March 16, 2015 - Utility Committee Work Session

UTILITY COMMITTEE MINUTES
BREWSTER VILLAGE COUNCIL
March 16, 2015
6:00 P.M.

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Mike Schwab, Mayor                          Chuck Hawk, Council Member
Tom Hilliard, Council Member            Paul Mackey, Council Member
Dale Fox, Council Member                 Steve Tharp, Jr., Council Member

 

VILLAGE OFFICIALS PRESENT:

K. Kris King, Clerk-Treasurer
Rob Pauley, Village Administrator

 

EMPPLOYEESS:

George Radich, Electric Superintendent
Ryan Swan, Lineman

AUDIENCE:

The meeting was opened by Chairman Dale Fox.

The first part of the meeting was a discussion of the FirstEnergy (FE) Harmon Substation and the Brewster 69kV Line Cutover Planning.

Dwight Niedenkofler of GPD Engineering spoke concerning three options provided at last week's Utility Committee meeting:

  • FE/Didado performing the cutover with a 85' wood monopole - 14 1/2 hour outage - possible generator rentals costing $ 139,754.08 to $ 193,156.16.

  • Village hires Vaughn to perform the cutover with a 85' wood monopole - 6 hour outage. Quoted at $ 42,700 (labor and equipment only). Village large power users agreed this was tolerable.

  • FE/Didado performing the cutover with a buck-arm construction on existing pole without an outage.

    After the last meeting Council agreed that Vaughn would be the best option for the village. GPD let FE know council's decision and verified that FE will furnish all materials. GPD also reached out to FE for reimbursement of Vaughn labor costs. FE agreed to pay half the cost. They stated that they had performed additional engineering costs for the buck arm proposal with no outage.

    Vegetation Management Easements were discussed.

    Outage time and date were recommended of April 25th at 5am with a severe weather date of April 26th at 5am.

    Substation maintenance was discussed. The outage will give the village an opportunity to perform long overdue maintenance testing. Power Services has provided a quote. More testing will occur once the cutover is complete.

    Existing substation batteries and charger will be replaced prior to the outage to ensure reliability of substation DC control system during the outage.

    Electronic and credit card payments for utilities were then discussed. Six companies were contacted and compared. Key functions were looked at including window swiping, major credit cards accepted, real-time transaction information, and next day account transactions. F&E Payments was recommended by VA Pauley.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Kris King, Clerk Treasurer