Huntingburg Council meeting notes: gas line switches saves city money
Quick actions by the city on advice from their natural gas buyer saved the city over $100,000 last month.
Ron Ragan of Utility Gas Management monitors the gas prices for the city and purchases gas in advance from various sources. Ragan noticed a spike in prices from one of the city’s two suppliers and notified the Power Utility to slow down the supply from one and increase the other, lower cost supplier.
Employees then increased the flow from the Texas Eastern supply line located west of Ireland and decreased the flow from the Midwestern Gas Transmission Company supply line located in Stendall, to supply the city with the exceptionally less expensive gas.
“Ragan monitors those prices all the time,” said John Reutepohler. “He saved us a lot of money.”
The city also took the following actions.
-Adopted a Resolution of Respect for Loma Hartke, he served the city as the Huntingburg Utilities Superintendent for 40 years. Hartke was awarded the Key to the City in a special ceremony during the kickoff celebration for the City’s 175th anniversary Celebration. Hartke passed away last Thursday.
-Ethan Trustee was accepted as a new member of the Huntingburg Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Scott Patburg stated Trustee would be sworn in at the next Huntingburg Board of Public Works and Safety meeting. He will begin training at the Jasper Fire Department training facility for a few weekends to be able to assist the department. He will then attend fire school later this summer during the normal classes held in the county to complete his Fireman I and II courses.
-Approved a Joint Resolution between the City of Huntingburg and the Southwest Dubois County School Corporation opposing the repeal of the Business Personal Property Tax. If the bill passes the loss in tax will represent 17.6 percent of the city’s assessed valuation and $125,000 of the property tax levy. It represents 14 percent of the school corporations assessed valuation and $126,000 of the property tax levy. The bills do not contain any language that replaces the lost income.
-Approved Ron Ragan to work with Cumberland Natural Gas to remove gas from the decommissioned gas field.
-Approved a resolution accepting the Downtown Revitalization Plan completed by Matt Rueff, Development Concepts, Inc.
-Heard an update on cost savings feasibility study conducted by Honeywell. James Zellman reported several large local electrical utility customers are interested in the energy saving programs. Zellman will bring information to the next council meeting to be considered for request for proposal (RFP) and then advertise the RFP for bids. No decision on whether the city will move forward with any of the suggestions from Honeywell will occur until April.
-Approved a resolution to transfer seven tax sale certificates for properties in Huntingburg from the county to the city for $100 each. The City Attorney Phil Schneider explained the properties did not sell at the last tax sale because there was no bid that met the requirements for the minimum bid. The bids weren’t high enough because the city has an assessment against the property for the cost of demolishing the buildings. The City of Huntingburg will be the holder of those certificates and the property owner can still redeem the property by paying the back taxes and special assessments. If that doesn’t occur within 120 days, the city can petition at the end of six months for a tax sale deed and the city will own the properties.
