March 17, 2014, Club Bulletin # 500
Program for March 17, 2014: Dan Mc Ginn, Muscatine's Golf Pro and Irishman!!
Invocation by: Paul Krauschaar
Guests: 3.0 Senior: Matt Bissa, Karey Hawkins
Rotary News: President Keith told us that Rotary Night at the Park is early this year and will be held on May 8th!! Mark your calendar now!! Steve Jameson is recruiting members for the Youth Exchange Committee to begin to work on next year's student exchange. See Steve for details. Keith also mentioned the Rotary Spotlight Project... this is your turn to nominate someone to be in the Rotary Member Spotlight...highlights of these persons will be shared with the club at a meeting soon!!
Happy News: Keith is proud to tell that Mayor Hopkins has been invited to be a panel member at the Sister Cities Conference in Washington D.C. He will share the Muscatine-China Story!! Ron Yohe paused to think how to describe the impact of a deer on his car, yesterday... no damage to the deer or the car...as Ron stated the deer was mating with his car!! Tony Joseph is excited to become our next Rotary President and is just returning from PETS Training in Minnesota. He also asked Rotarians to save the date of March 29th for a second set of photos to be exhibited at the Gallery on Second in historic downtown Muscatine. Rich Dwyer also asking Rotarians to save May 1 to learn more about the University of Iowa Student Riverfront Projects that will be on display for community information and interest as requested by the CIAT Team!! Mike Ruby is also returning from PETS training and is proud of Tony whom he says is a fabulous networker!!
Rotary Program: Keith introduced his good friend Sal LoBianco as the presenter today!! MPW CEO Sal LoBianco continued the MPW update story!! Sal focused on the Electric and Communications Utilities. The Electric Utility consists of 3 coal fired generating stations that in 1999 had a peak usage of 149.9 megawatts. Electricity is purchased now on a centrally cleared market which is energy purchased at a least cost day ahead market price.
We sell steam to the largest industrial customer in the community which is GPC. MPW Electric's strengths are low rates and rapid recovery when there is an electrical outage. The utility is subject to environmental regulation and he noted that there was no rate increase between 2002 and 2009. In August of 2010 there was a rate increase to get the rates more in line with costs.
The Utility is required to participate in Energy Efficiency programs including solar panel project, Wind Turbines, and the Voluntary Green Muscatine Project. MPW is also a part of the South Fork Wind Farm located in Minnesota.
The Communications Utility has 7000 TV and digital customers. Sal said this market is competitive and difficult because of dish services etc. He mentioned the Video on Demand service that allows one to receive TV anywhere on a tablet.
The Communications Utility started with old Debt which has hampered any great revenue gains. It is a 12.5 million dollar enterprise. The cost is driven by programming costs and increased bandwidth is always needed. Sal is proud of the Help Desk Services and mentioned that School Board, City Council and Board of Supervisor Meetings are available to the public via MPW cable!!