The Board of Public Works of Trenton Municipal Utilities held its regular meeting on Tuesday evening at Trenton City Hall and discussed several items.
The board approved a resolution to seek certificates of participation in the bond market to finance improvements in the wastewater department and electric department. Approximately $6.1 million will be borrowed, which will allow for $3.9 million in useable funds for wastewater treatment issues including disinfection of the effluent at the wastewater plant before it is discharged into Muddy Creek.
Approximately $1.3 million of the funds will be used to adapt the diesel-powered electric generators the utility owns to comply with Environmental Protection Agency emission standards known as the RICE rules. The rest of the remaining funds will be used for interest expenses associated with the borrowing of the funds.
The resolution will go to the city council for its approval at the Feb. 10 meeting and, if the issuance goes as planned, the money could be available by March 11. Charlie Zitnik of D.A. Davidson and Co., who will handle the issuance of the certificates for TMU, praised the city for going through its credit rating process in 2012, which allowed the issuance of this indebtedness to go more smoothly and quickly. The interest rate on the issuance is expected to be about 4.5 percent.
The board also approved a resolution opposing the passage of any laws in the Missouri General Assembly limiting local control and cost recovery for usage of city-owned utility assets. TMU Director Chad Davis said the issue involves rates which can be charged when telecommunications companies (phone, cable television, etc.) place their lines on city-owned utility poles. Investor-owned utilities have their rates set by the Federal Communications Commission while municipal utilities can negotiate their rates. Davis said TMU charges comparable rates charged by other municipalities and receives about $14,000 in income annually. The proposed legislation would require municipalities to comply with the FCC guidelines. There is concern that municipalities might not be able to recover their costs if they are forced to comply with the FCC rates.
Also approved by the board was a memo on net metering which is when customer-owned generators provide electricity back to the utility. TMU currently has no customers with the ability to generate electricity but the memo spells out how the connections and payment for energy would be made.
Both Davis and Comptroller Rosetta Marsh said work has begun for capital and operating budgets for the utility with the new year beginning in May.
Davis also reported work continues on testing the ability of the utility to start and generate its own power when there is a loss of purchased power from its provider. He said efforts are being made to find a way to simulate the startup of the system without actually having to completely take the power down to all customers.
An executive session was held following the regular meeting for legal and audit reasons with no announcement being made following the session. All votes taken at the meeting were 3-0 with Mark Cole absent.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the board will be Tuesday, Feb. 25 and a budget planning session was tentatively set for Tuesday, March 4.
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