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Home My WebLink AboutIPEC Meeting Minutes 30Apr2015I. II. INSIDE PASSAGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INSIDE PASSAGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTOR'S MEETING MINUTES April 30, 2015 CALL TO ORDER A special meeting of the Inside Passage Electric Cooperative Board of Directors convened at the Inside Passage Electric Cooperative headquarters in Juneau, Alaska on April 30, 2015. President George called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Wilbur Brown offered the invocation. Present were Richard George representing Angoon, Grace Villarreal representing Hoonah, Wilbur Brown representing Kake, Larry Beek representing the Chilkat Valley, and Christopher Hotch representing Klukwan. A quorum of the Board was established. Also present were CEO/General Manager Jodi Mitchell, Generation Supervisor Brandon Shaw, Legal Counsel Paul Jones, and Administrative Officer Jerry Medina. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Grace Villarreal moved to approve the agenda. Larry Beck seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Lary Beck moved to waive the 10 day meeting notice. Grace Villarreal seconded the motion which passed unanimously. GENERAL MANAGER'S REPORT Angoon: Nothing new to report on the Thayer project. Hoonah: The Gartina Falls hydro construction should be complete by late July or early August. A ribbon cutting ceremony was suggested once the project is complete. Long-term financing to complete the project is in progress. The line of credit will serve as a temporary financing mechanism in the interim. The interest expense can be capitalized. AEA will visit Hoonah and Kake in early May. Jodi Mitchell, Brandon Shaw, and Paul Berkshire (HDR) will also attend the meeting. While in Kake they will visit the tank farm site, meet with P.O. Box 210149 Auke Bay, Alaska 99821 (907) 789.3196 Fax (907) 790-8517 Inside Passage Electric Cooperative Board of Directors Meeting April 30, 2015 Page 2 of 4 Kake Tribal, OVK, and the City to explain IPEC's plans for Kake. Both HIA and OVK received REF funding for district heating biomass studies. Kake: Our efforts to obtain State funding to complete the Kake hydro study appear to have failed — the State is cutting or severely reducing funding across the State in order to cope with low oil prices and low oil production. Since grant funding is highly unlikely, and time is ticking by, Jodi suggested to the Board that IPEC consider using its general funds to complete the Gunnuk Creek hydro feasibility study. Doing this would advance the project toward construction sooner than later. In its recent white paper, HDR estimated about $250,000 to complete the final feasibility study, which includes 60% complete design drawings. After this step is complete we can pursue grants for final design, permitting, and construction. IPEC will need to secure site control before expending any of its general funds for the project. Grace Villarreal expressed support for IPEC using its funds to complete the study. Richard George suggested that he and Wilbur Brown visit with the Kake Mayor first. Grace Villarreal moved to approve funding up to $250,000 for a Gunnuk Creek feasibility study in Kake subject to an MOU with the City of Kake granting site control to IPEC by June 30, 2015. Larry Beck seconded the motion. The roll call vote was unanimous in favor of the motion. Jodi will work on securing site control by the Board's deadline. Chairman George recessed the meeting at 1:49 p.m. for a short break. Chairman George reconvened the meeting at 2:04 p.m. Chilkat Valley: Ms. Mitchell will visit the Haines area in May with Sealaska. IPEC was invited to make a presentation to the Yakutat City Assembly to try to convince them to join IPEC. Yakutat is considering changes to its utility structure, and wants to hear our ideas. Jodi agreed to fly up to meet with the Yakutat Assembly on May 22, 2015. She will bring along Brandon Shaw and Jason Hainline, Chilkat Valley operator/lineman. The Operations Manager position is still vacant. Jodi made an offer to an excellent candidate months ago, and this individual wants to join us, but it's complicated. Management has an alternative plan if the original plan does not fall into place. Fuel Prices: Ms. Mitchell met with Petro Marine recently. She brought up the fact that IPEC's bulk fuel price from Petro Marine is substantially higher than it is in Hoonah, where our fuel price from Hoonah Trading includes delivery by fuel truck to our tanks. It used to be that Hoonah Trading was always higher than IPEC's barge price, and she asked Petro Marine to look into it. After this meeting the Petro Marine barge price fell to $2.11 per gallon, compared to Hoonah's latest invoice of $2.75 per gallon. All is right with the world again. Inside Passage Electric Cooperative Board of Directors Meeting April 30, 2015 Page 3 of 4 The Community Based Rate Study preliminary results were shown to the board. Ms. Mitchell does not want to share this information with the public until the study is complete and when changes are officially adopted by the board. AEA has been gently but firmly nudging IPEC for years to implement community based rates. Separately but at the same time, Jodi has been working with legal counsel and DHittle & Associates on a system wide cost of service study. This study is required by the RCA as part of IPEC's participation in the simplified rate filing (SRF) procedure. These studies can take weeks or months to finalize, as they can be complex and there are several ways to allocate costs in keeping with cost-causer/cost-payer relationships. The plan is to update the study with 2014 audited information and present it to the RCA at the end of June. It may be that the Board will want to use the results to implement rate changes between rate classes. IV. OPERATIONS UPDATE An overhaul was completed on engine #1 in Angoon, while there streetlight issues were also addressed. There are some small projects underway in the Chilkat Valley. We are still waiting for a legal agreement for the street lights in Klukwan. The tariff will need to be updated to reflect those changes. In Hoonah the penstock for the Gartina Falls hydro is being placed to the falls. The power house concrete has been completed with the woodwork underway. David Buss of EPS will commission the new hydro plant. In Kake - we should have more information on the new power house by the end of the summer. V. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER'S UPDATE Jerry Medina handed out flight schedules for the annual meeting held in Angoon on May 1st. IPEC has chartered with Ward Air with two flights. The first flight leaves Juneau at 8:00 a.m. with staff arriving in Angoon at 8:40 a.m. The second flight leaves Juneau at 9:00 a.m. with the board, attorney, and ballot counters. Everyone will need to be at Ward Air a half hour prior to departure. The doors at the elementary school gym will open at 10:00 a.m. with the meeting to begin at 11:30 a.m. A box lunch, coffee, soda, and water will be served along with donuts for dessert. The first return flight leaves at 3:00 p.m. with the second flight leaving at 4:00 p.m. VI. OLD BUSINESS Inside Passage Electric Cooperative Board of Directors Meeting April 30, 2015 Page 4 of 4 The next board meeting was set for July 10" in Juneau. VII. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business. VIII. DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS Christopher Hotch mentioned there are two IPEC Facebook pages. Jerry Medina will look into deleting the old one. Larry Beck stated he likes IPEC proceeding with the Gunnuk Creek feasibility study. IX. ADJOURNMENT Larry Beck moved to adjourn. Christopher Hotch seconded the motion which passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 2:53 p.m. Grace Villarreal, President ` ATTEST: Wilbur Brown, Secretary/Treasurer