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Home My Public Portal About01-18-2000 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND,INDIANA,SERVING AS A BOARD IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE RICHMOND POWER&LIGHT PLANT TUESDAY,JANUARY 18,2000 The Common Council of the City of Richmond,Indiana,serving as a Board in charge of the operations of the Richmond Power&Light Plant met in regular session at 7 p.m.Tuesday,January 18,2000 in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building in said City.Chairperson Bing Welch presided with the following Councilmembers in attendance:Howard"Jack"Elstro,Etta J.Lundy,Bruce Wissel,Karl Sharp,Larry Parker,Paul Combs,Phil Dickman and Sarah"Sally"Hutton.The following business was conducted: ROLL CALL Nine present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the regular and special meetings of January 4,2000 were approved on a motion by Councilmember Hutton,second by Councilmember Parker and the motion was carried on a unanimous voice vote. APPROVAL OF BILLS,INVESTMENTS AND TRANSFERS Upon recommendation of the Finance Committee,Councilmember Wissel moved to approve the following bills for payment,seconded by Councilmember Combs and by unanimous voice vote the motion was carried. Bills Already Paid: Payroll and Deductions $249,945.11 Investments Purchased From: Cash Operating Fund Bond Sinking Fund Utility Bond Reserve Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund 2,755,349.49 Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund 175,000.00 Cash Reserve Fund Group Insurance Fund Total Investments $2,930,349.49 Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Cash Reserve Fund for Payment To City in lieu of taxes 2,097,753.53 Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Depreciation Reserve Fund For Property&Plant Transfers from Depreciation Reserve to: Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Consumer Deposit to: Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Utility Bond Reserve Fund to: Bond Sinking Fund Transfers from Cash Operating to: Interest and Bond Principal Bond Sinking Fund Cash Reserve Fund Utility Bond Sinking Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund Interest and Bond Principal End of Month Petty Cash Revenue Bonds Interest Coupons Redeemed Interest Coupons Redeemed Bond Coupons Miscellaneous Prepaid Invoices $ 99,201.05 Total Prepaid Invoices 5,377,249.18 Total EFT/Direct Deposit of Payroll: (75,530.93) Total Prepaid Invoices: 5,301,718.25 Total EFT Transfers: 76,567.87 Total Prepaids plus EFT Transfers: 5,378,286.12 Total Bills Not Paid: 801,262.06 Grand Total of Bills to be approved: $6,179,548.18 RP&L Minutes Cont'd January 18,2000 Page 2 REMARKS BY CHAIRPERSON Chairperson Welch stated the Board members should have received a list of committee assignments distributed prior to the meeting,adding that if there were any questions about those assignments they should contact him. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT Councilmember Elstro said there was no report. REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER General Manager David Osburn said Bob Crye,plant manager,is here tonight to give a brief update on the repairs of Unit No.2 at Whitewater Valley Generating Station.Crye told the Board that the bucket delivery is slated for February 9 from the Cincinnati Service shop,with a hoped for February 22 start up of the unit.He said RP&L contacted EPRI and sent them some photos of the broken buckets so they should be hearing from them in the near future. Osbum said the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has officially approved the territorial change between RP&L and REMC for the territory north of I-70 off of Salisbury that serves the DMI facility and the bus garage of Richmond Community Schools.He said RP&L has been servicing those customers there since December under an agreement they had with REMC,but this makes it official. RP&L,he said,is the recipient of the"Tree Line U.S.A."designation which is a national certification for electric utilities.He said it basically says that the utility has gone through training for its tree trimmers and line clearance personnel,training them to clear the lines as tree-friendly as possible for the utility.He said RP&L is one of only two utilities in Indiana to have that certification.Sometime next month,he said,an official from the Department of Natural Resources will come to Richmond to make a formal presentation to RP&L. Chairperson Welch asked if the Board representative could take a copy of that award to the next Street Tree Commission meeting,because he knows that that group would like to know that RP&L is complying with good tree trimming practice and saving all the foliage. Alluding to the authorization by the Board to join the Midwest Ozone Group in the utility's efforts to deal with the EPA rule making,Osbum said that after attending a meeting of that group last week,he felt that the Board made a good decision.He said they appear to know how to deal with the EPA and the Federal Government on their level. He said that group would be filing an appeal,as well as RP&L filing its own appeal.He added that an interesting thing that came out of that meeting is that this group also has a citizens' suit against the EPA around this issue. Osburn said the northeastern states,as with all states,had to file attainment plans with EPA on how they are going to reach clean air attainment levels.What they have found,he said,is that most of these states have never complied with all their procedures and plans to achieve their air quality so they are extremely deficient in attaining these.Taking that into consideration,he said,it would be difficult for EPA to explain why RP&L is the one causing their problems when they have never even completely done all their plans to begin with.He likened this to them saying"Clean up your act first,then come back and talk to us before you go any further." Chairperson Welch asked what IMPA's position is on this.Osbum said he talked with them yesterday and he feels that group had some false impressions that this was not going to impact them very much then suddenly realized that is not true.He said they are now deciding how they are going to approach it,adding that they may join up with this group also.Osbum said how it impacts IMPA is a perfect example of how this rule making doesn't even make sense.He said they put a cap on the amount of tons of Nox that can be emitted so it is a ton limit and base that on the historical heat input of the units,not output,but the amount of heat input. He said IMPA had four units that were cited which were four combustion turbines or"peakers,"and these are not run very often,only when you need them in case of emergency or higher peak demand.Osburn said the historical peak period they looked at for the peakers was back when they were not running them very much.He said it creates a cap on the amount of tons and there is a set aside for new sources but it is very small.He added that with the rate that they are projecting to building some new units in the midwest you could quickly get to a situation where you could no longer build a new generating plant because you reached a cap in the amount of tons. And,Osbum said,in an area that is right now almost generation deficient,it does not speak well for the long term liability of the region of not being able to site and build new plants.So there are a whole lot of issues that come into play on this thing that have to be addressed and EPA never addressed them in rule making.He said IMPA and those peakers are an example and when they do generate,they generate at the.15 limit or less,which is what EPA wants. However,he said,since they are capping them on tons,they are capped at a very low output,which is never what those units were designed for. Osburn said RP&L appears in a feature written in the latest A.P.P.A.magazine not only in print but also in a photo. He said the article centers around the need for doing the customer satisfaction surveys that the local utility is doing and the kind of results they are getting. NEW BUSINESS There was none. RP&L Board Minutes Cont'd January 18,2000 Page 3 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business,on a motion duly made,seconded and passed,the meeting was adjourned. Bing Welch,Chairperson ATTEST: Norma Schroeder,Clerk