BGMU talks strategy, eyes future projects

Bowling Green Municipal Utilities board members heard a draft strategic plan Tuesday afternoon, and got updates on various long-term projects for water and power. The plan calls for more conservation and education efforts, partnering with local governments and community organizations, a long list of electric service upgrades, replacing all undersized water lines, and offering e-mail and Internet phone service to the utility’s fiber optic customers. All BGMU departments contributed to the report, which was presented by Bill Waltrip, former Bowling Green police chief and now a consultant for Leadership Strategies Group. Board members Mac Reynolds and Alex Nottmeier said the one thing they’d like to see added is comment from BGMU customers. “That is a critical area,” Reynolds said. A full customer survey is scheduled for this year, General Manager Mark Iverson said. Board members agreed that would suffice this time, but Iverson said customer opinions would be incorporated in the next strategic plan. One thing left out of the plan, Iverson noted, is the planned sale of BGMU’s Center Street headquarters for a downtown redevelopment project and construction of a new building a diagonal block away. That move is expected to come in late 2010, he said in an introduction to the strategic plan. Meter changes The way BGMU reads meters, and bills for power, may change dramatically over the next few years. “Meter reading is an evolving art, if you will,” Iverson said. Readers already use devices to read meters from a distance in hard-to-reach spots, and in high-density apartments, he said. More drive-by reading methods are likely to come, but the specialized meters are quite expensive. “That is going to be a very big investment for power distributors,” Iverson said. Eventually, the meters may even tell BGMU what times of day each customer is using the most power, he said. Tennessee Valley Authority, from which BGMU buys all its electricity, may start charging its 159 local utilities higher prices for peak use and lower prices for off-times, based on varying generating costs, Iverson said. If that happens, BGMU may follow suit and go to “time-of-use billing” for individual customers, charging premiums for high midday power use and cutting prices for power use in the lower-demand nighttime, Iverson said. Sewer connection There are still some pockets around town, within range of sewer lines, that use septic tanks or even dump into the local cave system, Iverson said. Many of those people are actually paying a sewer charge, but connecting to the lines would be very expensive in established neighborhoods, he said. There are some in the Covington and Shawnee areas, said Water-Wastewater Systems Manager Mike Gardner, but he’s not sure how many because records are so old and spotty. In rocky ground, it can cost $10,000 to $15,000 to hook onto sewer pipes, he said. Board attorney Bud Strickler said that the city or county could nevertheless require homeowners to connect to available sewer lines under health ordinances, if their septic systems are leaking or sewage is draining into caves. Sewer plant The expansion of the current Wastewater Treatment Plant may start with basic work this fall by approving a construction manager in September to consult with designers and bidding out packages of work piecemeal. The construction-manager approach would make it easier to meet the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority’s requirement for BGMU to have a construction contract in place by April 2009, in order to keep access to a $43 million KIA loan at 1 percent interest, Gardner said. The construction manager would consult with designers to cut costs and smooth construction, getting the job done for a guaranteed maximum price or less, he said. The plant should be upgraded by May 2011 to handle 12 million gallons of wastewater a day, and then to take 15 million gallons a day within a few more years. Gardner said the total price was originally estimated at $33 million, but rising material costs may push that up by 10 percent to 15 percent. Water source For several years, BGMU has sought access to a second local water source, independent of Barren River. That’s held up by a “snafu” in state funding for such projects, Gardner said. The utility doesn’t want to push local governments into an open campaign, since that might create public anxiety, he said. For now, a second source is only needed in conditions like last year’s drought; ordinarily, there’s plenty of water to handle several more years of growth, Gardner said.
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