By: Timothy Kays
At their April 7 meeting held via teleconference, the Bryan Board of Public Affairs (BPA) adopted a temporary series of policies targeting utility shutoff protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, suspending disconnects until May 1.
Resolution 15-2020, adopting a temporary COVID-19 utility policy, was explained in detail by Ms. Dawn Fitzcharles, Bryan Municipal Utilities (BMU) Operations Manager, who said, “We’ve had lots of customers call us and ask us questions about what we’re doing, and how we’re going to do it. So to go through a couple of items, we temporarily suspended our non-pay utility disconnects for customers on Monday, March 16.”
“And so in this temporary utility policy, it was established to give those experiencing financial hardship extra time to make payments. And so we would like to propose that suspension of disconnects to be in place through May 1, at which time the suspension would be reevaluated. As we go forward, day by day, we don’t really know the time period that we’re looking at. May 1 is just an estimate.”
“We also have encouraged our customers to seek financial assistance and try to keep up on payments. When the temporary disconnect suspension is done and we resume the disconnections, customers will receive a 48-hour notice of disconnection by a disconnection tag at the service address. At that time, if a customer has not already made arrangements, they will need to make arrangements for payments.”
“We also have put out several different customer messages, as well as offered different organizations that are available to help. And we also want to make it known that BMU customers will continue to receive late notices, and the reason that we made the choice for them to continue to receive late notices is because a lot of people are not able to get assistance through some social organizations if they don’t have that late notice.”
“In the temporary policy,” Ms. Fitzcharles continued, “…we would like to ask the Board’s permission to waive late payment penalties on bills rendered on or after April 20, through July 19, and the waiving of penalties would go across all of our billing cycles equally.”
“But even during this time, BMU will continue to have to pay the power supply costs and the water treatment costs in order to continue to provide services, and as an organization we’ll have to do that regardless if our retail customers are able to pay us or not.”
“So anyway we can work with them and help them keep current or a payment plan in place will help us in the long run.” The Board unanimously approved the measure.
BPA member Karen Ford mentioned organizations that people can contact for help, and asked Ms. Fitzcharles if she could share that information or explain where they can look the information up and get the phone numbers.
“Eric Herman,” Ms. Fitzcharles replied, “…also put together a spot on our website that customers can go to if they’re having any problems, or needs to send a quick question. Our website now has a chat feature with someone on the other end to answer their question relatively quickly, within normal hours. On our website, we have all of this information.”
“We have the Bryan Good Neighbors Fund. Then there’s the Northwest Ohio Community Action Coalition, which their office is currently closed, but they are doing phone interviews, and from what I’m being told they’re able to assist people relatively quickly. The United Way Williams County, and we also have the 211 First Call for Help.”
“The governor also extended the HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) program until May 1. I think that is typically is done the last day of March, so that’s an additional resource that’s available as well. And that’s administered through NOCAC… Northwest Ohio Community Action.”
The Board then addressed Resolution #16-2020, a measure ratifying the agreement with Local #245 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), governing the wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment for employees within the collective bargaining unit.
“What we did,” reported Bryan Clerk-Treasurer Laura Rode, “…is we came up with a three-year contract with the IBEW negotiating team, and the contract runs from April 1 of 2020 through March 31 of 2023. Within the changes that we looked at, we had a few language clarifications throughout the contract.”
“We added a veteran’s holiday to match what the non-union employees were receiving. We also had some miscellaneous allowance and wage adjustments with a 3% wage increase for each year of the contract, effective on April 1 of each year.” The Board approved the measure without dissent.
Next on the agenda was Resolution #17-2020, a measure authorizing wage adjustments for non-bargaining unit hourly and salaried staff. This is the annual wage increase for BMU employees that are not within the bargaining unit. Other city employees received wage increases on January 1, while BMU currently does the same on April 1 of every year.
As of April 1, all non-union employees that are full time will receive a 3% increase, and part-time employees will receive a 1.5% increase. Three percent is the same increase that the Bryan City Council opted to give their employees on January 1. The Board unanimously approved the measure.
The Board agreed to adopt Resolution #18-2020 authorizing Mayor Carrie Schlade to enter into a contract with Bryan Excavating LLC for the 2020 Street Improvements for Bryan North Industrial Park, connecting Bement Street and Paige Street.
“This Bryan North Industrial Park project,” said Ms. Fitzcharles, “…was budgeted for in our 2020 budget. If you recall, we had two projects that we were doing jointly with the city. This is the second one, which will be from West Bement Street to Paige Street, and includes a water main extension of 1,233 feet, 12-inch PVC water main, two fire hydrants and four valves.”
“(City Engineer) Brian Wieland helped put this project together along with BMU engineering…and also got it approved via Ohio EPA. So now we are here before you today asking for permission for the Mayor to enter into a contract with Bryan Excavating LLC, who is the one that won the bid for this project. The water main portion that we’ll end up paying for after the grant is about $28,930.”
“That’s a really good deal; we thank Brian for all that he’s done to help us.” Board member Tom Sprow asked, “Do we have a completion date and estimated completion date on this project?” Although no firm date was given, it was agreed that it will be completed before the end of the year if the grant funds arrive in time.
The Board also passed Resolution #19-2020, authorizing the advance and transfer of funds for the aforementioned 2020 Street Improvements for Bryan North Industrial Park.
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com