Lamar Utility Board, City Council and ARPA Hold Executive Session

Lamar Wind Turbines

Members of the Lamar Utilities Board and Lamar City Council met in executive session Tuesday, January 28, at the Light Plant offices, to receive legal advice on Specific Legal Questions Regarding a Report on Multi-Party Mediation, Attorney/Client Communication.  Attorneys John Lefferdink and Garth Nieschburg, along with ARPA General Manager, Rick Rigel was in attendance for the session.  City Administrator John Sutherland and several council members were on hand for the noontime meeting. No action was taken following the session. 

During the regular bi-monthly meeting, Light Plant Superintendent, Houssin Hourieh, noted during the financial report for November 2013, that cash is down $399,282 from October and accounts receivable decreased by $124,221.  Hourieh said the decline was attributable to paying $459,000 on the Plant’s wind turbine bond.  He said revenues were also impacted when the plant had to pay out $279,000 on a replacement gearbox for the T01 turbine.  Hourieh told the board the unit had seen ten years of operation before the replacement became necessary.  Another turbine expense of about $10,000 was noted to send three Light Plant employees for wind turbine repair training in Iowa.  The comprehensive course will train the three to act as back-up staff whenever members of the current turbine repair crew are not available. 

Date from the past year on wind power generation shows a drop in (MWH) megawatt hours compared to 2012 statistics.  Hourieh explained the three turbines produced 12,305.11 MWH in 2013, which was a 9477 MWH drop from the year before.  He said it was attributable in part to literally less wind, but the main reason was due to the T1 turbine being offline for almost two months when the gearbox was being repaired. 

Applications for the LUB/ARPA 2014 scholarship program are now being accepted from Lamar, McClave and Wiley high school seniors.  Applicants are being asked to submit a report on, “The effects of fracking on coal and natural gas production, power generation and fuel markets.” The Lamar Utility Board meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.  The next meeting will be held February 11.

By Russ Baldwin