TOWN OF JACKPOT, NEVADA
Advisory BOARD
1594 POND DRIVE - JACKPOT, NV 89825
PHONE (775)755-2448, FAX (775)755-2439
JACKPOT ADVISORY BOARD
MINUTES
THURSDAY, October 13, 2016
6:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER:
The meeting of the Jackpot Advisory Board was called to order by Chairman Jeff Young at
5:56 pm mountain standard time on October 13, 2016 in meeting room of the Jackpot Public Building, Jackpot, Nevada.
ROLL CALL:
Members Present: Jeff Young
Teresa Hugill
Ed Klomp
Shawn Mathis
Bruce Rire
Absent:
Others Present: Randy Brown, Assistant Elko County Manager
Shawn Burt, Jackpot Public Works Superintendent
Brian Hugill, Jackpot Fire Department
Chad Black, Raft River Electric
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:
Chairman Young led the pledge of allegiance.
.
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE GALLERY:
Chairman Young advised the public to step to the front of the room to identify themselves and to speak clearly for the record. He stated that they should try and not speak out of turn or among themselves. If anybody has a cell phone it should be muted and if a call needs to be answered it must be taken outside.
COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC:
Pursuant to N.R.S. 241.020, 2 (c) (3), this time is devoted to comments by the general public, if any, and discussion of those comments. No action may be taken upon a matter raised during a period devoted to comments by the general public until the matter itself has been specifically included on a successive agenda and identified to be an action item.
Brian Hugill (Jackpot Fire Chief) presented awards to both Mark Smith and Carl Mark on behalf of the town and the fire service for their years of dedication.
Rhonda Loria (Jackpot Postmaster) stated that the hiring position that she has promoted is on hold and approval is pending with Western Area. She has also been trying to recruit Hispanic families to attend the meetings. She would like a notice e-mailed to her with the date of the meeting so she can high-light it and post it.
Chairman Young stated that it would be a good idea to do it on a colored paper so it stands out more and people notice it.
TOWN OF JACKPOT
- Discussion and consideration of the election of the drawing for the Jackpot Town Logo.
Chairman Young commented that to his understanding the town logo would be put at the recreation center.
Shawn Burt (Public Works Superintendent) stated that the drawing would be put at the recreation center and it would also be used as the town’s logo.
Chairman Young stated that out of the three drawings he personally liked the one with the fisherman, biker, hiker, and golfer.
Teresa Hugill (Board Member) stated that she liked that one too and that it seemed to represent what Jackpot has to offer.
Motion: Teresa Hugill made a motion to accept the drawing made by Carlos Perez to be the town’s logo, seconded by Bruce Ririe. Motion passed.
VOTE:
Aye: Jeff Young
Shawn Mathis
Theresa Hugill
Ed Klomp
Bruce Ririe
Nay:
Absent:
Abstain:
- Raft River Electric Company update of the electrical service provided to the town of Jackpot.
Chad Black (Raft River Electric Member) stated that he has worked for Raft River for eighteen years and he is currently in a new position so he wants to get to know Shawn Burt (Public Works Superintendent) and know who they are dealing with. In at the last meeting one of Raft River’s board members felt as if there were some misconceptions or confusion as to why Raft River operates the way they do with their rate structure. Mr. Black stated that he is available and anybody at the office is also available to answer any questions or concerns.
Mr. Black commented that Richard (Raft River Board member) had spent some time with Rhonda (Jackpot Postmaster) answering some questions.
Rhonda (Jackpot Postmaster) stated that the talk with Richard had been beneficial except that the ten dollar fee was misleading. The reason for the high deposits is because people move in and out and there bill could lead up to three hundred.
Mr. Black stated that typically two months of a normal resident’s bill is three hundred dollars so that is how the deposit was determined. The deposit is put into an account and an interest of two percent is paid on it.
Rhonda stated that the ten dollar fee was explained using ranchers as an example. There are some ranchers who don’t live year around on their property and even though nobody is living there Raft River still needs to service that area; so there is the ten dollar standard fee that everybody pays. She thinks that a lot of people are upset with the ten dollar fee on their bill every month. There is a petition that has been signed by many citizens of the town against Raft River.
Mr. Black stated that the ten dollar fee is a service charge and everybody that has a meter is going to be assessed those ten dollars whether they use any energy or not. That tries to collect more evenly from everybody. There are meters out in ranches that don’t use any energy maybe on a stock well or a commercial sign on the road, but even those don’t use enough energy.
It is basically a rate.
Chairman Young commented that why were the rest of the people penalized for those few.
Mr. Black stated that they weren’t penalized per say.
Chairman Young stated that it felt like they were and that’s what Mr. Black described it as. He asked Mr. Black why they are paying it. Why people who have service year around on a regular basis paying that fee.
Mr. Black stated that Raft River had to collect so much to keep the lines, service, and transformers maintained.
Chairman Young stated that isn’t the electric bill used for all that.
Mr. Black commented that if nobody wanted to pay the ten dollar fee than they will have to raise the cost for kilowatt hours. Those that use more kilowatt hours are going to pay a higher price.
