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The commission calls the June meeting to order, takes roll call, and welcomes visitors. Members then review and approve the March 25 and May 11 meeting minutes.
Yep.
We're good.Thank you, ma'am.
All right.Calling to order the June meeting of the Fairport Municipal Commission.Could we have the roll call?
Commissioner Jordan,
present.
Commissioner Dulagash,
present.
Commissioner Keefe, Commissioner Shalaba,
here.
Chairperson Stucky
here.Thank you.Welcome to our visitors.Uh, anyone have anyone to sh to share?anything to share?Okay, thanks for being here.
All right, starting out with unfinished business, we have the minutes from the March 25 meeting.It's the one where we reviewed the budget.Any comments, questions on that?I think everyone who was here was there for that meeting.Okay.All right.If no questions, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the March 25 meeting.
So moved.
Second.
Right.All in favor?
I.
Uh next up, uh looking at the minutes from the May 11th meeting?Any questions on those?
Okay.If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the May 11th meeting.
So moved.
Second.All in favor?
I
The board recognizes Mary Beth for her long service and upcoming retirement. Staff then provides an update on the hiring process and temporary intern support for the customer service office.
moving forward to new business.Do we have anything to add?Matt, did you want to go over the contract that you sent around?
Yeah.
At the end of
Okay.Just making sure we've got everything on the agenda.Uh first up we have recognition of Mary Beth for her retirement with 43 years of experience.
So this is one of those that
if you know Mary Beth, Mary Beth is one of those people that works behind the scenes tirelessly.I mean, she's here on weekends doing things.
As I approach the subject of her coming coming up to the meeting this morning and being recognized,
I got a No,
that's just who she is.So, what I would, you know, her last day is on the 18th and we're certainly going to miss her.I mean, she the building department she inherited was uh somewhat of a mess.She certainly corrected many, many things.Uh we would not have gotten through the last software migration without her.and her knowledge.So, I would ask the commissioners, you know, between now and the 18th, if you maybe could stop and see her in her office,
embarrass her a little bit by just uh Yes.Um certainly deserves recognition and uh you know, does a tremendous job for us.Got to be missed.
Yeah.If you think about her years of service coupled with Mitch's, it's
Mitch was 40 plus too.
40 plus as well.It's significant.
Wow.
Especially in a time when
you don't see that very often in public service.People don't spend the tenure anymore like Jesus be once you found somebody or you liked you kind of you wrote you wrote it out and and you worked it.People leave now for for anything and everything.Um you know you get a couple years out of people and and they move on to whatever whatever they're approaching next and to see someone here
40 plus years especially in today's age is it's not common at all.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's good for her for nextap.
Get her here.I failed.Yes.Yeah.June 18th could be her last day.
Well, thank you for the effort.
Yes.Encourage everyone to stop by.Is she there now?
She is.Okay.She is.
So, we could just all go take the meeting afterward.Okay.Thank you.
Uh, next on the agenda, we would have a customer service office staffing update.
So, we are in the process of doing our interview process to replace Mary Beth.Um, we are hoping to have someone in place by the next meeting to introduce you to.Um, but that those interviews are ongoing.We did have a lot of applications for that role.Um, so we've have had a number of good candidates that we've talked to already and we're continuing to have those discussions.Um, as we've um gone through that process, we've decided to bring in an intern to help with some of the coverage for over the summer period until we can get that billing manager in to help cover the anyout um time where their clerks are out of the office.So, to help cover that difference in the billing office over the summer.Um, so she started today um but she'll be around for the next few months.
So,
The commission reviews April and May financial results, including revenue, disconnect fees, cash flow, and receivables trends. The discussion closes with a brief update on year-end financial work and the upcoming audit schedule.
Great.Uh, next, can we review the financials?
