SE steam heat shutdown on five-year plan

Fewer customers, operating loss make steam

system vulnerable

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- The Sleepy Eye Public Utilities Commission announced last week that the possible end of municipal steam heat service is on its five-year plan.

No shutdown date has been set yet.

The plan was not given a priority level on the plan list.

Sleepy Eye Public Utilities Superintendent Dave Logue said the decision to eliminate steam heat service has not yet been made. The plan is still in theory.

However, he said that due to a declining number of commercial customers and an $8,000 revenue loss last year, it is on the hit list.

Several downtown building owners that use steam heat are upset that it is on the list. They expressed their feelings to the PUC at its October 10 meeting.

Sleepy Eye Utilities Superintendent David Logue said that the city lost money due to steam heat leaks last year, largely due to 200 feet of bad pipe between the municipal power plant and Main Street.

He said there are currently 28 downtown buildings using steam heat, according to Logue.

He expects several of them will discontinue using it over the coming year.

Logue said that the steam line underneath Main Street is still in good shape since it was replaced in 1984.

Several downtown building owners at the meeting expressed an interest in a municipal reimbursement program to help them convert to other types of heating systems.

The City of Sleepy Eye offered financial help in 1995 when steam heat was discontinued to residential, school and nursing home customers.

Bob Weiss, chairman of the PUC, said the commission discussed such a program for downtown businesses but did not work out the details yet.

Downtown business owner John Haas said the cost to convert from steam to forced-air heat was estimated to cost him $20,000-$30,000.

He said the expense would make it difficult for him to remain in business.

Haas, who is in the printing business, said he could see both sides of the issue but said he would be willing to pay higher steam heat rates to cover the city's revenue loss instead of adding a new heating system to his building.

Ray Mielke, an original Sleepy Eye PUC member also attended the meeting. He said said he thought the poor steam pipe problem could be rectified by putting a new pipe inside the older, defective pipe.

Mielke said the work would not involve digging up the street since tunnels were already in place for the existing steam heat system.

Logue said adding new steam pipes via a manhole to the tunnel is not as easy as it sounds.

Area towns are at both sides of the steam heat spectrum.

Springfield recently discontinued steam heat service while it is alive and well in New Ulm.

Steam heat wasn't the only hot issue at the meeting.

* Former PUC member Phil Heymanns questioned the PUC about why it donated $150,000 to the Sleepy Eye Economic Development Authority and purchased another $500,000 diesel powered generator.

Weiss said he foresees power future power shortages.

Logue said the generators will pay for themselves over time.

Heymanns asked for documentation verifying they would do so. He also passed out website information on the 534-megawatt Tenaska electric generation peaking facility to be built next year at Lakefield Junction, eight miles northwest of Trimont.

Heymann contended that the six natural gas-fueled General Electric combustion turbine generators, to be operational by next summer, will be able to provide the city with more power than it would ever need.

* The PUC also said that water rates would need to be raised 12.8 percent or property owners would be assessed to pay for debt service on 2001 water main projects.

Logue will compare Sleepy Eye water rates with other communities and find out how they are handling new projects.

* The Sleepy Eye Baseball Association sent the PUC a $384 bill for extra temporary electricity service used during the state amateur baseball tournament this summer.

The PUC took no action on the invoice, agreeing that it was the baseball association's responsibility to pay for the extra service.

* The commission waived an $1,132 charge for Corn Day celebration labor and materials.