Wind Storm Power Outage Recapped by LUB

Lamar Light Plant Superintendent, Houssin Hourieh noted that some of Lamar’s southside customers lost power at about 4:35pm last Tuesday, April 17^th during a wind storm that swept across portions of Prowers County.  The major impact was along Savage Avenue when 10 power poles between 9^th and 11^th Streets were snapped by the sustained gusts.  “As a result the substation L-2 circuit breaker tripped open to clear a permanent fault, as it’s supposed to do.  It affected college and high school area substation customers.  Our crews isolated the damaged area and restored power to the rest of the system,” he explained.

Hourieh noted it took about two days to complete the work. There were about 200 customers still without power at the time it was completely restored.  The estimated cost of the repairs was $67,000 and is still being compiled.  The Light Plant has also opened for any loss claims due to the damage.  He explained the downed wooden poles were replaced with metal ones.  “The metal ones do better because they can bend, so they don’t break and they’re sturdy enough that if the ground is loose and they might come out of the ground, we can put them back in and reposition them,” he noted, adding this was the third storm in recent years along Savage Avenue.

The first quarter 2018 financial report showed cash is down $226,929 from December and accounts receivable decreased by $51,062. Total operating revenues for the year are $3,461,335 and total operating costs are $2,717,215 resulting in gross operating income of $744,120.  When non-operating revenues and expenses are taken into consideration, there is a net income of $238,992, year to date.  Retail sales are up approximately 2% comparing March 2018 to March 2017 and overall operating expenses are down $19,610 or 1% resulting in a net income of $238,992 for the year.

The Light Plant received eight bids for a 72.5KV circuit breaker and of them five were considered with ElectroTech selected for the low bid of $36,595. Payment of bills was approved with vouchers totaling $814,988.49.  $13,614.50 in purchase orders was also approved.

Board members Pat Leonard and Mike Horning agreed to serve as judges along with Lisa Denman and Rory O’Neill for the ARPA/LUB annual scholarship program. Eleven entries were received by the April 20^th deadline from high school seniors from Lamar, McClave and Wiley to be selected for a combined scholarship of $1,000.

By Russ Baldwin