By: Tim Kays
“Something I would never thought I’d see on this agenda,” said Bryan Board of Public Affairs Chairman Tom Sprow on the evening of January 19, as the BPA moved to regretfully accept the resignation of Bryan Municipal Utilities Operations Manager, Dawn Fitzcharles.
In 2017, Ms. Fitzcharles came to BMU from Edgerton where as Village Administrator, she helped bring that community back from a financial precipice. While with BMU, Ms. Fitzcharles was out in front during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, personally pushing to make the BMU Good Neighbor Program a viable safe port in a frequently stormy financial sea for BMU customers.
She is resigning from her BMU post to return to her previous position in Edgerton.
“I just want to let everybody know that she gave her formal notice of resignation as role of Ops Manager on January 5,” said Director of Utilities Nathan Gardner.
“Her final day will be January 29. On behalf of BMU, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dawn for everything she’s done for BMU during her time here. And on a personal level, I appreciate the support, guidance and encouragement that she’s provided to me.”
“While I will miss her expertise, enthusiasm and generosity, I wish Dawn the best of luck, continued success as she pursues her path in her career.”
Board Vice-Chair Jim Salsbury said, “From the time I served as Board Chair and the number of dilemmas that we’ve dealt with lately, the pandemic and when the government started shutting things down, and we didn’t know which way we were going to go.”
“Even some issues that arose before that, Dawn…always handled things well; she was always willing to give of her personal time. She never complained; never let me feel like I was infringing on her time so I do wish her the best. Edgerton is getting a good one.”
“I’d like to echo the same thing you said, Jim,” said Board member Dick Long. “And you know, 2020 was not a kind year to us, to say the least. We had a lot of things to deal with, and between you Jim, Dawn and myself, we bailed water out of that canoe buddy to keep it from sinking, and if it wasn’t for Dawn’s leadership, we’d have never got through it.”
“I’ll always appreciate that of Dawn. She did a remarkable job. She never faltered…had to keep her from stressing out a few times and check on her a lot, but she handled herself very well. I’m going to miss her dearly, and I’m proud to call her my friend.”
“I know we can call on her if we need any questions; she always seems to find answers. I’m going to miss you a lot, Dawn.” “I understand it’s a better fit for your family, and you know, family comes first. I wish you nothing but the best, and who knows…maybe someday we’ll see you back.”
Board member Karen Ford said, “I wish you the very best, and I’m sorry to see you go. I had high hopes for you here, and still do.”
“Like Dick said, maybe someday you’ll come back. Hope so. You’ve been a good inspiration, and I’ve heard very, very good things. People loved working with you here. We will be missing you.”
Board member Annette Schreiner said, “Dawn, your leadership, your knowledge, your all around personality, just who you are…I’m going to miss you and wish you nothing but the best on your next endeavor.”
“So to kind of sum it up,” Sprow concluded, “Dawn, you’ve been an asset to BMU. We thank you for your time, and we’re sorry to see you go. Best of everything in your new endeavor; we will miss you.”
“I just want to take this time as an opportunity to publicly thank the BPA,” Ms. Fitzcharles said. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work for BMU and the City of Bryan.”
“I’ve been extremely honored to be part of such a professional team. I believe that board service is one of the toughest semi-volunteer roles of law, and each of you performed with dedication and tenacity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The BPA distinguished themselves as judicious stewards of our organization, and never flinched in the face of a difficult decision. You guys were all extremely supportive and great to me, and I appreciate it.”
“I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all of my BMU co-workers: Nate, the Mayor, Rhonda (Fisher), Laurie (Rode), her office. I just want to thank you all for your contributions.”
“Over the last three years, I’ve learned a lot, and as I look back on my time with BMU, please know that nothing done here would have been possible if it were not for each member of the team. As Dick already alluded to, if anything pops up, anything’s ever needed, just pick up the phone and call.”
The Board adopted Resolution 2-2021, authorizing Mr. Gardner to execute an agreement with Tatman Associates of Cleveland for the purchase of the 69 kV Substation Structures for the 34.5 kV Upgrade Project. The engineer’s estimate for the project came in at $157,250.
Power Production Superintendent Jim Coressel said, “I’m requesting to accept the Tatman Associates bid.” The Board received two bids, the Tatman bid of $178,100 being $35,350 lower than the competitor.
“They had three alternatives that they added,” Coressel continued. “One was to upgrade the switches to Cleaveland/Price. Cleaveland has a little more robust connection. The USCO ones split in the middle and swing away, where the Cleavelands are more of a knife.”
“So, they have a more mechanically positive stop on them. And then also Alternate Two and Alternate Three was to use a different steel company. And so by accepting those alternatives, we even got the bid down to $158,650.
Tatman was also the structures that we used out at the Industrial Park…so we’re very familiar with their product.” The Board approved the measure unanimously.
The second measure was Resolution 3-2021, authorizing Gardner to execute an agreement with the Virginia/Georgia Transformer Corporation of Roanoke, Virginia, for the purchase of two 69/4.16 kV power transformers for the 34.5 kV Upgrade Project.
“As you all know,” Coressel said, “…we previously had the transformers bid at 10 MVA (Megavolt Amperes), which was twice as much as what we really needed. So we had asked to go back and get them at 5 MVA, and then also look at possibility of a remanufactured one.”
“The original bids that came in from Virginia for instance was at $1,145,297. So our initial savings would have been in the neighborhood of $269,000 with the engineering estimate bid at $990,009.”
“What happened was is that Virginia came back in with the 5 MVA with delivery and set up at a total of $876,152. But you have to add in the delivery and things like that, so it did come in at the $990,000, closer to that.”
“So we did come in with the savings of $269,000 compared to the original bid. With the engineer’s estimate for the rebid of $990,000, there was a total savings of $155,297 from the previous 10 MVA transformers.”
“We only received one bid. We were a little disappointed in that because I thought for sure maybe one of the remanufactured people would step up and we would get a little better price on that, but still only Virginia/Georgia came in at the price of $876,152 so they actually came in below the engineering bid. But we’ve got the delivery that we have to add in there.”
Mr. Long asked, “What is the lead time on that transformer from today?” “Nine months; somewhere around there,” Coressel answered. The Board approved the bid without dissent.
The Board adopted Resolution 4-2021 authorizing the appropriation and transfer of $900,000 from the Electric Fund to the Electric Capital Reserve Fund…and the transfer and appropriation of $143,000 for the total transfer of $1,043,000.
It was explained that the proposed transfer and appropriation are following the electric cash reserve policy, and the total electric balances are above the estimated minimum fund balance of $9.5 million. The combined total for the Electric and the Capital Reserve funds as of December 31, 2020, is just a little over a $13.5 million.
In order to provide cash funding for the 2021 capital projects for the Electric Department, BMU further recommended the transfer an appropriation be considered and recommended to City Council later in the day for concurrence.
Through the adoption of Resolution 5-2021, the Board authorized the purchase of a 2022 HV607 International tandem axle dump truck from Selking International of Bryan to replace the current tandem axle dump truck, a 1993 International that Water Treatment Supervisor Derek Schultz described as, “…at the end of its useful life.” “27 years old,” he continued, “…and has had many repairs done to it throughout the years.”
“Currently, it’s inoperable. We did try an inexpensive repair to see if we could buy some time and put it back into service, but unfortunately it didn’t work. A new transmission will cost, $8,500, which we believe to be more than the value of the truck. There’s also other areas of concern.”
“There’s a hydraulic leak on the dump body boom; the exhaust system needs replaced. The fuel tank needs replaced. The left rear hub needs replaced, and the air compressor for the brake system is leaking oil.”
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
