UTILITIES COMMISSION MINUTES

September 24, 2018

A regular meeting of the City of Jackson Utilities Commission was held in the
Council Chambers of City Hall at 4 p.m. on September 24, 2018 with the
following persons present: Utilities Commission members Chairperson Gayl
Berkner, Vice Chairperson Kevin Siepker, Ken Temple, Mike Thurmer and Mike
Schwartz. Also in attendance were City Administrator Matt Skaret, MRES
Jackson Distribution Maintenance Foreman Jeremy Boogerd, Water Department
Superintendent Tony Oxborough and Recording Secretary Dave Maschoff.
(Utilities Commission members Wendell Sohn and Joe Marthaler were absent.)
(A quorum of the Utilities Commission was present.)

CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER

Chairperson Gayl Berkner called the Utilities Commission meeting to order
and noted a quorum of the Commission was present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE JULY 30, 2018 MEETING

Consideration was given to the minutes from the July 30, 2018 Utilities
Commission meeting. Hearing no additions or corrections, Chairperson Berkner
declared these minutes approved as mailed.

DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS

Electric Department

MRES Jackson Distribution Maintenance Foreman Jeremy Boogerd reported

the contractor for the underground electric project, Castrejon, Incorporated, is
done with their work for this year. He said Castrejon has installed all the pipe,
wires pulled and boxes set. Boogerd noted Castrejon is scheduled to be in
Jackson on September 25th to install black dirt where they dug. He said if it rains,
they should be back later in the week to finish that work.

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 Boogerd said he and Issac Rinkenberger with DGR Engineering did the final
walk through of this year’s underground electric project. He said a payment
request will be submitted to City Administrator Skaret for the City Council’s
consideration at their next Council meeting. He said there would also be a
request from Karian-Peterson for the retainage from last year’s project for the
ground restoration in order to finalize that.
Boogerd reported the Electric Department is about half-way through
terminating which will hopefully be completed in the next one to two weeks. He
said once that’s completed, they will be able to switch residents’ electric power
from the overhead to the underground electric system.
Boogerd said a boring crew is arriving on September 25th to finish the boring
on South Highway. He said most of the residents along South Highway should get
their electric power transferred over to the new underground electric system this
year. Boogerd noted the electric utility poles won’t be removed this year because
they will still need them for street lights through the winter. He said the poles will
be removed in the spring.
Boogerd noted ground has been broken for the construction of the new liquor
store. He said the Electric Department will be installing electric service for the
new store in the next few weeks.
Berkner asked when the new liquor store will be opened for business.
Skaret said the new store will be open in early 2019.
Boogerd reported a new employee has been hired to fill a vacancy in the
Electric Department. He said the new person will begin on Monday, October 1st.
Siepker asked if the Electric Department had any damage from the storms
that moved through the area on September 20th.
Boogerd said the Electric Department was really lucky. He reported there was
one utility pole that was leaned over on Sixth Street from the wind due to the
saturated wet ground. He said the pole was straightened and secured. Boogerd
said that was the only problem they had from the storms.

Water Department

Water Superintendent Tony Oxborough reported preparations have been

completed for the start of the ground water storage tank project. He said the
contractor for the project is scheduled to be in Jackson the week of October 1st.

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 Berkner asked how long it would be before the new ground storage tank
would be installed.
Oxborough said that will not occur until next year. He said what you will see
is the removal of some piping so they can pour the concrete slab that the new
tank will be located on. Oxborough said the contractor hopes to get the concrete
slab poured once the pipes are removed. He said the new tank will be installed at
the earliest opportunity in the spring. Oxborough said because of the style of
tank it is, it should go up rather quickly.
Skaret noted the City Council approved the recommendation to install a
500,000 gallon storage tank. He said the old water storage tank will be removed
once the new tank is installed. Skaret said the installation of the 500,000 gallon
tank is actually saving the City some money.
Temple noted on the disbursements information that there was quite a bit of
difference between the revenues and disbursements for the water and sewer. He
said he assumed there must be some projects underway.
Skaret said there are some expenses for engineering in regard to the South
Highway project and also expenses for the water storage tank project.
Berkner asked how things were going with the levels of the City’s lagoon
ponds.
Oxborough said everything is good with the pond levels. He said Brad
Gillingham of the MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) stopped in Jackson.
Oxborough said everything with the ponds looks good and the ponds are taken
care of real well. He said the City of Jackson is on the MPCA’s radar because of
the number of spills that have occurred over the last two years. Oxborough said
the ponds are something that will need to be worked on.
Skaret said a meeting was held on September 21st with the City’s engineer
Greg Mitchell of Bolton and Menk. He said among the topics discussed during
that three hour meeting was excess spillover which meant a couple of the lift
stations had to be bypassed during the heavy rain. Skaret said there was too
much water coming in and the pumps were not keeping up. He said the City of
Jackson wasn’t the only community that experienced that situation. However,
Skaret said with the number of times the City has had to do that, the City is on the
MPCA’s radar and will probably be required to develop a plan to fix that. He said
it’s going to be expensive to do that.

