Shedding Some Light...March 4, 2015
Water Department Meeting-
FY 14 Water Report will be submitted soon.
Water mains and Leaks - there have been 4 water service leaks. One 6" main at Baker's Lane. The cold patch on Baldwinville Rd will be repaved at a later date.
Water Collections - For those water customers in arrears, the Water Department will begin shutting off water service.
Backhoe update - $2,700 to replace a steering knuckle.
Hydrant Clearing Thank You!
Light Department Meeting -
DOR Audit - The Worcester Office of the DOR has been audited the TMLWP books looking at sales tax on energy payments for commercial businesses. DOR will return on Monday.
OPEB Trust- The Light department has established an account to begin funding OPEB (Other post employment benefits) liabilities. This account has been setup with MMWECC in the MMWECC Blended Trust which is an account of bonds and equities that carries a higher. $1,800 in total gains has been posted since Feb. 2014.
Wind Turbine-
The wind turbine has been down since January 27, 2015.
There have been three issues with the repair of the wind turbine -
1. The ground ring was grooved. Initially it was going to take 5-6 weeks to obtain the part. They were able to get the part from an AER turbine in CA. Princeton had the same issue the same week.
2. Coolant was found on the nacelle floor when repairing the ground ring. This leak was traced back to a faulty hose clamp on the heat exchanger.
3. One of the brushes was put in backwards causing the brush holder to rub on the slip ring. There was a bur on the brush holder which had to be filed down. An new error message occurred upon restart. It was traced back to the converter cabinet. ASC (American Superconductor) was called in. The error message was caused by a kink in the fiber optic cables.
The turbine should be operational by tomorrow...
Wind Turbine Debt -
Chairman Dana Blais had requested information on the possibility of pre-paying the debt for the turbine. The 2.1 million CREB loan can not be repaid early. The $993,750 loan from People's can be repaid early...after 2017. The turbine debt will continue for 10 more years.
Collections -
Not as bad as the Water department.
Collections -
Not as bad as the Water department.
It makes me wonder if the Wind Turbine will out live it's loan ? Bev.
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ReplyDeleteAnother gigantic crowd to be had at the L+W meeting. Even Dana didn't go. I can say that you didn't either.
ReplyDeleteAs for the room for others,plenty. It was only myself and selectmen Farrell. She shows her interest like no others.
I have all the respect in the world for her and she needs to keep up the good work. Time will tell if she is again only a minority vote. With 3 school choice people on the board guess how this season will work out. Comments made by some at the last meetings indicate the funds for the schooi district are under effort. guess the raises will again be in order. How will the new school a town project get funded if we have no bond rate due to the audit or unaudited state we're in. Kind of have to wonder about ht eeffort amount and if we can ever catch the change they want.
Thank you Julie!