MEA has started a round UP program.  Customers bills will be rounded up to the nearest dollar and the 50 cents or less will be given to charities in the valley that apply for the program.

Customers will automatically be part of the round up program unless they contact MEA and tell them they DON’T want to be part of the program.

MEA put the item on the latest ballot.  That item might have been the most controversial vote, but members voted 2 to1 for the round up program.  Normally, only 9 to 12 percent of MEA members vote in the annual election and this year was no different.  Close to 5,800 people voted in this year’s election — about 10% of the total customers. There were a few bylaw changes on the ballot as well as the Round UP program.  The election was held on April 26^th this year.

A Charitable Board of Directors will meet each month and decide on which non-profit the funds from the round up program will be dedicated.  Non profits can apply to be part of the program and be eligible to receive funds.  MEA estimates about $170,000 each year will be given to non profits as part of the Round Up program.

NOTE TO RESPONDERS – this is a news story about MEA’s decision. KTNA Community Radio has nothing to do with the MEA opt out program.

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She asks MEA customers to be prepared for outages as the snow continues to fall.  If the snow turns to rain, then there is a problem with ice.  Customers should prepare for possible outages throughout the evening and into Friday morning, or as long as the storm continues.  Heinze says its better to be prepared than not.

There is a possibility that the Susitna Valley will receive 20 inches of snow accumulation

Two years ago, MEA signed an agreement with Eklutna Native Corporation for 70 acres of land located northeast of the Glenn Highway.  That fall, they solicited bids for a contract to build a plant.

The plan is tentatively to build a 180-megawatt natural gas generation plant and facilities.  The size may change as research continues.

The contract is $565,000 agreement with CH2M-Hill, formerly known as VECO.  It starts the preliminary design, site layout and analysis.  The board approved a contract with RW Beck and Associates as well.

MEA has until July 1^st of this year to apply for an air quality permit.

MEA’s power purchase agreement with Chugach Electric Association expires at the end of 2014.

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Stefansky said that the Intertie easement is not a public trail and that people taking advantage of the cleared line are basically trespassing. The easement is widely used by snowmachiners and dog mushers. But Stefansky also said that – out of courtesy – he sent the Willow and Montana Creek Dog musher clubs a letter informing the mushers of the upcoming hydroaxing.

Project foreman Steve Koenig with Johnson Construction and Consulting said that he and his crew of eight would begin work on Monday or Tuesday, starting at the staging area off Mastodon Road on the Intertie. They will work their way north to the Talkeetna River, double back and then head south. Koenig said that they send a dozer ahead to plow and have the hydro ax come behind to grind up the vegetation. Work is taking place from dawn to dusk, six days a week, but not on Sundays.

If conditions are ideal, Koenig said, he aims to hydroax five miles per week. In total, the project entails clearing the 100-foot wide Intertie corridor for 43 miles. They have until the end of May to finish the work

Traffic lights were out of order and anecdotal reports surfaced of a campershell, port-a-potties and fences being blown around in the core area. The strong winds whipped throughout a large swath of Southcentral, including the Susitna and Matanuska valleys but also blew strong in the Thompson pass area, Valdez and the Copper River area.

The National Weather Service reports that the highest wind gusted at 87 mph this morning at 6 a.m. between Wasilla and Palmer. Sustained winds blew at 54 mph. In Talkeetna, the strongest gust measured 46 miles per hour at 9 pm last night.

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The money has to be spent on a public purpose and that at least one public meeting has to happen for the public to comment on ideas how the funds are used. The Susitna Community Council has established a Grants Expenditure Committee to solicit and organize input from community members on how to spend the state’s grant funds. The committee is actively seeking ideas from the public on projects to spend the money and will hold two public meetings. One meeting is set for October 21 in the Sunshine area and another meeting is set for November 18 at the Sheep Creek Lodge.

Committee member Tami Hamler said that the committee hopes to present a list of project proposals to the full board of the Susitna Council in December.

The community share program is administered by the State Division of Community and Regional Affairs. Program administrator Bill Rolfzen advised that the financial boon the program provides to communities is likely to come to an end soon. If the legislature does not appropriate additional funds into the community revenue sharing fund, payments will decline by a third in 2012, by more than half in 2014 and there won’t be any funding for communities in 2014.

