RESOLUTION PASSAGE … The Bryan Board of Public Affairs passed Resolution 11. This assigns operations manager Derek Schultz as the prevailing wage coordinator for Bryan Municipal Utilities. (PHOTO BY DANIEL COOLEY, STAFF)
By: Daniel Cooley
The February 15 meeting of Bryan Public Affairs (BPA) began with the Pledge of Allegiance. All five board members, Jim Salsbury, Annette Schreiner, Karen Ford, Dick Long and Tom Sprow, were in attendance.
The Bryan BPA started things off by approving of the meeting minutes from February 1.
The BPA then approved Resolution 9. allowing director of utilities Nate Gardner to enter into an agreement with American Municipal Power (AMP) and Key Accounts Services. The AMP conducts Key Account’s programs.
That was followed by BPA’s approval of Resolution 10. This allows Gardner to advertise bids for work on the power plant, upgrading the facility. “The (utilities) crew will do a lot of the construction,” Gardner said.
Next, the BPA approved Resolution 11. Here, operations manager Derek Schultz will be the wage coordinator for Bryan Municipal Utilities.
Schultz will be the Bryan Municipal Utilities representative and transfers the prevailing wage coordinator responsibility that used to belong to the now vacant engineering supervisor position. It is not a promotion position for Schultz.
“(Derek) will oversee the operations and projects and frees up the director to do other things,” Gardner said.
The electric utilities and power plant and Auglaize hydroelectric plants then gave end of the year reports.
In the electric department, there was a bit of a recovery for the year, after the pandemic crisis brought a five year low kilowatt hour usage of $169,504,90 for the year 2020.
This past year’s usage was $173,512,214, but the second lowest of the past five years, with a five year peak of $191,625,089 in 2018.
The electric department completed more than 50 projects, which included the recent Biggby Coffee Service project.
In the power plant and Auglaize hydroelectric report, peak shaving for the combined power plant, Auglaize and Bryan Solar Field brought a total savings of $737,613. Also, the total transmission savings of the three sources came to $3,861,919.
There were close to 20 completed projects for the power plant, Auglaize and solar field. Next, the BPA dealt with the semi-monthly disbursements, approving of the paying of the bills.
Gardner commented that the electric department has done great things and he thanked the whole department team.
Mayor Carrie Schlade stated that she “appreciates the collaboration between the departments.” Sprow thanked Gardner, Al Sullivan and Jim Coressel for the good presentations.
Long echoed Schlade’s comments and Salsbury commented that when the groups work together well, it helps to keep the cost down.
The BPA then voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Dan can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com