The Board meets on the first and third Monday of each month. Meetings begin at 1:00 p.m. and are held in the department conference room at 65 Lafayette Ave, Littleton. Board meetings are open to the public and time is allotted for public comments at each meeting.
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The regularly scheduled Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting began at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, August 7, 2017 in the Littleton Water and Light (LWL) conference room. Present were, Commissioner Perry Goodell, Commissioner Peter Cooper, Commissioner Ralph Ross, Financial Director Cheryl Wilkins and Superintendent Thomas Considine.
MINUTES REVIEW:
The minutes of the July 17, 2017 regularly scheduled Commissioners meeting were reviewed. Commissioner Ross made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, seconded by Commissioner Goodell.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-1.
APPOINTMENTS:
1. Ms. Jan Marshall representing the Town of Lisbon Industrial Park Steering Committee (LIPSC) briefed the BOC with regard to the Town of Lisbon developing a parcel of land on Mt. Eustis Road in Lisbon. The parcel referred to as the Schofield property is in close proximity to the Littleton Industrial Park. LIPSC has requested that the existing utilities on Mt. Eustis Road be extend (power, water & sewer) along Mt. Eustis Road into Lisbon for the proposed industrial park site. Extending the water and sewer does not appear to be a problem though the electrical franchise area belongs to the NH Electric Cooperative and they appear to be unwilling to give up the service rights at this time.
Ms. Marshall stated that the committee would like a letter from the LWL Board of Commissioners stating that LWL can provide water and power to this site. Ms. Marshall suggested that this letter be address to the Lisbon Board of Selectmen.
Following some general discussion between the BOC and Ms. Marshall the BOC stated that they are in favor of the merits of this project and agreed to provide the letter by early September as requested by Ms. Marshall. Ms. Marshall thanked the BOC for their willingness to work with them on this project and left the BOC meeting at approximately 1:20 p.m.
2. Mr. Craig Kieny and Mr. Stan Franyniarz representing Energy Initiative and Daymark Energy Advisors respectively presented the BOC with an overview of the 2017 wholesale power markets and proposed LED Street lighting tariff development. A series of power point slides were presented to the BOC and several key discussion points were explained. The supply of natural gas into the New England region should not be an issue this season as reserves are at capacity. Electric wholesale power prices are expected to be similar to last year, though weather will have an impact.
Mr. Kieny stated that in their (Daymark) opinion market conditions are favorable to hedge LWL wholesale power position closer to LWL’s established hedge fractions. Volume purchased is expected to be small in quantity and that they need to would work out the final amount with Superintendent Considine. It appears that the new Daymark forecast model is trending actuals loads well as it takes into account past and near future weather predicted model data. Daymark recommends using this model load data to set the hedge ceiling quantity.
Following some general discussion between the BOC and Mr. Kieny, Mr. Kieny excused himself from the meeting at approximately 2:20 p.m.
FINANCIAL DIRECTORS REPORT:
Mrs. Wilkins reviewed the highlights of the financial statements for the month ended May 2017 with the Commissioners. Several discrepancies as compared to budget were discussed and explained by Mrs. Wilkins.
SUPERINTENDENT/ GENERAL MANAGERS REPORT:
The utility pole relocation on Mill Street adjacent to the new Schillings Brewery project has consumed many hours of LWL time over the past several weeks. Several alternatives plans have been presented to the abutting property owners without success and there appears to be a perception that Schillings is receiving preferential treatment by LWL.
Another meeting was convened by the property owners of Renaissance Mills that included mostly town officials and abutting property owners that took exception to the proposed location of a utility pole and the Schillings pad mounted transformer with respect to their property. The Schillings owners preempted this meeting and attempted to defuse the situation by holding a smaller working meeting. The situation was resolved prior to the larger planned meeting. The Renaissance Mills property owners who insisted that the meeting be held were upset that they have not been included in previous discussions. They stated that they have been running business in this part of Mill Street for years and believe that placing all the electric and communications wires underground (UGE) is the only alternative.
LWL went on record at this meeting that there are no real operational advantages for LWL to pursue an UGE course of action as maintenance, troubleshoot and power restoration expense and time would increase during an event. The circuit is reliable though some pole locations could be improved if adequate space is made available.
As a direct result of many of the meeting attendees desire to have the circuit buried and the increasing political pressure that is being leveraged basically along the River District, LWL contacted Mr. Lee Carroll an electrical engineer to visit the site. Mr. Carroll was requested to look at the feasibility of an UGE alternative from Eames Way to the switch near the end of Saranac Street.
Mr. Carroll initial reaction was that it was not going to be and easy fix and that a through master plan would be developed in order to maintain circuit continuity. Mr. Carroll also stated that the project costs would be substantial due to the circuit’s complexity, number of connections for both power and communications lines and limited ground space available for termination cabinets and related pad mounted equipment. Mr. Carroll will prepare a preliminary engineering estimate for LWL to develop a conceptual plan with construction cost estimates to bury the lines. The Town of Littleton released the base survey data to LWL that passed it on to Mr. Carroll to use to estimation UGE preliminary construction costs estimates.
2. The proposed water main relocation project adjacent to the TJ Maxx is beginning to take shape. The property owner was recently contacted and the merits of the project were discussed. A plan of the proposed realignment was discussed and emailed to the property owners for review and discussion among their board members. Tentative plans are to begin construction activities on or about September 5, 2017. Approximately a two (2) to three (3) week construction time table is expected.
GENERAL/ OTHER BUSINESS:
Superintendent Considine recently met with CAI Technologies with regard to updating the functionality of LWLs GIS information. The update would convert all LWL GIS data and functionality from a menu driven interface using Arc Map to a web based solutions with Arc Map web tools as the underlying software. The web interface is more user friendly and would be aligned with the web tools currently beginning used by the towns on-line parcel mapping. Eventually LWL may choose to share the access to this software with other town departments.
Following some additional discussion the LWL BOC stated that they did not object to converting the data if there was a need and that Superintendent Considine could make the final decision ad needed to support operations requirements.
ADJOURNMENT:
Commissioner Cooper made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by
Commissioner Ross.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0.
Meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m.
The regularly scheduled Commissioner’s meeting is held twice monthly on the first and third Monday, at 1:00 p.m., in the Department’s conference room.