BLOWN OVER— Wind gusts on Friday were strong enough to topple a 9-foot plywood moose decoration in downtown Talkeetna. Signs of businesses, the wooden VFW post sign and political campaign signs were also damaged during the storm.  Photo by Diana Haecker

Last weekend’s wind storm wreaked havoc in the valley and residents are starting the clean up while state and borough officials as well as phone and utility companies are assessing the damages.

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Dennis Brodigan, Director of Emergency Services, says that he knew the winds were forecast but the storm of March 2003 was much worse as far as wind speeds.  However, the wind direction and force of wind this weekend became overwhelming for responders borough-wide. The amount of downed trees and electrical outages were far worse than 2003.

Brodigan said within a 36-hour period, responders borough wide received 450 calls or so, the majority being calls about downed power lines and small fires.  Captain Tim Morgan of Talkeetna’s fire department said only 5 calls were received by their department Friday, but their back-up power system failed for a short time and they had to scramble to get it back on line.

MEA is still working at restoring power to residents across the Borough.  Their power outage phone number was overwhelmed over the weekend and they clearly didn’t have enough staff to respond to the 40,000 phone calls received.

Brodigan says as director of Borough emergency services, he is very concerned with the amount of people that were affected by the power outage and the Borough will be sitting down with MEA today to have a ‘post-wind-event’ meeting and see how they can more effectively deal with a situation like this in the future.

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For the residents that live in the upper valley that still don’t have power and don’t have a way to prepare food or have heat, the Upper Susitna Senior Center is open today starting at 1:30.  The fire department, the seniors and KTNA are trying to get a handle on how many people are without power and have no one to turn to get heat or water. Residents that need assistance should know that the Senior Center is standing by to provide a warm shelter.

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At noon, MEA officals say that 2500 homes are without power.

The problem is wind-related and downed trees wreaking havoc with powerlines. In Palmer and Wasilla winds gusting 50 to 60 mph are ripping down powerlines and trees.

At this point, MEA officials say they’re working on many different areas and say as soon as one problem is fixed, another downed tree causes power outages in a different area.

Stay tuned as we give updates on the situation.

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MEA Director of Operations, Tony Zellers, says residents along the highway north of Talkeetna and up to Trapper Creek, and Cache Creek, will start to see MEA crews working on clearing trees and brush along power lines  next week. He says the work will most likely continue through mid October.

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Heinze said the power went out around 8:30 and was restored at 8:55.

The results show that Larry DeVilbiss received 1,634 votes over challenger Bill Tull’s 1,376.  David Glines received 1,589 to challenger Tom Staudenmaier’s 436 votes.  Katie Hurley and Bob Doyle are in a close race in the Susitna District, with Doyle receiving 1,875  and Hurley receiving 1,818 votes.  If the counts stand, Doyle will take a seat on the board.

The nominating committee did not submit incumbent Katie Hurley’s name originally and instead chose Bob Doyle to be on the ballot.   Hurley became a petition candidate.  The vote count shows 16% of the membership voting in this election.

There were three proposition questions that made changes in the bylaws.  All passed overwhelmingly.  The propositions addressed how people can vote, the second amendment to the bylaws amended who can be seated on the board and disqualifiers.  The third proposed change clarifies when the bylaw changes take effect.

MEA spokesperson Cheryl Heinze says the election will be certified next Monday.

Griffith responded favorably to the offer. He said while he wouldn’t want to hold the job for the next eight years, he’d be willing to take the general manager position for three to five years. The hiring will be finalized after the board, MEA’s attorneys and Griffith have agreed on the employment contract terms.

Last summer, the MEA board fired long-time general manager Wayne Carmony and Joe Griffith was hired in July as the interim general manager. A general manager search committee had been looking for a permanent manager until board member Janet Kincaid made the motion during last Monday’s meeting to hire Griffith permanently. Kincaid told the board that they have the best man on the job already and that staff morale would continue to rise if they know that a permanent general manager is in charge. Kincaid added that it would be to MEA’s advantage if other railbelt utilities knew that Griffith has the power associated with the general manager’s title.

