The Board of Public Works of Trenton Municipal Utilities held a short meeting on Monday morning at city hall.
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he Board of Public Works of Trenton Municipal Utilities held a short meeting on Monday morning at city hall.
Board members discussed electric customers who have not yet paid the deferred amount due.
Last summer an error was made by TMU staff in not switching from winter to summer rates, which resulted in customers paying the lower winter rate. The amount of the undercharge for each customer was calculated and customers were given until April 18 to pay the amount.
Comptroller Theresa Price provided information which showed there were 25 customers that have paid their current bills, but not all of the deferred amount due. Only 10 of those have made no payment on the deferred amount.
An additional 80 customers are delinquent on their current bills with 24 having made payments on their deferral with 56 having made no payment on the deferral.
The board unanimously approved working with those customers who are making payments on their bills and to proceed with the utilities? normal practice of collection on the other outstanding amounts.
Mrs. Price also noted and the board approved the writing off of $22,256.13 in utility service debts. All the accounts have been turned over to a collection agency and attempts will continue to obtain the money, however the action will remove the amount from the utilities? books.
The board also approved a schedule providing for penalties for industrial wastewater users that exceed allowable limits.
TMU Director Chad Davis said the change would only affect one or two users, most notably ConAgra Grocery Products.
Davis said the schedule would be put in place as to what the cost would be should the limits be exceeded and both the utility and customer would know what the amount charged would be. He said that based on past usage, the amount would probably be only a few hundred dollars a year and gives incentive to ConAgra to operate as efficiently as possible.
A pay request from Nowalk Construction on the Tinsman Sewer project was approved in the amount of $82,621.22. Davis said the company is about 85 percent complete on the project, including the change orders approved at the meeting earlier this month.
In informational items, Davis said White Cloud Engineering has begun work on the water line extension in the area of Pleasant Plain. He said he has spoken with Barnes Greenhouse and since they are in their busy season, work has begun on Mable Street with the work near the greenhouse to be done this summer.
Davis also told the board the south station electric generators were tested last week and the three new generators have been accepted for credits by the Missouri Public Energy Pool beginning May 1. Having the generators available will allow them to pay for themselves through the credits the utility will receive from the electric pool from which it purchases power as well as provide emergency generation capacity for the community.
Davis noted one of the two 69 Kv breakers has been installed with work to begin on the second one. The failure of one of the breakers caused a brief power outage on Christmas Day.