Yes.So, we have the April 2026 financials as well as a snapshot for May.Um for April, we're continuing to see what we were expecting um where we're going to have we had a slight um income for the month of April, but we're going to see an offset for the month of May.Um it's going to pretty much hold level through the end of the fiscal year.Um that brings us to a rate of return of roughly 4%.Again, as we talked about last month, that 4% rate of return is put back into our plant to ensure sustainability of the plant.It helps to offset the depreciation costs that will be continuing to increase as we have the capital investments that we put towards the substation, towards the meters, various other projects that we've been having ongoing um throughout the plant.Uh so that April uh is about a $200,000 profit.
Um, but for the the one thing I wanted to point out in relation to April, we did see a large increase in our disconnect fees as well as our late fe penalty fees.That was what we had talked about where we had had the increase in costs for the February bills.The April is when we were able to start disconnecting service um for customers.So, we did see a sharp increase.that should come back down as we've put people into arrangements, put them into contact of where to go for other help, outside help through um other programs.So, we have seen that come down.We've seen our disconnects come back down and more in line with where we've been at historically, but that April month was particularly harsh for that.Um, in terms of May, the big uh thing that we saw for cash flow was that we had a ban that was rolled into a bond related to our meter project as well as our substation project.
Um, there was an increase of cash because originally when we had taken out that bond anticipation note, we hadn't taken out the full amount because we were still hadn't expensed the cost for the substation project.Uh so now we have taken out that full amount so that we have that covered moving forward.Um but the there was a substantial amount of activity that went in and out for our cash for the month of May as a result of that.
fairly good interest rate compared to what we were expecting.So that was
35 to 39 I think.
Um in terms of the other um information related to the May financials, we did have a reduc reduction of the what we've historically seen for the receivables.Um so again, good news is that most people are able to now um pay their bills.We're seeing that decrease as we've seen the PPAC come down.As we've seen the energy cost needed to come down, our kilowatt hours sold have is down.The PBAC is down.So people are being able to pay their bills now.Again, more in line with what we've seen historically for those typical seasons at this point.
questions.
And could we have a motion to approve the uh April and May financials?
So moved.
Second.
All in favor?Hi.Hi.
Did you have anything further for the fiscal year end?
No, I think the we talked about last month and again there's really no change this month in terms of we're continuing to work to we've now started into the year-end financials.Uh we have a audit schedule for the beginning of August.Um, so as we move throughout the summer, we may see a delay for those financials just as we try to finalize those numbers and takes a little bit more time at the end of the fiscal year.So just keep that in mind.
Members approve voucher payments and then spend most of the meeting discussing the draft interconnection agreement with Waste Management. The conversation covers maintenance responsibilities, testing, as-built drawings, metering, indemnification, load factor concerns, and the impact of the new industrial load on the system.
Okay.All right.Thanks.Uh, next up, uh, we'll be looking for a motion to authorize payment of the vouchers.
So moved.
Second.
All right.All in favor?
I
I
All right, Matt, we had a draft contract.
What I had sent out last week was the uh draft basically the finalized uh unsigned yet um interconnection agreement uh between Waste Management and Fairport.What this is is basically they're building they're paying building their facilities to get power from our substation out to their plant.Um once that is complete we will take over that circuit maintain it like the rest of our distribution facilities.So this just basically puts on paper you know the legality of that.
Um it was reviewed by our uh legal uh for the MUA Ken Pole uh to read at Reed Laniato.uh he worked with waste management to uh clean things up.But you know, basically it's just an agreement.You know, they filed they're an industrial customer, no different than austri, you know, mold plastics or anybody else.But basically, this puts into uh words that we're going to take over maintenance on that line once it's complete.And it's still a time frame of August or so of this year.They're working on it presently, but uh in you know 27 pages in legal ease that's basically what it's doing.
Okay.So we do the contract now and then the um the connection would be in August or
so the the final connection will be you they'll be done in August.This is just an agreement that says we're going to take it over and do those things.So I just wanted to make sure that everyone got to it and got a chance to read through it and comment on it as as needed.
Okay.
