neighbor gets a break and I don’t get a break, now we have dissension among the public. I would just as soon stick with consistency, everyone is treated the same and there is no perception of impropriety.”

Board member Greg Robinson argued that paying utilities in a timely manner every time without issues for twenty years is consistency.

“If it comes out of your account, I know that do that with golf, and they back that up with asking you for a credit card in case something fails,” Robinson said. “Is that a possibility with this too?”

“Given what we have dealt with in the past two years, I can tell you that both forms of payment – we have dealt with a small handful of people where both options have failed,” Ortiz said.

Board member Gregg Fossand recalled a citizen who approached the board in the recent past asking for a phone call prior to disconnection.

At that time the board decided not to make an exception for one as it would set a precedent and Fossand said he would just like to see everyone treated equally.

“As Jim (Cederburg) said, it is a consistency issue more than anything. I don’t know if we want to open that door,” Fossand said. “Where do we draw the line?”

Ortiz suggested a specific set of refund criteria if the board chose to further consider the request. Board members Chris Rowley and Robinson added that they wanted to give the issue more thought and the request was subsequently tabled for further review.

Ortiz was asked to provide information on the same types of policies from communities similar to Kimball at the next meeting.

Ortiz then updated the board that the recently vacated water department superintendent position has been filled.

Carson Sisk, a previous water department employee, has been hired to fill the position left vacant by longtime supervisor, David Ford.

Because Sisk’s certifications lapsed in December he will be required to take the test for recertification and though he began working for the City on Feb. 1, the first opportunity he will have to retest will likely be in April, according to Ortiz.

While Sisk prepares for the level three certification needed to run the city’s water distribution system, Kimball will continue operating that system under a partnership with the City of Gering.

“We reached out to the City of Gering and essentially are piggy-backing off of their water operator, which is a grade two,” Ortiz said. “Their public works director and water supervisor met with Jeff and Casey, our two water operators to get a overview of the system and get an understanding of what our system entails.”

The City of Gering approved the partnership for the interim and the matter needed approval only from the local Board of Public Works, which was given unanimously.

Ortiz, who was elected to serve as secretary on the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, MEAN, management committee on Jan. 21, reported to the board regarding that agency’s future needs.

“If you will recall a year or two ago there was a lot of uncertainty with MEAN, I think a lot of that has stabilized with changes they have made,” Ortiz said. “We talked about, earlier in the year, doing a fixed rate, where MEAN is starting to capture their fixed coasts as part of a customer charge. Ours is roughly about $40,000 a month or about $450,000 a year.”

Ortiz added that the fixed rate will address fluctuations in the City’s bill.

“I think moving forward one of the issues that is going to be uncertain is transmissions rates, not the cost of buying power,” Ortiz added.

Ortiz reported that there is some ambiguity in terms of how MEAN will compensate the city for the local power plant.

“There are a lot of little things that are starting to come up,” Ortiz said. “For instance we made the decision to move away from dual natural gas/diesel engine and be just a diesel designated power plant because of the issues we were dealing with natural gas. That might come up as an issue, because of the use of our tanks.”

According to Ortiz the concern arises because diesel tanks require refueling, whereas natural gas offers the steady supply MEAN wishes to ensure.

“The wind farm is another big one. They are reaching their life expectancy and MEAN is starting to consider what they are going to do with some of that,” Ortiz added. “We got a report that one of the generators was out, so they were going to be looking to see what the cost of what that repair would be.”

Ortiz added that the wind farm has a big effect on the City power system as well, including power factor issues as well as compensation for the power generated and transmitted through the local system.

“Its definitely going to be an issue, especially where we have designed our whole system around a 30 mega-watt wind farm,” Cederburg said.

Ortiz concluded his reports and informed the board that Feb. 23, the original date of the next Board of Public Works meeting, coincides with the League Conference, prompting a change in date for the BPW, which is now scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25.