Losing capacity credit income that we get monthly would be offset by the reduction in the demand charge, so our City Council is ok with the change,
Also, MoPEP has been discussing the purchase of a portion of the Dogwood Generation Facility capacity. MoPEP has been purchasing generation from this facility for a couple of years for member cities, of which Butler is one. This is a natural gas-fired generation plant that does not have as many issues with the air quality regulations as coal-fired generation plants.
MoPEP approved pursuing the purchase of the plant capacity, which will bring an increase in power costs at first, but over the long term, it will help stabilize power costs for us.
Our City Council is interested in several bills in Congress, which would exempt all municipal and co-op generators, which includes us, that would exempt us from the EPA air quality regulations. And this is a biggie, because it would mean we would not have to buy catalytic converters for our power plant by May of 2013, which would cost Butler 280-thousand dollars.
Our city administrator, Mark Arbuthnot, has sent emails to our congress persons, asking for their consideration and support of this legislation, and at least one...Vicky Hartzler, has said she has signed on as a sponsor of this bill.
The House of Representatives may pass the bill before the presidential election next year, but it's not expected to be even considered by the senate by then. We'll keep you posted as our City Council learns how it's going.
In other news, the Council gave the ok to ordinance 936 which concerns renovation of our police department, except for two things...the ordinance didn't include interior painting, nor installation of four windows, so the total amount approved was six-thousand, nine hundred dollars. The other two items will be taken care of later.
It does include reconstruction of inside walls...roofing repairs...and a 12-by-24 canopy on the east side of the building, and a six-by-six food canopy over the lobby entrance.
The council also accepted a bid for membrane replacement at the water plant, which is a necessary evil, because they will cost 58 thousand dollars.
That's it for now...we remind that you may attend any city council meeting...1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month at the Butler City Hall.
