UAB 062921M
Mountain Iron Utility Advisory Board
Minutes
29 June 2021
Meeting was called to order 4:07 p.m. by Chairperson Renzaglia
Members present: Reynold Renzaglia, Sue Tuomela, Bret Renzaglia, Jacob Osell Others present: Tim Satrang, Public Works Director, and Lisa Stevens, Accounting Technician. Absent member: Paul Jacobsen, and Joe Prebeg, council liason.
Moved by Reynold Renzaglia supported by Sue Tuomela to approve the Consent Agenda including the 18 May 2021 Minutes. Motion carried unanimously.
Moved by Sue Tuomela and supported by Bret Renzaglia that the consent agenda be approved with adding
- A. Broadband
- CIPP Sewer Lining
Communications: None
Public Forum: Councilor Roskoski in audience: he questioned Mr. Satrang about the different water meters throughout the years and how they were read. First they were manually read, then there was a device placed on the outside of the house that can be read electronically. It’s the City’s goal to have everyone upgraded to the iperl water meter that can trend data and be read automatically.
Reports:
Electrical:
There was a major outage on Friday, June 25 where MN Power’s side dropped a phase. Virginia and residents of Mountain Iron coming in the from the Virginia feed were effected with little to no power. The outage lasted about 1.5 hours. The dropped phase caused small fires in the City of Virginia and many fire departments had to assist, but no real damage seemed to occur.
Another similar situation happened by Silver Creek where an overhead electrical line started sparking. Due to the dry conditions and fear of fire, power in the Lambert area was interrupted until it was fixed.
Water:
No major breaks at this time. Tim is putting together water line replacement projects with some federal money from the American Recovery Act. These are shovel ready projects that have been difficult for us to repair and would help in the long run in expenses for the City.
Old Business:
Voltage upgrade: The feed from Virginia currently runs over by the WESCO facility on Enterprise Drive North, east end, and an emergency connection by the Sherwin Williams store on Mt. Iron Drive. The goal to get off of Virginia’s feed and directly on to MN Power’s system would include to build a power line and connect over the highway according to the MP engineer. We would need a DOT permit and DNR permit to cross a creek.
Joe questioned about the height requirements for over the highway wiring. Tim said yes there would be and the DOT would be working with us to get those details. Preliminary idea is that it would be a wood 60-65foot poll to span across so that there would not need to be a pole in the median.
Opted Out Policy: Discussion took place again about the Opt Out Policy and was noted that it was passed by City Council with the $25 penalty fee for not using the automatic read meters.
New Business:
Broadband: Ed was told by the council to present his broadband idea to the UAB. Discussion took place about what all was involved, however there are multiple private agencies available in our area to provide this service. The UAB decided that broadband is not a utility, therefore would not be making any decisions in regards to this.
Transformer Storage Area: Benchmark will come in to stake out a square area and will get a price from a fence company so that this project gets done. It is located up on the hill behind the city garage, and the project is starting to move forward. It should be done within the next two months.
CIPP Sewer Lining: The city received some CDBG monies for the slip lining project. Downtown has had slip lining done thanks to this grant and is seeing positive things. The next area would be from downtown to the wastewater plant.
Open discussion: Ed had question about an old storm drain located downtown on the north side of Mountain Ave about whether roof run off was going into the sewer or sanitary system. Tim mentioned that it’s all since been changed and is going to the sewer system.
Another topic mentioned was the wastewater plant, and that it should be completed within the next couple weeks. Due to material shortages there was setbacks for the beginning of June completion of the project.
Announcements: The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 4:00pm.
Meeting Adjourned at 5:04 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Stevens
Accounting Technician