MEA and other railbelt utilities are currently in negotiations to create a greater railbelt energy transmission corporation.  The co-op is also in the process to build a new power plant in Eklutna.

Before joining MEA, Griffith worked for the Chugach Electric Association from 1989 to 2005.

Strong winds blowing through the Mat-Su area, wreaked havoc in the Wasilla Palmer area but for the most part spared the upper Susitna valley from damages.Matanuska Electric Association spokeswoman Lorali Carter said that there were “tons of outages” throughout the MEA service area. Carter said 15 different outages occurred on Thursday and some areas are still without power as of Friday.

Clint Vardeman, deputy director of the Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services said that most of the wind damage reported occurred in the Palmer and Wasilla area. In Wasilla, a 62-year old man was hit by a falling tree and transported to Mat-Su Regional with minor injuries. Off the Glenn Highway, a roof blew off a house addition and smashed into a parked truck. Between Palmer and Wasilla, a tree crashed onto a powerline, which then fell on a house.

Talkeetna stationed Alaska State Troopers didn’t receive any storm damage reports and Chulitna DOT personnel were not aware of any wind related accidents or tree blockages on the Parks Highway either. The strongest gusts recorded by the National Weather Service in Talkeetna were 23 miles per hour. Further up the valley, the Chulitna station recorded the peak winds blowing 41 miles per hour shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday.

SPECIAL HEARING— State legislators came to the annual AFN convention to listen to invited testimony on energy issues, on Friday, Oct. 23 at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. Photo by Diana Haecker

The joint House and Senate energy committees gathered on Friday afternoon to hold an unprecedented special hearing at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. The 17 senators and representatives present  listened to invited testimony of Native community leaders. Cook Inlet Region Incorporated’s energy expert Ethan Schutt said that Southcentral faces real challenges in the near future as 90 percent of the energy producing turbines are spun with natural gas and it’s supply is waning.

In order to get away from a sole energy source, Schutt said, Southcentral needs a diversified energy portfolio. He said the state needs a clearly formulated energy policy and that it would make sense to favor local resources over imported energy resources. In this context, CIRI recently announced a plan to build a new 100-Megawatt  power plant powered by an emerging underground coal gasification technology. The plan is to drill wells into buried coal seams located in West Cook Inlet between Beluga River and Theodore River, then injecting compressed air into the wells, causing the coal to combust and create gas to feed the new power plant.  CIRI began the permitting process this month for resource assessment testing.

Schutt also testified that renewable energy should be in the mix and that CIRI is in process of installing 46 wind turbines on Fire Island and started with clearing land last week. He also said that part of the energy solution is to update the inefficient transmission line system, a problem not well understood by the public.

Matanuska Electric Association’s spokeswoman Lorali Carter said that MEA welcomed CIRI’s news regarding the coal-gasification and the proposed 100-Megawatt powerplant. Carter said, MEA is certainly optimistic about CIRI’s plans, but MEA will continue with its own plans to build a new natural-gas powered plant at Eklutna. Carter said that the request for proposals is out and a number of companies already have shown interest to submit proposals to build the new power plant. A pre-bid meeting is scheduled for next week and the deadline for handing in proposals is January 29, 2010.

The board of directors of the Matanuska Electric Association voted to offer a settlement of $50,000 to two former employees who have sued MEA over severance pay.In April, MEA assistant general manager Tuckerman Babcock and director of information technology Bruce Scott were fired by then-general manager Wayne Carmony. Carmony was directed by the board to fire the two managers.

In June, Babcock and Scott filed a lawsuit against MEA arguing that they deserve severance pay and that they are entitled to two years worth of salary and benefits as spelled out in their contracts.

On Tuesday, in a closed special session, the MEA board of directors discussed the case. After coming out of the executive session, the board voted 5 to 2 in favor of directing MEA’s attorney to offer both Babcock and Scott $50,000 each to settle the case.

According to court documents, the case is scheduled to go to trial on November 29 at the Palmer courthouse.

MEA officials and Susan Orlansky, the attorney for Babcock and Scott, declined to comment.