GEPB elects new officers
Allyson Dix
Jobe Publishing, Inc.
The Glasgow Electric Plant Board approved two new board officers to the Board of Directors last week following the expiring term for Chairman D.T. Froedge and the resignation of Libby Short.
Board members unanimously elected Mark Haines as the new Chairman and Glenn Pritchard as the new Secretary/Treasurer.
In the first Glasgow City Council meeting this year, council members voted down the reappointment of Froedge to the GEPB Board in a split 4-5 vote. Froedge has served as Chairman since October 2020 and finished a 4-year term in January.
Short previously served as the Secretary/Treasurer until her recent resignation due to filing as a candidate for the Glasgow City Council.
Haines was appointed to the GEPB Board on 7/26/2021, and Pritchard on 1/27/2020.
Currently, there is only one other board member, Marlin Witcher, who was first appointed to the EPB Board on 1/28/2019. His appointment runs concurrently with his term as Councilman on the Glasgow City Council.
Before the election of officers, then-Chairman Froedge shared his recommendations regarding the future of GEPB.
Items of Business
Board members voted to approve the lowest of three bids received for a new 750 kVA transformer for South Green Elementary School in the amount of $21,500.00. Superintendent David Puskala responded to Froedge’s inquiry regarding the quality of the three different transformers. He said he expects all three to have the same quality and may even be the same brand with different suppliers. Board Attorney Ron Hampton clarified the Little TVA Act specifies any expenses over $20,000.00 require approval from the board.
Also approved was authorizing Melanie Reed and Michele Getic to make inquiries on all GEPB bank accounts.
Superintendent’s Report
Puskala said a drop with the fuel cost adjustment (FCA) is expected in February. “[FCA] is going to drop to 1.947-cents per kilowatt-hour, which is a drop of 22% from January,” Puskala said. However, he said this cost is still 17% higher than the three-year average.
Puskala provided information for 17 recordable outages for December 2021, which were caused by animals (mainly squirrels) and indirect damage from the tornado outbreak in December. The cause for one outage remains unknown. Three outages were equipment related including a transformer failure at the local hospital and a substation issue.
The superintendent also said that Glasgow is “back to normal” regarding their substation loads.
“The South Glasgow Switching Station is now fully in service and as of January 14, we’re back to normal operations with our load more or less split between our East Glasgow substation and our Haywood Substation,” Puskala said. He said the electric load had been feeding through the Haywood Substation from October 11, 2021, through January 14, 2022.
