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The Salem Electric Board of Directors met on
February 24, 1998 at 7:00 p.m. All board members were present.
Conservation Report
Member Services Manager, Terry Kelly, reported that
SE has found a dimmable compact fluorescent bulb and may add them to the other
bulbs offered by the conservation department. Prior fluorescent bulbs required
a special dimmer that was quite expensive.
Kelly brought a recommendation to the board
regarding SE's loan program. In April 1993, the board implemented the loan
program with a budget of $150,000. In January 1994, the board increased the
budget by $150,000 and changed the variable interest rate to a fixed 5%
rate. At the August 1996 board meeting, they added heat pumps to the loan
program. This increased the activity and loan amounts. In August 1997, the
board approved an additional $39,300 of unbudgeted BPA administrative funds to
be included in the program. Before adding heat pumps to the program, the loan
account replenished itself by loan payments. Increased loan amounts and loan
activity has depleted the available balance for new loans.
To avoid continued requests for additional funding
from the board, staff proposed that SE enter into an agreement with Commercial
Bank to adopt the current Salem Electric Loan Program. The following changes
would be made to the program guidelines:
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A $100 loan fee is required (half paid by SE, half by the
participant).
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The interest rate will be bought down by SE from 9.5%.
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A lien will be filed on each home.
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SE will guarantee each loan for the first 90 days.
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Maximum amount of loan will be increased from $5,000 to $7,500.
Salem Electric will keep the existing loans,
totaling approximately $335,000. A motion was made by Anderson, seconded
by Culver and carried unanimously to approve the staff recommendation.
Manager's Report
Manager, Bob Speckman, informed the board that SE
will sponsor a run as part of the Keizer Iris Festival. He said this fits
nicely with plans to be more visible in our service area.
Regarding the upcoming director election, Speckman
said there have been a total of eight petition packets picked up to date.
Purchase of BPA Substations
In 1996, BPA developed a rate structure that
separated their generation and transmission rates to comply with Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) rulings. It was determined that any facilities at
34.5 kV or below were not considered transmission and could not be included in
the transmission rate. BPA developed a delivery charge of $0.75 per peak kW per
month, to cover their costs for these facilities. For SE, this charge is
applied to all power received through Salem Substation, Salem Alumina
Substation and Brush College Substation. In 1997, this charge was
$457,000. BPA has offered to sell these three substations for a combined total
of $2,262,000. A private consulting firm was retained, with board approval, to
determine the feasibility of the substations and to assess their value. Motion
was made by Anderson and seconded by Wolf to accept the recommendation by staff
as presented and authorize staff to negotiate the purchase of the three
substations. Motion carried unanimously.
1998 Budget Adjustments
Motion was made by Anderson, seconded by Towslee,
and carried unanimously to approve budget adjustments to account for an extra
$883,000 in cash at year end. The surplus was due to increased revenue and
power sales, and unspent conservation budget funds.
Donation Request
A request for a donation of $1,500 was made by Mike
Duggan, Chairman of the Salem Concert Band. He said the members, all
volunteers, each pay $20 in membership dues to play in the band. They perform
four times per year at the Elsinore Theater. The donations would be used to aid
in fund raising to improve advertising and increase their audience.
Towslee and Wolf expressed concern about where the
dollars would be spent. Anderson suggested that this would be seed money used
to help them succeed. Motion was made by Anderson and seconded by Culver to
contribute $500. Motion carried with all members except Wolf voting in
approval.
Other Business
Towslee reported that the General Manager Evaluation
had been completed and she would schedule a meeting with Speckman within the
next few days. Towslee also reported that the committee recommends that
six-month evaluations be discontinued and the general manager evaluation be
done on an annual basis, with the next evaluation taking place in January 1999.
The committee's motions carried unanimously.
--Bill Wolf, Secretary/Treasurer
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