It just facilitates that connection point to get on our grade and our distribution system and what that looks like and what happens when that happens.So
yeah, I
mean this one's different.I mean typically industrial customer commands, you know, you're going to come in, you're going to buy a parcel of land, you're going to take facilities.We already have facilities.Well, this was different.They needed to go direct from our substation to take facilities.Uh so you know they paid for you know all the engineering design uh construction permitting and we don't have anything into it so far.
Yeah.
So
and then have have we been reviewing the documents as they put those together?
Yes.Yeah.We're we are certainly part of the submitt process and signed off and everything and worked with the designers knowing that we have to maintain it.So it followed our construction standards.
Great.
Yeah.I had a couple questions just as I read through.So 5.2.4 before it said FMC shall test the distribution line.What does that look like?
So, basically what you're going to do is, you know, we can hypotine.There's no customers on it and we can do an integrity test, you know, full length just to make sure connections are good and things like that.
Okay.
All right.And then they owe us asbuilt drawings and and information.Have we specified what kind of format those are?
So, they were both digital and papers, how we receive them.It's been the same way with the cementals and things like that.Just we uh you know we can
have have a historically along with uh just daily just
it's constant changes.I mean there's field changes and uh but they're doing a good job so far with those
they they've hired a a separate firm uh to kind of do permitting and doing uh you know that type of asbuilt uh catching.So, uh, you know, that's been their sole job just to to make that happen.
Yeah.Okay.Good.Yeah.So, they're keeping up with all the changes.
Yes.
We'll have that.Good.Um, in the metering section, it noted net power flows.Are we looking for it to go both ways or
So, it's no u, but you know, will it someday, you know, if it's possible, you know, they, as you know, I think we talked about one of the previous meetings, they did notify the, uh, New York State ISOthat they were shutting down generation.
Yeah.Well, I had been told it had already been shut down, but you know, they have to do a notice to the ISO that they are shutting it down officially.
Um, you know, and then that gets approved.I don't know how that approval is, you know, timeline or anything else, but
Okay.So, just having it in here as as a potential for future.
Correct.And it's no different than any customer.I mean, we do net meter.We're bringing on our first net meter on a residential side.U you know with the next two months are under construction right now.Uh so yeah be no different than any other customer doing net meter.
Yeah.Okay.
U and then with the indemnification just wondered uh it does have a line in there about arising out of or resulting from and usually or often I've seen you know an attempt to get that to say um youknow to the extent that that negligence is is in there.
It follows our tariff and you know the two attorneys went back and forth.Like I said, this is still kind of a preliminary, you know, draft.Um you know, it's one of those things that yes, that will be uh we will be held harmless for anything on that line.
Okay.Well, this one goes both ways, so it's important for that.Okay.
All right.Any questions?Anyone else have?
Yeah.Yeah.I just had a couple questions.So um when you say m taking over maintenance of the line like are we expecting like incremental costs incurred like that we'd have to absorb year over year?Well, be say there's a car accident and that pole that that line is on is happen.You know, we have to change that pole and transfer that pole.You know, down the road, you know, lightning arresters get changed, you know, on a cycle.Uh is it just you do infrared studies of our lines?We do that one.It' be no different than any other line in our system that, you know, we look at, maintain, you know,
keep the reliability to our standards.
Sure.Okay.Um, and I guess my next qu, you know, we I think we sort of talked about this when when this first came up, but I guess I'm just, you know, as a, you know, thinking like as a rateayer,um, you know, this is a substantial amount of of electricity that they're going to be uh, consuming.So what would you say if to someone who is concerned about, you know, are we going to have the same amount of green energy from hydro or like are we just like is it still going to be availableto everyone like you know just because they're going to be
as as we've talked about you know load factors the efficiency you use your electricity in an ideal world we would use the same amount of electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.It be a flat line.You know, you build your system for that.You generation, you could schedule.Well, things don't quite work that way because people go to sleep at night and their loads, you know, fluctuate.So, the load factor is a calculation that is scheduled.So, the the our load factor at this present hour will be looked at a year from now on the way the hydro is scheduled.So, we have 77 megawatts of hydro.Today, we're using less than that.Um, you know, it was about 43 when I looked on the board this morning.Do we come near, you know, 65 or something during our peak today?