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 Skaret said the problem with sanitary sewer and the inflow and infiltration
that occurs is that the inflow is not just coming from one source. He said a big
thing they talked about is sump pumps. Skaret noted the City is trying to do some
public education about sump pumps. Skaret said the City knows they have a lot
of illegal hookups of sump pumps to the floor drains that goes directly into the
sanitary sewer. In addition, Skaret said there is water coming in through
manholes. He said there is also a lot of clay pipe in the City, especially on the east
side of Jackson that was not lined along with a project that occurred a few years
ago on the west side of the City. Skaret said the clay tile gets tree roots in it, it
cracks and when you have high ground water like you do this year you always
have water infiltrating into the sewer system as it is.
Berkner noted the east side of Jackson also has a lot of springs and is all clay.
Berkner said she has lived in Jackson since 1974 and has never seen a summer like
this with rain.
Berkner asked if there were any other items.
Skaret said he attended the Missouri River Energy Services Municipal
Leadership Academy on September 19th and 20th in Sioux Falls. He commented it
was a really good academy. Skaret explained it’s intended for newer board
members, City Administrators and Managers. He said there were about 30 who
attended from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. Skaret said
there was a lot of information presented. He pointed out there are a lot of
changes that will be coming in the electric utility industry. Skaret said solar
energy is the big thing now.
As far as electric demand growth, Skaret said it was noted at the academy
that the electric industry is not seeing much demand growth except it’s a great
unknown of what’s going to happen with electric cars. He said electric cars are
getting more and more affordable and there are some projections that by 2026 to
2028, and electric car will be more affordable than a regular powered car. He said
that’s less than 10 years away.
Siepker noted a convenience store in Sherburn that already has an electric car
recharging hookup.
Maschoff noted there is a phone app that shows locations where electric car
owners can recharge their cars and they can plan their travel route accordingly.

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 Boogerd added there’s also discussion about whether those with electric cars
will have a separate electric meter or rate to charge their car at their home. He
said another issue is if customers will be urged to charge their cars at midnight
instead of right after work during the summertime when electric demand is high.
Skaret said he has also had some conversations with Tim Miller of MRES
about doing an electric rate study in Jackson next year. He said it’s been 2014
since the last rate study was done. Skaret said it’s something that needs to be
looked at about every four or five years if not more often. He noted because the
City of Jackson is a member of MRES, it costs basically half price to have a rate
study completed compared to what MRES would charge other utilities that they
would do rate studies for.
Boogerd reported MRES has now picked up another City for a Maintenance
Distribution Program bringing the number of member cities in Minnesota to six.
Skaret said the new community is Barnesville. He said MRES will now have
Maintenance Distribution Programs with Barnesville, Oliva, Benson, Ortonville,
Jackson and Luverne. Skaret noted Barnesville is located near Moorhead and is
similar in size to Jackson.

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 – OVERVIEW

Skaret said the City Council held a workshop on September 13th where all of
the City’s Department Heads attended. He said the big emphasis of the workshop
was streets. Skaret noted the City’s engineer Greg Mitchell also attended.
Skaret explained there was a list of streets that need work put together in
2016. He said there was a list of priorities compiled by former Street
Superintendent George Tauer and former Water Superintendent Steve Beckel.
Skaret said all those streets are still a priority and need to be done. He said it’s
not only the streets, but also the underground such as the sewer and water lines.
Skaret said a lot of time was spent during the meeting with Greg Mitchell on
September 21st talking about water mains. He pointed out a map on the City
Council Chamber’s wall that showed the water system and where there have
been water main breaks over the years.

