Lamar utilities board meeting Tuesday, May 12

The Board approved Purchase Orders 2025-04623 through 2025-04945.  The total amount of all purchase orders was $728,735.99, of which $706,946.49 needed Board approval.  Estimated power purchase from ARPA was $584,480.42.  The second-largest purchase order was to McWane, Inc. in the amount of $96,515.26 for ductile iron poles. Payment of bills totaling $153,831.96 were approved as well.  The largest bill this period was from Tri-County Ford, Inc. for $47,645.

Six bids had been sent out for Bid #2082 for line materials and hardware – four were returned and the Board voted to award it to Western United, who bid $19,780.05.  Bid #2084 had been sent out to seven vendors and was awarded to Stella Jones, who submitted the lowest of the five bids received, in the amount of $52,002.00 for the purchase of forty-five 40-foot, western red cedar poles.

Superintendent Hourieh’s System Operative Report stated “With Renew Energy on site, our crew completed flushing and replacing the gearbox oil in the T-6 wind turbine.  The crew also completed the semi-annual maintenance program which included generator alignment and inspection, and gearbox oil sampling for testing.  Linear Labs has continued with the T-2 commissioning process, where they developed, installed and tested the new code in the pitch blade PLC control system, and simulated and tested the system with different faults.  The turbine has been put online, generating 400KW for monitoring and data collection.  With KoneCranes on site, our crew completed the annual cranes inspection throughout our facilities, including all wind turbines.  A detailed crane inspection report will be provided by KoneCranes.  The line crew replaced a 225 KVA padmount transformer that developed an oil leak at Dragon.  They replaced a 40-foot wooden pole north of County Road 7 and PP and replaced a 40-foot wooden pole east of the hospital.  They also replaced a 40-foot wooden pole in the alley west of Pine Street in town.  The crew then replaced a failed 25KV insulator at Road MM and 11 that caused a power outage on April 30^th from 9:30 to 10:15 pm.  The outage affected Holly, Hartman, and Bristol areas.

By: Barbara Crimond