You know, it's possible as it warms up into the 90s.But, um, you know, so all of that energy is there.At the end of the day, remember, we're an electric company.We're here to provide power.Uh, you know, this is a business within our franchise and actually helps all of us.uh that load factor, making a better load factor will allow us to utilize all of our hydro in the future.So, it's a good thing.You know, this is a revenue that gets used to the capital plant of this system.Um, you know, and it's an ideal customer.It's a customer that's not using this for one hour a day, you know, once a week.They're using it 247.So, you know, it's a good load.Um, is it a big load?Yes.It will be our largest customer.But, you know, as we compare things, you know, if we bring on electrification for school buses, you know, school buses take about five hours a day to charge.
It's also an 8 megawatt load, you know.So, do you want a load that runs five hours a day and it's typically going to be, you know, do they are they able to charge them off hours?Maybe, you know, but what does it look like at the end of the day?You know, that's still unknown.You know, those are things.But, you know, it's certainly not a 24-hour load.It's a short duration load.school year were a winter peaker, not in the summer.You know, is there technology someday that, you know, could you could use this generation?Possibly.It's not there yet.And the technology is not there, you know.But can that be someday?Hopefully.I mean, that'd be nice.Um, but, you know, so they're very similar loads or similar, you know, size loads, but one is going to run 247.It have basically a perfect load factor and one isn't.
And you had you had mentioned previously that the load factor um influences also how much power we are allocated from
so our hydro you know the agreements we have with the state New York power authority they look at load factor and how efficiently you use it so that is part of the calculation of you know just because wehave 77 megawatts doesn't mean we are allowed to use all of that this hour they're going to go back you know historically they go back one year they look at that hour of that day and then they'll startto apply that into that formula you know it's a portion of it
but I think to Jeremy's I mean
the the mindset of being that if this load comes on it's going to be at the expense of our normal everyday residential customer and we'll be subsidizing at their expense because we'll buy additional supplementers is just not accurate.We have the ability availability to do that
and they're in our system.We can't deny them anyway which is a case but to what Matt's saying having a load that does this versus this is a good thing.Great.
App appreciate your answers were uh more eloquent than my question.
It's a tough question.No, I do because I mean it's it's a tough question.It's asked often.Happy to talk about it.You know, it's one of those things that, you know, if we go back historically, you know, when we had a lot of electric heat, our winter peak was about 121 megawatts.
You know, well, the last five, six years, we've peaked around 103, 105 megawws.So we're down.So we've flattened that curve and it's through a lot of different ways.You know, efficiency of appliance, efficiency of furnaces, heat pumps, all of these things that have come on.You know, if you go buy any appliance, it's going to be better than what it was 10 years ago or even 5 years ago.So all of these things have helped us.You we also worked hard to, you know, try to take that pure electric heat off the system because that was one of those things that truly drove this peak and cost all of us a lot of money.uh because it wasn't a nice flat load.It was a very high peaking load.So, how do you start to normalize that or level that?So, uh yeah.So, I mean it's just, you know, do we peak, you know, and it's up to an 8 megawatt load, you know, um Village of Angelica also had a landfill.
They brought one on within the last year.They said it was a four megawatt load.It came in at a meg and a half, you know.So, is it eight?It could be six.It could be something.We'll see what it looks like when it comes on.But you we also have large industrial customers in our system, you know, that are in that 34 megawatt range.So is it just like one of those
or like one of those but more stay perhaps?
Yeah.I mean, one of the nice things it does run 247.You know, Leestria's been a great customer, but Leestria always used more water than electric.You know, they're great.You know, they do run three shifts, which is great.We have some plastic injection plants that used to run three shifts.They now run two shifts.So,
The board reviews estimated bill impacts for the 2026-27 budget, especially for electric heat customers, and discusses an upcoming regional MEOA meeting hosted by Fairport. They also mention conference materials, website updates, and then adjourn the meeting.
questions.
