Electric

crews

busy

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Facilitating progress on the U.S. Highway 14 reconstruction project and moving a transformer and 500 feet of distribution cables at the New Ulm Medical Center to facilitate its construction project are keeping electric division crews hopping, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission was told Tuesday.

Work in connection with the highway project includes street light system removals and the relocation of the main three-phase feeder at the intersection of Garden Street and Highway 14, Director Gary Gleisner said. Because of an aggressive project schedule, crews have been committing "considerable time" to the project and "will be putting in some extra hours for the next several weeks," Gleisner said.

Gas service

However, a letter from Northern Natural Gas demanding payment of $129,000 for redundant natural gas service by 5 p.m. on May 19 caught the commissioners' attention.

Gleisner said NNG had been contacted, and negotiations were under way. Gleisner said he felt the matter would be resolved "for a lot less than $129,000."

Answering a question regarding the need for a redundant service, NUPU's director of engineering, Dan Sonnek, said it was prudent to have backup service even though the utility now gets its gas from the Hutchinson Public Utilities pipeline.

"But we wouldn't be able to run the city on that alone because it has to be blended with the natural gas (from the pipeline)," Sonnek said.

Pipeline noise

Gleisner reported two options still are being considered for controlling the noise surrounding New Ulm's interconnect with the Hutchinson line on KC road.

"Our preference would be to build an insulated building over it, but we don't know if the county will let us do that. If not, then we would try to insulate the pipes in order to cut down on noise," Gleisner explained.

Bike trail

PUC President James Hogen expressed his concern about having the bike trail going through the Center (Street) substation. Gleisner reported NUPU is working to contractor to repair, replace and install new sections of the ground grid affected by the trail construction.

"How did we end up (having the trail) going so close to a substation?" Hogen asked.

He was told the trail's route had been determined several years ago when the project was first planned.

"I question the wisdom of going that close, but what's done is done."

Audit

Hogen also wondered when the utility would have its audit with the final financials for 2003.

City Clerk-Treasurer Reginald Vorwerk said the auditors had finished their field work in the past couple weeks so "we'll probably have the audit sometime in June."

"Probably?" Hogen asked. "Well, I sure hope it doesn't go beyond June."

With a net margin of $335,045 in April, the utility pulled to within less than $200,000 of its budgeted year-to-date net margin. The year-to-date net margin is $1,061,779 which compares with a budgeted net margin of $1,218,517. The natural gas division led the way in April with a $321,319 net margin.

The combined City-PUC investment portfolio totaled $24,477,99.63 as of May 18, 2004. The portfolio's weighted average yield for the month was 3.05 percent. The utility's portion of the portfolio is estimated at between $14.5 million and $15.5 million, according to Vorwerk.