Chairman Steve AmRhein opened the meeting, and Brian Scheidler kept the meeting minutes.
All board members except Clay Nuhring were present. Also present were CEO Brett Abplanalp and employee Matt Raver.
Suzanne Parmer moved to approve the agenda. Dale Wernke seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
SAFETY MINUTE AND COOL MOMENT
Abplanalp spoke on National Work Zone Awareness Week for the safety minutes. The cool moment highlighted RoundUp grant winners and the successful BEAD challenge.
APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
Wernke moved to approve the minutes from the March 27, 2024, board meeting. Jason Barnhorst seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
CEO UPDATE
Abplanalp updated the board on strategic projects, including safety improvement plans, Operations organizational changes, construction work plans, and the fiber project.
Abplanalp then covered the company metrics as prepared on CTO. March’s median temperature was 3.9% warmer than our five-year average. Wholesale purchased energy was down 3.8% compared to our five-year average. Demand was down 6.7% from our five-year average. Year-to-date energy sales ended 1.4% positive to budget. There was no major storm for the month of March. Lost consumer hours were 1,361 compared to our five-year average of 3,539. The number of outages was 35 compared to our five-year average of 41.8.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Raver gave the financial update. Net utility plant decreased $61,760 in March, and our current equity is 63.7%. Revenues are over the YTD budget, and power costs are over, resulting in a gross margin above budget of $105,256 YTD. Controllable expenses are under budget by $431,378. The cash flow statement shows a beginning balance of $587,558. We ended the current month with a net increase in cash of $320,996, resulting in an ending cash balance of $908,554.
NEW BUSINESS
2024 POWER REQUIREMENT STUDY REVIEW
Abplanalp reviewed the latest PRS and answered questions.
Wernke moved to approve the resolution for the 2024 PRS. Steve Nobbe seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
POLICY REVIEW
The following policies were reviewed with no material changes: 10-2: Hours of Work and Rates of Pay, 4-03: Allocations and Refunds of Capital Credits, 2-1: Area Coverage and Line Extensions, 2-07.
MEMBER ACCESS TO BOARD MEETINGS
Parmer moved to approve the policy reviews. Carl Riedeman seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Abplanalp reviewed the Q1 2024 risk management report with the board.
SOLAR MEMBER’S CONCERNS
Abplanalp highlighted the April 23 meeting with two industry experts arranged for members who had concerns about their solar payback rate. No invited members were in attendance. Written responses from management were sent to those members on April 25, and a board response letter was sent on April 30.
OLD BUSINESS
FIBER PROJECT UPDATE
Abplanalp went over updates to the grant project.
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS
Barnhorst gave an update from Hoosier Energy.
AmRhein gave an IEC update.
Parmer moved to adjourn the meeting, and Nobbe seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:31 p.m. The board then moved into executive session to discuss personnel matters and an insurance matter.
