Summary of May’s board meeting

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Posted on Aug 06 2025 in Decatur County REMC

Call to order
Chairman Steve AmRhein called the regular meeting of the Decatur County REMC Board of Directors to order at 6:02 p.m. Steve Nobbe recorded the minutes. All board members were present, except Carl Riedeman. Also present were CEO Brett Abplanalp and employee Matt Raver.

Approval of agenda
Suzanne Parmer moved to approve the agenda as presented. Brian Scheidler seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously.

Safety moment and cool moment
Abplanalp kicked off the meeting with a safety moment, highlighting tick prevention. For the cool moment, he shared that our Marketing & Communications team earned national recognition from NRECA, being a spotlight on excellence award winner for their creative work on The Little Crew Club.

Approval of previous meeting minutes
Scheidler moved to approve the minutes of the April 23, 2025, regular board meeting. Dale Wernke seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously.

CEO update
Abplanalp provided updates on the fiber project, meter replacement project, operations building discussion, and progress on the cost-of-service study.

Abplanalp also presented company metrics, which included the following:

  • The median temperature for April was 3.6% warmer than the five-year average.
  • Wholesale energy purchased was up 7%, and demand rose by 4.4% compared to the five-year average.
  • Year-to-date energy sales were 3.28% above budget.
  • No major storms occurred in April.
  • Lost consumer hours were 1,464 compared to our five-year average of 4,431.
  • The number of outages was 62 compared to our five-year average of 43.

Financial update
Raver presented the financial update for April, noting the following:

  • The net utility plant increased by $220,388 compared to the previous month.
  • Year-to-date revenues were $522,832 above budget.
  • Power costs are over by $290,331, resulting in a gross margin over budget of $232,502 YTD.
  • Controllable expenses were under budget by $135,435.
  • The ending cash balance for the month was $680,584.

Budget approval
Abplanalp informed the board that we are significantly ahead of schedule on pole replacements and proposed redirecting our contractors’ efforts toward replacing red-tagged meter poles. The board expressed support for this approach but noted that, since we are still well under budget for this line item, formal approval would be granted only if and when it results in a budget overage.

Abplanalp presented the $2,111 in 2024 delinquent write-offs to the board for approval. Parmer made a motion to accept the write-offs, which was seconded by Jason Barnhorst and unanimously approved.

Abplanalp also introduced a budget request to proceed with the civil design phase of a proposed remodel of the 1960s operations building. No decisions were made.

Adjournment
Scheidler moved to adjourn the meeting into an executive session. Parmer seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:53 p.m., and the board proceeded into executive session.