Chairman Young commented that so the ones who don’t use a lot of power are subsidizing the ones who use a lot by the description Mr. Black gave.
Mr. Black stated that no, it just depends on how you want to look at it. It costs so much to have a meter for the system whether energy is used or not. If more energy is used the bill is higher.
Chairman Young commented that most business just consider it the cost of doing business.
Mr. Black stated that the service fee is just a way to collect. For a meter to be in position and lit up it has a transformer. It costs X amount and that is where the service fee comes from.
Chairman Young stated that even after it has recouped its cost to be there the fee will remain.
Mr. Black stated that it can be called maintenance because they have to maintain them.
Chairman Young commented that he didn’t mean to be combatable. He is just relaying what he is hearing from town.
Mr. Black stated that he wants to know what the concerns are and he wants to talk about them. He can break the figures down in order to help better understand them. It basically means that they have to have so much to operate, maintain, keep the lines up and the meter energized.
Chairman Young stated that basically everybody that gets power from Raft River pays a basic fee so they can keep their doors open. That is the basic it takes for them to operate.
Mr. Black stated that the bad news of that is if they charge enough for every meter and nobody on the system used any energy just to keep the lines in the air it would be more like fifty dollars a month and nobody wants to pay that. The ten dollars is just the tip of the ice berg. Those using a lot of energy are subsidizing the ones who aren’t to some degree.
If everybody wants to pay fifty dollars and have a lower rate so those who use more power get it less expensive; than that is where the board is petitioned so the town can say that they don’t like the way the board does their rates.
Shawn Mathis (Jackpot Board Member) commented that it just sounds like a different line item and he is still going to have to pay one hundred dollars a month.
Mr. Black stated that he is going to pay one hundred dollars a month.
Mr. Mathis stated that where would those one hundred dollars go, would they go towards maintenance or the higher energy rate.
Mr. Black commented that the bottom line is that those one hundred dollars would be paid no matter what whether they call it kilowatt hours, KW, or service charge.
Mr. Mathis stated that Raft River would get their money one way or another.
Mr. Black stated that they had to in order to keep the lines in the air.
Mr. Mathis commented that they should bury them.
Mr. Black stated that it was more money to bury them.
Chairman Young asked if it cost more money to maintain them after they were buried.
Mr. Black stated that if nothing ever went wrong, but people sometimes dig into them or animals such as gofers.
Roberta Lineberry commented on how much the bills would be raised if the ten dollar fee was removed.
Mr. Black stated that they would need to calculate it because they know what their fixed costs are at the end of the year and what it cost to maintain the lines so they have to recoup that whether it’s a service fee or higher energy rates. The bottom line is that there whole sale costs continued to increase. They can thank EPA, all the money it takes to mitigate the salmon, keep the dams, all the infrastructures such as the hydropower plants that are sixty years old and are aging. Bonneville Power has to give a lot of money towards those places. He doesn’t see a bright future as far as energy cost. In this region we are pretty lucky that it is relatively inexpensive compared to the Midwest. He stated that he knows the town hates Raft River ever since they took over the rates have gone up, but Idaho Power was locked in at a 1984 power rate. They didn’t figure it was worth the time or effort to petition the PUC to raise them up where they needed to be. When Raft River took over they had to get them where they needed to be.
Chairman Young commented that if that was the way Idaho Power got around raising their rates by selling parts to companies who can.
Mr. Black stated that not necessarily. It was the PUC who told Idaho Power that they couldn’t distribute and transmit in the state of Nevada so they chose to keep their transmission.
When Raft River bought it they started paying Idaho Power whole sale rates on what they were collecting retail. They were getting the same amount of dollars off the energy that they were being a distributor. It costs a lot of money to distribute because of the need for lines and transformers. It was lucky Raft River got off of Idaho Power’s contract and annexed into Bonneville’s load because otherwise the rates would be much higher. It doesn’t seem that great, but it could be a lot worse.
Mrs. Lineberry commented on why the deposits were so high and why doesn’t Raft River work with people to get those deposits paid over a period of time.
Mr. Black stated that from his understanding the deposit is a two month average of a typical residential service which is one hundred and fifty a month. What happens is that sometimes people move in and rack up thirty days worth of energy use and they can’t pay their bill for whatever reason Raft River won’t shut them off right then. They have another month and by than they have racked up another one hundred and fifty dollars putting them in a sixty day past due from the time they moved in. Raft River than starts saying if the bill isn’t paid they will shut off service. They don’t want to raise the service charge to pay for somebody who doesn’t pay their electric bill. Instead they have to leverage and threaten to shut people off and sometimes they do shut them off, but they have those three hundred to cover that.
Mrs. Lineberry commented that there are a lot people who want to get jobs in Jackpot and want to move here, but they can’t because they can’t come up with the three hundred dollar deposit.
Mr. Black stated that if a deposit can’t be done a good letter of credit can be used. If a letter can provided that says this person has good credit and pays their bills that works to get around the deposit.
Mrs. Lineberry asked if Raft River lets people know that if they don’t have the deposit that a good credit letter works to get service.