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 Skaret explained the City of Jackson has what engineers call first generation
infrastructure still in the ground. He said it’s the original street and the original
watermain. Skaret said a lot of the water main and sewer main was put in by
hand back in the 1930’s and some even earlier than that. He said all of that is
approaching the end of its life expectancy or already has and we’re just living on
borrowed time now. Skaret said the City needs to get more aggressive at tackling
these things especially with the water inflow and infiltration and the need to
meet MPCA standards.
Skaret said the City Council directed City staff to meet with the City’s engineer
to review the list. He said the list was reviewed on September 21st and some
more was added to it especially with the underground side with the water. Skaret
noted Engineer Greg Mitchell is updating the prices.
Skaret said it’s all a priority. He said it might be a situation of where the City
would need to do a larger project of $5 to $10 million instead of redoing an
individual street one year and another street a couple of years later. He
explained doing a larger project might open up some grant and low interest loan
money from PFA. Skaret noted the City has received PFA money before especially
for the City’s sanitary sewer extension project. Skaret also pointed out that when
there is a larger project, the City does get more bang for the buck as far as better
prices from contractors. He noted it’s still going to be expensive and the City’s
utility rates are going to have to go up unfortunately.
Oxborough noted the City of Jackson has the least expensive utility rates in
the area by far. He said he knows that people don’t like to have rates increased.
Skaret said it hurts and no one likes raising rates.
Berkner said the thing that bothers her in raising rates is that the City has a
large aging population that are on fixed incomes which don’t go as far as they
used to.
Siepker asked when the rates were increased last time, were they raised a
little extra so there would be extra money put in the electric and water funds so
there would be some contingency money. He inquired whether there was
contingency money in those funds.

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 Skaret said there’s not really contingency money in those funds. He pointed
out the most recent round of increases are being phased in over a three year
period and those rates were designed to accommodate the water storage tank
project and South Highway project. Skaret noted there might be a little bit of
contingency money in those funds, but probably not what’s going to be needed in
the upcoming years. Skaret said it’s certainly something that unfortunately is
going to have to be revisited again at some point once there is a more firm idea of
what we’re doing and where we’re heading.
Skaret said there was also quite of bit of discussion at the Council workshop
regarding the condition of Emily Street. He said Emily Street has been at the top
of the priority list for a long time. Skaret said the engineer had cost estimates
from 2006 when talk first started about Emily Street. He said the City Council has
had a difficult time justifying spending about a million dollars to redo Emily Street
when not a lot of residents live along that street. Skaret said it was suggested if
putting a two or four inch overlay on Emily Street would be sufficient, but that
doesn’t really address the drainage problems or the underground infrastructure
such as water, sewer and storm sewer.
Siepker commented Emily Street is also narrow.
Skaret said Emily Street varies in width anywhere from 25 to 32 feet. He said
it’s not really uniform. Skaret said an overlay is more of a band aid and as time
moves forward it will just become more expensive to reconstruct Emily Street. He
said back in 2006, the cost estimate to do the whole reconstruction of Emily
Street was about $615,000 so it’s gone from $615,000 to almost a million dollars.
Schwartz asked why Emily Street wasn’t reconstructed in 2006.
Oxborough said the reason was due to the cost back then as well. He noted
only 11 residences are located along Emily Street, while there are other projects
that also need to be completed that affect the entire community.

WATER STORAGE TANK PROJECT UPDATE

Berkner noted discussion about the Water Storage Tank Project was held
earlier in the meeting.

