HomeMy Public PortalAbout09-08-1981 •
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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, SEPTEMBER 8, 1981
1 - The Common Council of the City of Richmond, Indiana, serving as a Board in
2 charge of the operation of. the Richmond Power & Light Plant, met in regular
3 'session September 8, 1981 at the hour of 7:00 p.m. in the Municipal Buildlng .
4 of said City. Chairman Welch. presided with-the following members present:
5 Messrs. Elstro, Williams, Ahaus, Hankinson, Mills, .Parker, Carter and Paust.
6 Absent: None. The following business was had, to-wit:
7
8 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 17, 1981 • .
8 .
10 Councilman Parker moved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting as •
11 prepared; seconded by Councilman Mills and on unanimous voice vote the motion .
12 was carried. ..
13
14 APPROVAL OF BILLS, TRANSFERS AND INVESTMENTS .
• 15 . .
16 Councilman Hankinson stated the Finance Committee recommends approval of the
17 following bills, transfers and investments as printed in the agenda, seconded
. 18 by Councilman Ahaus and on unanimous voice vote the motion was carried:
19
20 APPROVE THE FOLLOWING:
21 Bills in the amount of , _ 1 ,558,589.02
22 Bonds and Interest Coupons 6,033.75 .
23 2-Payrolls - 238,672.04
24
25 . TRANSFER FROM CASH OPERATING FUND TO:
26 Bond Sinking Fund 70,040.42
27 Cash Reserve Fund 83,428.25
28
, 29 TRANSFER FROM DEPRECIATION RESERVE FUND TO:
III30 Cash Operating Fund 62,842.35
31
32 INVESTMENTS PURCHASED
33 Bond Sinking Fund • 111,587.93
34 Bond Reserve Fund , • 35,585.23
35 Cash Operating Fund . 2,516,492,58
36 Cash Reserve Fund 171,151 .36
37 Depreciation Reserve Fund 149,8.60.11
38 .
39 REPORT.:FROM STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE
40 .
41 Chairman of the Street'Light Committee Larry Farker stated his committee
42 met August 26 with Jim Mays. The I-70 interchanges are comprised of 280
43 lights. The maintenance contract is $20,270. The contract is binding
44 until April of 1982. The contract was passed July 18,. 1977 by Council by
45 unanimous vote. - The yearly light. bill estimated based upon a five (5)
46 month average will .be $66,972. The total yearly expenditure will be
47 $87,242. The Committee requested Mr. Mays contact Dave Ellis, who is with .
- 48 the State, as to what the contract would involve as far as to maintenance
49 ' for RP&L to see if they wanted to do it, could do It. and it would be bene-
50 ficial to the City in cost' savings. .All the lights are' on photocells and .
51 the contract says -that within forty-eight (48) hours from the time an out-
52 age is. turned in they will be repaired. The lights were officially accepted
53 by the City in February 1981. The estimated annual cost for these lights •
54 was $25,000 and the contract .states. the City will do the maintenance.
55 Councilman Ahaus requested the Committee look into the possibility of
56 turning off half of the lights. '
57 . . ..
58 General Manager Irving Huffman stated he assumes the State made funds .
59 available to help put this praj.e.ct in; therefore, certain lighting standards
60 would have to have been met. To remove some of the lights will change the
61 lighting level which may not. be permissible.. Chairman Parker stated the
62 State put up the money to install all the lights. If the State would allow
63 you to change the lighting code the rate being charged pays for the standard
64 ' as well as the current used. If you cut off half the lights, you still have
RP&L Minutes Cont'd.
September 8, 1981
Page 2
1 the investment so the only savings would be in energy and this is off peak
2 energy which is relatively cheap energy. He noted these lights are charged
3 under• the commercial rate and Mr. Mays will work on working out something
4 - better.- Mr. Huffman stated RP&L does not particularly want to take care of
5 these lights but probably could do a better job of maintaining them. They
6 will need some compensation and will look into seeing what that amount would
7 be. RP&L will see if there can be some different rate design for the lighting
8 as this is off peak time. Chairman Parker will report back to this Board when
9 . the information is available.
