Author Archive for: KMEA

Mike began his career in March 1985 performing maintenance at the Coffeyville municipal light & power plant. He progressed within the department serving in the roles of Utility Operator/Lab Technician, Assistant Shift Operator and Control Room Operator/Shift Supervisor. In March 2008, he briefly left to explore an opportunity with PPL Montana, LLC. He returned to the City in March 2009 and in January 2010, he was promoted to Superintendent of Electric Operations and promoted again in August 2011 to the Deputy Director of Electric Utilities.

On April 1, 2018, he was named as Director of the Electric Utilities while also being named Interim City Manager. He served the community in that role until a new city manager was hired in October 2018. Returning to his role as Director, he continues to improve operations and is a champion for municipally owned power and the advantages it has for local communities.  On April 16, 2020, Mike was named Director of Electric Services/Assistant City Manager.

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.

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.

The Biden Administration has now approved electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure deployment plans for all 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico ahead of schedule under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, established and funded by Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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.”