Employment Opportunity
The City of Troy, a full service City including electric, water and wastewater utilities and street maintenance, is accepting applications for the position of Working Supervisor
Management and supervisor skills required. This is a hand’s on position. Applicant must have a valid CDL Kansas driver’s license, physical, drug test, other requirements as to job will be given at interview by personnel committee. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are required. Full benefits package available, pay based on experience. Make application or send resume to Troy City Hall, (Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to noon and 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. except holidays) 137 S. Walnut, P. O. Box 506, Troy, KS 66087. EOE
Employment Opportunity
Electrical Superintendent
The City of Eudora, population 6300, seeks responsible applicants to perform difficult skilled technical work supervising the construction, maintenance and repair of electric transmission and distribution lines and related installations, responding to emergency or after hour requests, and related work as apparent or assigned. Associates/Technical degree and extensive experience working with electrical distribution systems with considerable supervisory experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience is necessary. A valid Kansas commercial driver’s license is required.
Application and job description are available online at www.cityofeudoraks.gov and at Eudora City Hall, 4 E. 7th Street, Eudora, KS 66025. Submit application/resume on the website or by email to pschmeck@cityofeudoraks.gov. All offers of employment are conditional upon the successful completion of a post offer drug screening and background check including driving record. Applications accepted until position is filled.
Employment Opportunity
Electric Lineman
Eudora, KS, population 6,300, seeks responsible applicants to perform skilled work of journeyman level in the construction, maintenance and repair of overhead and underground 12.5KV electric distribution power lines, protection equipment, metering, and other electrical equipment. A high school diploma/GED is required, and the completion of an Associates/Technical degree with considerable experience in high voltage electrical power and distribution. A valid Kansas class A commercial driver’s license is required.
Application and full job description are available online at www.cityofeudoraks.gov and at Eudora City Hall, 4 E. 7th Street, Eudora, KS 66025. Submit application/resume on the website or by email to pschmeck@cityofeudoraks.gov. All offers of employment are conditional upon the successful completion of a post offer drug screening and background check including driving record. Applications accepted until position is filled.
Cliff Sonnenberg, Garden City Electric Superintendent, Receives 40 Year City Service Award, LKM
Cliff Sonnenberg accepts the 40 year City Service Award from Governor Colyer at the 2018 League of Kansas Municipalities (LKM) Conference on October 8, 2018 in Topeka.
Cliff made this statement about what he would like to share about his time in his Municipal Utility:
“I would encourage younger linemen who are just starting out in the electric utility trade to consider working for the municipal utility in their hometown. It is very rewarding to be able to assist your neighbors, friends, and local organizations that make up the core fabric of your community. Get involved in making your community a better place to live work and play. It’s been an honor to be a part of a great team with the Electric Division. It’s been exciting to upgrade our system with a voltage conversion project to create a more reliable and cost effective system for our customers. It’s also been rewarding to have a well-trained line crew that we are able to send to other communities at a moment’s notice when we receive mutual aid calls for help. We have awesome, dependable, and talented employees that work hard to serve their customers every day.”
All of us at KMEA would like to Congratulate Cliff on his accomplishment!
Strategic Planning Effort Underway
Paul Mahlberg, General Manager
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” One of the many quotes of our nation’s 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. I couldn’t agree more with this philosophical statement. Strategic planning is absolutely necessary for our agencies, especially in the quickly, ever changing world we live in with our electric and gas industries.
With that in mind, the KMEA/KMGA Joint Board of Administration requested that a strategic plannig effort be initiated during the current calendar year. The president of KMEA (Mike Muirhead – Garden City) and of KMGA (Randy Frazer – Moundridge) created a Task Force (see below) to lead this effort.
2 Day Planning Retreat
The Task Force met in Wichita for a two day strategic planning retreat on August 28-29, 2018. This retreat was facilitated by an outside consultant, Tim Blodgett of Hometown Connections. The Task Force developed a list of meeting objectives, reviewed the trends in the electric and gas industries and in particular trends in the state of Kansas, developed a list of values and where we want the Agencies to be in 5 years, developed a list of critical issues and road blocks that could impede our progress, developed a list of members’ needs, and finally completed a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities/Threats) analysis. With the ultimate goal: set the direction for the two agencies over the next five years. The process resulted in the group establishing the following Three Strategic Areas of Focus:
- Strategic Growth
- Communications/Identity
- Organization
Next Steps
There is still much work to do to finalize the plan. Staff will be developing specific and measurable goals and action items under each of the 3 strategic areas for review. These will be vetted by the Task Force prior to presentation to the KMEA and KMGA Executive Committees. Eventually the strategic plan will be presented to each of the full boards in May of next year. We will briefly update you more at the next Board meetings during our annual conference on October 18 in Wichita. See you all in Wichita and let’s go make Ike proud of his fellow Kansas’s!
Strategic Planning Task Force
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More To Come
I get concerned when I hear of the retirement of a coal fired power plant. There has been approximately 600 MW of coal resources retired in 2018 alone. I know that there are plenty of generating resources on the grid to handle things now but what about the future. It wasn’t that long ago when some thought that wind energy was just a trendy thing. On December 15, 2017 SPP set a record for peak wind generation of 15,690 MW. Now with more than 19 GW of installed wind capacity in the Southwest Power Pool, wind is more than just a trend. Along with that we have to look at the 215 MW of solar installed in SPP. The economical energy produced by natural gas and renewable resources is putting a lot of financial pressure on coal and nuclear facilities. That is not the only reason but certainly a major reason for the closing of the more costly facilities. Below is a link to the closing of a large coal facility just south of us. There is much more to come in near future when it comes to news about how we keep coal and nuclear plants alive. Happy reading!
Awareness Campaign
About 49 million people in 49 states and five territories across the U.S. are public power customers. However, our research has shown that the majority of those 49 million people don’t even realize their utility is community-owned. We need to make them aware of this fact and explain why this matters. And we can do this more effectively if we speak with one voice. At our members’ request, the American Public Power Association developed a national campaign to raise awareness of public power.
The campaign is built on the theme “Community Powered” and is designed for Association members (public power utilities, joint action agencies, and state associations) to implement in your communities from October to December 2018.
We hope you will participate in the campaign and engage your communities. Let’s tell the public power story together. https://www.publicpower.org/awareness-campaign
Winter Gas Prices Responding to Low Storage Levels
Weekly storage injection volumes reported this summer have been below the 5 year average. Current storage level is at 2,435 Bcf, about 25% below the five-year average. Storage levels are projected to be below 3,300 Bcf at the end of the injection season on October 31st. According to data from the EIA, this would be the lowest storage level going into the withdraw season in 15 years.
The NYMEX winter strip (Dec-Feb) is finally reacting to the growing storage inventory deficit. The posted average price for the winter strip on August 22nd was $3.13 per MMBtu. This is an increase of 16.5 cents from the average posted price on August 1st of $2.96/MMBtu. EIA expects natural gas spot prices to average $2.98/MMBtu for the remaining months in 2018 and $3.10/MMBtu in 2019.
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Meet James Remley, Newest Addition to KMEA TeamDecember 23, 2024 - 10:59 am
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Save on Energy this WinterDecember 16, 2024 - 12:45 pm
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