10 •
11 REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER
12
13 FREIGHT CHARGES BY CONRAIL •
14
15 The freight charges under Conrail have increased at different times.. Some time
16 ago they filed for a rate increase and were authorized one but they forgot to
17 bill RP&L for a portion of it. According to the rules and regulations of the
18 Commission they can back bill for the charges which haven't been made. RP&L
19 . has resisted this and as a result Conrail if suing for .the charges. RP&L
20 recognizes they may be liable for them but. they will exhaust means to avoid
21 paying them without any cost encountered by good letter writing campaign. If
22 it is decided that •RP&L is liable for payment the charges will come under the
23 fuel clause and passed on to the customer. Conrail has left its mark with the
24 community and if it should leave the community, it might be better in the long
25 run. There was a short period:of time Conrail advises they didn't collect for
26 the rate and RP&L is trying to resist this; however, Conrail feels legally they
27 can finally collect this. ' The amount is $21,000, City Attorney Ed Anderson
28 advised Mr. Huffman he should not be discussing this matter as it may be
29 under litigation. _
30
31 REPORT ON JOINT AGENCY
32
33 We have been .negotiating with Public Service of Indiana with a contract. They
34 are close now to getting a contract consumated to have a portion of Gibson 5
35 so a bond sale can be, made for the purchase of this portion. They have been
36 paying under an old assessment acid last year paid $3,000 a.month and cur--;
37 rently. are paying $6,900 a month. It is the feeling of the agency that they
38 want to go into interim financingto sell bonds to reimburse all the com-
39 munities all the money put intothe joint agency. The money has offset the
40 engineering costs and legal .fees: The studies are pretty well complete. The
41 interim financing will not, only allow all the municipals to be reimbursed but
42 will allow other municipals who are not a part,. of the agency to come in with-
43 out having to make up-past costs. The amount is proper .and fair but will put
44 a sizeable burden on RP&L to make these payments.. Through the agency this
45 will be.•fine. The community will have to back up in agreement form the sale
46 -of the bonds for interim financing. When 'the contract is signed and bonds
47 for the joint agency-itself are sold, those bonds will pay for the interim
48 financing. In contract form, 1P&L will agree to. purchase the output of power,
49 which .will be priced to pay the debt service 'of the bonds.' Our role will be
50 as a purchaser of power from Gibson 5. The intent is. to buy all power from
51 the joint agency and the agency. will buy the power we can generate. A con-
52 tract should be kept with I&M for a lower amount. In response to Councilman
53 Carter's question as to keeping the contract with I&M, Mr. Huffman stated he
54 feels it is. better to keep a contract set up than to have to re-establish it.
55 He feels we should have a fall-back position due to energy shortages. Gibson
56 5 is scheduled to go on line October or November of 1982. In the contract
57 with PSCI, 'whatever RP&L buys from them as part of that ownership there will
59 - be ail back-up power so they are obligated .to furnish other. power. In the
60 first years of the contract a sell-back provision is included for excess
61 capacity. PSCI will dispose of this. The percentage of Gibson 5 is 150
62 megawatts out -of a 600 megawatt unit. RP&L has no specific amount they have
63 to contract for; however, Mr. 'Huffman feels for our future load growth we
64 would want to contract for a sizeable amount since there is a sell-back
" ;i .
RP&L Minutes Cont'd,
September 10, 1981
Page 3
1 arrangement. Plant costs by today's standards is very expensive; however,
2 5 years from now it is going to be very cheap power. There are fifteen
3 cities in the joint agency at this point. We will be buying power at cost
4 plus transmission service from PSCI and I&M transmission system to us.
5 Councilman Ahaus stated he feels we should be very careful and not styme
6 our own operation by not being able to run our generators. Mr Huffman
7 stated we will. be running our units more than we have in the past. With
8 our new arrangement we will. be running our own generators to produce power•
9 - and when we get a peak load, then we will buy; however, we will have our
10 own spinning reserves", which means 5% of our output will have to be available
11_ for use. PSCI buys all the excess power from Gibson 5 and sells it to
. 12 someone else.•
13 .
14 REPORT FROM STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE
15 .
16 Chairman Parker •announced the Street Light Committee has received a letter
17 requesting lights at Garwood & Backmeyer Roads. Traffic Capt, Ban Wogoman
18 has been notified and the Street Light Committee is going to look into this.
20 ADJOURNMENT •
21 .
22 There being no further business on motion duly made, seconded and passed
23 the meeting was adjourned.
24
25 Bing Welch
26 Chairman
27 -
28 ATTEST: JoEllen Trimble •
29 City Clerk