Water, gas capacity reason for upcoming HMU projects

HARLAN —     The Harlan Municipal Utilities Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Jan. 26 approved a 25-cent increase of the gas billing charges for HMU.
    HMU contracted with Bill Lindley from Clayton Energy for their gas purchases on December 1, 2022. Lindley gave a presentation regarding the structure of the proposed new gas billing during the board’s regular meeting.  
    “This structure will mirror the methodology of other Iowa municipalities that track passthrough pipeline and supplier costs,” said CEO Joe Rueschenberg. “HMU will now see a two-part rate instead of a three-part rate. The fuel rate adjustment will now be included in the gas use rate.   The base rate is not changing.”  
    Rueschenberg said to plan for the future of Harlan there will be a 2.5 cent/ccf amount included in the rate.
    “We are projecting, depending on usage, a $2 - $4 a month increase for a small household during a winter month,” he said. “We want to make sure we can get reserves built up so we can buy additional volume on the open market. This is according to our capacity and planning for an increase in usage if a new business or homes are being built in town and we need that extra capacity.”          
    As the city has grown over the years, so has the need for more capacity of gas and water. The HMU board is looking toward the future and meeting that need for greater capacity in a few ways.
    Following a public hearing during which there were no oral or written objections, the Board of Trustees approved the authorization of the loan agreement and issuance of notes to evidence the obligation of the City not to exceed $7.5 million Water Revenue Capital Loan Notes for the new water project.
    The new water project includes four new wells, new interconnecting piping for the wells, new controls and new power to all the wells, existing and new.
Donald Cote said in order to meet the Iowa Department of Natural Resources regulations the new wells have to have backup generation capacity.
    “Instead of putting new generators out in the wellfield, we are looping back and reutilizing our old generators that we have at the facility,” he said.
    Rueschenberg said HMU is projecting to approve plans by the beginning of February, have bids back by the end of February or first of March and hopefully start construction in spring. HMU is giving contractors until December 2024 for completion due to supply chain issues and being able to acquisition the parts needed.

Cote said the newest well is 32 years old and the lifespan on a well is 30 years.  

“We haven’t had any infrastructure upgrades in that entire time frame and we have some wells that have been in operation for substantially twice that amount of time,” he said.

HMU received a $500,000 grant towards the water project from Wastewater Water Treatment Assistance Program.

“Hopefully it will help reduce the loan amount we will have to borrow for the well project,” Rueschenberg said.