Archive for category: General Information

The City of Washington, Kansas, is accepting applications for Electric Lineman. The applicant must possess a valid Kansas Class B CDL; HS Diploma/GED; and, if certified, must submit a transcript of completion of technical training in line maintenance, construction and safety a line apprentice program certificate. Knowledge in overhead and underground distribution and transmission lines…

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It appears virtual meetings will continue to be the norm even though all of us at KMEA would much rather meet with our membership face to face.  As an agency we want to make sure you continue to receive all of the information you need or desire during our meetings no matter how they are presented.  That being said, we have put together this guide for attending virtual meetings that may be helpful for you and your staff moving forward.  This is most important when you attend large meetings, such as a full board meeting.

Meeting Etiquette:

• Turn off all other technology.
  • Other programs that are open and running can interfere with tech quality and performance during the meeting.
  • It’s easy to lose attention and take a quick look at Facebook or email when at a distance. Eliminate the distractions.
• Keep your video on.
  • It’s easier to keep everyone’s attention with live faces on the screen.
  • Video-on helps keep everyone accountable for their attention and decorum.
• Mute your microphone, unmute to talk, and then mute again. During large meetings – All attendees will be muted during presentations. You can unmute yourself at any time you need to speak or use the chat function to be que’d for a question.
  • The audio technology can amplify background noises and even override voices.
• Take turns speaking.
  • The technology can cancel out two or more voices at once.
• State your name each time you speak. “This is ….”
• When something goes wrong, take a breath and let the tech moderator give prompts.
  • Even the best technology sometimes goes wrong.
  • Even the most skilled remote participants make mistakes.
  • Be kind. Next time it might be you.

Please welcome the two new lineman working out of the City of Dighton.

Nick Wapelhorst, Lineman Apprentice

Steven Porter, Journeyman Lineman

These gentlemen are leading the way with the Lineman Services for Kansas Municipal Energy Agency!

“Better to be busy than to be busy worrying” – a quote I once heard that couldn’t be more appropriate for KMEA over the last few months. We all have been busy worrying as the world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and we at KMEA are no exception. Many hours of contemplation have taken place among us all – Was I in contact with someone that has the virus? Will my parents be OK? What changes will the school implement for my kids? Should I go out to the store? When will this all be over and what will the new normal look like?

In Mid-March, we shuttered our offices and staff worked from home for 8 weeks. We discovered that we were still very efficient and getting the work done “between the walls of KMEA.” And in fact, these last few months have probably been some of the busiest and most historical in KMEA’s history.

• May 1: KMEA providing line maintenance service has been discussed, explored, debated and analyzed for several years and on May 1, we started up this service for the City of Dighton. In March, just as the COVID-19 virus was revving up, we began our search to hire a line crew and this continued into the month of May. Many thanks go out to the cities of Garden City and Russell who provided line crews that located in the Dighton for the first four weeks. On May 26, KMEA’s first journeyman lineman reported to work – Steve Porter and on June 8, KMEA’s first apprentice lineman came on board – Nick Wapelhorst. As we progress over the coming months, our new crew will begin branching out and helping other members in western Kansas. We are excited about this new service and will continue to look for opportunities in other parts of the State.
• June 1: A big KMEA welcome goes out to six new cities who joined the EMP3 group on June 1 – the cities of Arma, Blue Mound, Chetopa, La Harpe, Lindsborg, and Moran. These cities will see significantly savings in their power supply costs – up to 40% in some cases. This is the largest increase in participants in our EMP’s since their formations. We now provide full energy management services for 41 members.
• July 1: This will also be a historical day in KMEA’s history. We will close on the asset purchase of the Mid-States Energy Works Inc. culminating many, many months of hard work to bring our two entities together for the benefits of the members. The current eight employees of Mid-States will become employees of KMEA as we plan to continue the great service that Mid-States has performed for many of our members. We are very hopeful that we will grow the services provided with the combination of our two groups.

I want to thank the leadership of the Executive Committee and the crew at KMEA. In spite of the historical pandemic, we were able to stay “busy” to bring to fruition these historical events for the members and the Agency. We are looking forward getting past the COVID-19 pandemic and getting on with the new normal which will look different in many ways.   Paul Mahlberg, General Manager