Thank you.
And I'll make sure once we have, you know, a final agreement, it'll get put back in front of you.I just want to make sure that it was a start of conversation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 13, 8 a.m.
Rachel Yeah,
one more thing.
Yes.
So, um just included in the uh agenda was an additional request that uh Commissioner Jordan had put forward last month um in relation to estimated bills based on our budget for 26 27 years.So, I was able to I focused on the residential customers um and broke it down into apartment electric heat, non-electric heat um and then the same for houses to just give you an estimate of what the traditional customersfaced um for this past year.Um and then also a comparison for what we're expecting next year.Um, we are expecting, as we've talked about, we're hopefully not going to see as high of a peak next winter as we did this year, but we are expecting to see a slight increase in what our average PBACum costs are going to be for the 26 27 fiscal year.Um but just to give you a ne breakdown obviously that um higher PBAC affects the electric heat house homes and apartments significantly more than the non-electric heat which is why I wanted to break it down a little bit
more than just an average bill.So that you saw that when you talk to customers and they're like well my bill didn't go up that much.It's probably because they didn't have electric heat versus people that did.
So yeah I did see that.Thank you for adding that.I think it's informal or informational and uh will be good for people to see.
Yeah.And that electric heat again is electric resistance heat as opposed to heat pump heat which is
so vast differences in efficiency.Correct.
Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.Thank you for that.
There was one other thing I want.So the MEOA uh we there's regional meetings that they do uh you know they used to them every year.They certainly got away from that a little bit uh last year was hosted by Burgon.Uh this year uh Luke Wanchoff who our GIS guy who now sits on the MUA board uh you know stood up and he wanted to take this on.So July 10th uh Fairport's going to host the Western Regional.A little different than past.It used to be kind of morning meetings and you know they might try to get out to golf or do something in the afternoon then do a dinner.Uh it is on a Friday this year.So they're just going to do morning meetings.They're going to actually have the I think there's 15 vendors coming in doing short presentations and then they do hope to get out on the golf course that afternoon and then no dinner that Friday night.
But um you know that'll be July 10th.Um you certainly uh you know love to see the commissioners there for that day.I know it's late notice.that just kind of popped up last week and they're going to come out with an agenda.But Luke took this on and he's done a great job with this.
Okay.
Yeah, if you want to send that around once you have it.
Sure.
Also, do we need to share anything from the MUA NA conference?
I do.Uh it's on my desk.I will get that all scanned.It's uh you know, I wish they would give that to us electronically because you I'll spend an hour at the scanner putting it all together.Yes, it is on my list to do.
I apologize for the delay.
I bought that
and you lost just like I did.
Yes.
But yes, good conference I think and and a lot of good information there um about electric grid and and what we have coming and and challenges ahead.
Yeah, I mean the pricing is Yeah.scary.
One thing I appreciated about the conference was um the continued partnership with EP and kind of the benefits to rateayers um through the rebate process.Um I did notice though like it looked like on the website it was like 2024 um information like the link there like okay
is that um like is it kind of univer Yeah.I was just going to ask like is it something that we should update each year or is the same information applicable like
No, it it does need to get updated.It was a miss on me.I guess you I'll take the blame on that when I did literally just get the printed copies I gave to you this morning.
Sure.
We'll get the PDF copy from them and get that up on the website.
Yeah, no, no problem.Because yeah, I just like to share it out when I when I get
Great.Thank you.
Yeah.So, thanks for handing these out.give a lot of good information about um what the program has been doing and where the where the funds go for the different municipalities.
Great.Any other topics we haven't touched on?Okay.So again, next meeting uh Monday, July 13.I think that is everything for today.So I would entertain a motion to adjurnn.
So moved.
Second.
All in favor?
I
I
All right.Thanks everyone.