Entries by KMEA

Jonathan Mitchell receives Max Embree Award

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Jonathan Mitchell receives Max Embree Award

Jonathan was born in Alaska and graduated from Junction City High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public relations and a master’s degree in public administration, both from Kansas State University. He has served as City Manager for the City since early 2009, having previously served as City Administrator in Ellsworth. During his tenure, he has helped the city navigate significant financial challenges, maintaining service levels while restructuring debt, aligning workforce, and growing the local economy.  He has played a key role in attracting new development, securing grants from agencies for key infrastructure and creating a capital improvement and municipal equipment plan. He also upgraded the city’s metering technology, created three community improvement districts, revamped the city webpage, and recodified local regulations.

Kent Pottorf awarded Dedicated Commitment to Service Award

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Kent Pottorf awarded the Dedicated Commitment to Service Award

Kent worked in the cable communications industry in Holly, Colorado, before venturing to Garden City in 1979. He worked as an Electrical Department Serviceman, responsible for meter installation, reading, and calibrations. During that time, he enrolled in the apprentice lineman program with the city and completed all necessary instructional bookwork in eight months, which typically is a 48-month process. This eventually led him to be a Journeyman Lineman, Foreman, and Electrical Operations Manager overseeing all distribution, metering, SCADA, and generation systems.

Jessica Presler wins Ron Huxman Award

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Jessica Presler wins Ron Huxman Award

This recipient was born and lived in California through most of her school years.  During her high school years, her family moved to Kansas to be near her grandmother.  After graduating from Concordia High School, she began pursuing her desire to become a dentist.  After several years of school, she decided starting a family was more important.  Jamestown was the beneficiary of that decision as she became the city clerk.

Earl Findley awarded the Mike Gilliland Award

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Earl Findley officially started working for the city as a paid employee in March 2018 after working for the city as a contractor for over 40 years. His family started E.V. Cathodic Protection Service many years ago and he has worked on gas systems for most small communities in Kansas. His wealth of knowledge has been extremely beneficial to the city. He spent many years doing leak surveys, regulator reliefs and almost everything related to steel pipe. He is invested in public safety, manages gas trainings and certifications, and keeps necessary paperwork and mandated forms and manuals in order.

Garden City seeks Electric Utility Superintendent

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The City of Garden City is hiring for an Electric Department Superintendent. This position is responsible for the administrative and operational activities of the Garden City Electric Utility; electric transmission and electric distribution systems. Reports directly to the Electrical Operations Manager.

WAPA will serve nine additional Kansas cities beginning in 2024

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LAKEWOOD, Colorado – Eleven municipalities in Kansas and Nebraska and one military installation in Colorado have been approved to receive at-cost federal hydropower from Western Area Power Administration’s Loveland Area Projects starting Oct. 1, 2024.

It is the largest addition of WAPA customers since the remarketing of Hoover Dam hydropower in 2017.

“Many of the new customers, like our current customers, are small rural entities. Having access to the affordable hydropower resource and transmission services can be a real benefit,” said WAPA Contracts and Energy Services Manager Parker Wicks. “The federal hydropower allocation gives them access to an at-cost, reliable, clean energy source, and our long-term contracts assure that they will have access to this resource for a long time.”

President Biden signs bill provides public power with direct access energy tax credits

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President Biden on Aug. 16 signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will extend and expand various energy tax incentives and give public power utilities direct access to such credits through a refundable direct payment tax credit.

The U.S. House on Aug. 12 passed the IRA after the U.S. Senate passed the bill earlier this month.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the value of energy-related tax incentives to be worth $25 billion in 2022 alone. However, because public power utilities are exempt from tax, they have not been able to take advantage of these incentives for projects they own. Rural electric cooperatives face a similar challenge. As a result, using the tax code to incentivize energy investments has excluded utilities serving nearly 30 percent of all retail utility customers in the United States.

Transformer shortage hits utilities in storm season

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As the peak time for U.S. hurricanes arrives, utilities along the nation’s coastlines are facing unprecedented delays in obtaining new power transformers, the critical grid equipment that moves electricity over wires.

A lack of replacements could delay recovery from major storms, although the dimensions of that risk are not clear, according to electric industry officials.

When the American Public Power Association surveyed members at the beginning of 2022 asking how long delivery of new transformers was taking, the average was about a year, compared with an average three-month wait in 2018, said Corry Marshall, senior director for government relations at the association.