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SOUTH HIGHWAY PROJECT
Skaret said the Electric Department is working on putting the overhead
electric service underground along South Highway.
Boogerd said the boring crew will be in Jackson on September 25th to do the
last few stretches that need to be done on South Highway. He said wire will be
pulled through and electric service should be transferred over to the new
underground electric system hopefully by the end of October. Boogerd said the
poles will have to stay in place for the street lights over the winter. He noted
there is currently electric wire underground at some of the crossings on South
Highway that will need to be replaced due to the changes that will occur in the
level of the roadway when it’s reconstructed. Boogerd said that work will take
place in the spring after other infrastructure at those crossings is completed. He
said the Electric Department will be mostly done and out of the way on South
Highway, but they will still have some things to do next spring, but for the most
part they will have their work completed.
Skaret noted the County is planning to reconstruct South Highway next
summer. He explained the project was to be done this summer, but there was a
hold up with a property owner in acquiring right-of-way but that has been
resolved and the reconstruction project should move forward.
Skaret said the City will be replacing the water line, force main sewer
line and installing a new lift station.

CABLE TELEVISION IN JACKSON

Schwartz said he asked Maschoff to put this item on the agenda.
Schwartz asked if Southwest Minnesota Broadband has ever paid the City of
Jackson back.
Temple said Southwest Broadband is paying the City of Jackson back.
Schwartz said he’s talked to citizens who have mentioned that the cost for
television service went up and two weeks ago the service was down. Schwartz
said he was told that when customers call into to Southwest Broadband, they are
getting treated rudely and are told Southwest Broadband can’t do anything about
it and “just too tough it up”.
Schwartz noted people are getting angry. He noted first of all, customers
were forced to get the Roku boxes and subscribe to Southwest Broadband’s
internet service and it costs double the price to get what they have.

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 Schwartz said a lot of people are upset with it. He said there are a lot of
people that are going strictly to satellite television services. Schwartz said he’s
afraid that everybody is going to get away from subscribing to the local Southwest
Broadband Service and it won’t be available any longer.
Temple noted that all these television stations are charging more and more
money to carry their signal on the cable system.
Schwartz said customers do realize that channels have increased their fees.
Schwartz said he’s talked to people about that and knows that fees have
increased as he’s involved in the entertainment business.
Temple asked Schwartz what kind of complaints he’s heard from people.
Schwartz said that the television channels don’t come in.
Temple asked about the comments Schwartz has heard regarding when
customers call into Southwest Broadband.
Schwartz said people call into Southwest Broadband to ask about when the
cable service will be up and running or what’s going on and they are told by the
people answering the phone it’s just an issue and you have to deal with it and it
maybe two days before they get the problem resolved.
Berkner said maybe the people answering the phone are not the ones that
can answer the questions.
Schwartz said that might be. He said he’s talked to people who have stopped
into the Southwest Broadband office to talk with them and they’ve been treated
very badly. Schwartz said people in the community are not very happy with them.
He said those people feel the new system was forced on them.
Schwartz said the broadband and the fiber optic was supposed to be the
great thing, but look what it turned into. He also noted the price. As mentioned
earlier in the meeting, Schwartz said you talk about people on fixed incomes and
when you add another $40 to their bill for the internet or whatever and then on
top of that the water and electric rates go up.
Schwartz said he wanted to bring the issue up so it’s put on the record that
people are still quite angry about it.

RESIGNATION LETTER FROM UTILITIES COMMISSION MEMBER WENDELL SOHN

Berkner noted the letter from Wendell Sohn who is resigning from the
Utilities Commission.

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 Skaret said the City Council will have to accept Sohn’s resignation and an
appointment made to fill Sohn’s vacancy.
Berkner expressed thanks for Sohn’s service on the Utilities Commission.
SIEPKER/THURMER moved and it was unanimously carried to recommend to
the City Council to accept Wendell Sohn’s letter of resignation from the Utilities
Commission.

Other:

Clean-up following the underground electric project

Thurmer noted the crew is doing such good work with the restoration and
clean-up in connection with the underground electric project. He noted it’s much
better than what has occurred in the past.
Boogerd said the crew is still at work in Jackson. He noted the same company
will be back next year to do the restoration work for the 2019 portion of the
underground electric project. Boogerd said he would pass along Thurmer’s
comments to the crew.

ADJOURNMENT
With no further business, the Utilities Commission meeting was adjourned.
Chairperson Berkner thanked everyone for attending.

___________________________________
David A. Maschoff, Recording Secretary

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