Archive for category: General Information

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.

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.

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.”

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.