Rochester Public Utility Board Meeting – July 29, 2026
Rochester Public Utility Board Meeting – July 29, 2026
The Rochester Public Utility Board met on July 29, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at RPU Community Room, 4000 E River Rd NE. All five board members were present (Brett Gorden, Patrick Keane, Malachi McNeilus, Wendy L Turri, Kelsey Vaszily). The meeting included informational updates on the Power Supply Plan, Water System Master Plan, and Water Division Operations, a consent agenda with routine approvals, public comment, a vote to authorize short-term water utility revenue bonds, and a closed executive session for the General Manager's performance review.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes of June 23, 2026 – Approved unanimously.
- Review of Accounts Payable – Approved the list of transactions from 06/12/2026 to 07/13/2026 totaling $14,385,130.71.
- Board Policy 32: Financial Policies – Approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kris Acuna (Sierra Club Rochester Organizer) thanked the board for progress on renewable energy and water quality, expressed support for expanding energy efficiency programs and decarbonization, and urged creation of a public dashboard to track community goals. He noted that climate change impacts hit low-income residents hardest and asked RPU to continue expanding rebates and demand-response rates.
Discussion Items
- Power Supply Plan Update (Item 4.A) – Bill Bullock, Director of Power Resources, reported the utility is about two-thirds of the way to its 100% net renewable goal. He highlighted challenges: tariffs, inflation, permitting delays (e.g., Mount Simon interconnection cost reduced from $20M to $5M, but other projects face MISO accreditation issues and wind-project node access problems). Two 10 MW/40 MWh battery projects are on track for Q3 2027. A new all-of-the-above RFP will be issued to procure additional capacity and renewables, with recommendations expected by end of 2026. Board members discussed accreditation rates for wind (only ~20% of nameplate for capacity) and batteries (55% accreditation), and the need to balance seasonal renewable production.
- Water System Master Plan Update (Item 4.B) – Todd Blomstrom, Assistant GM of Operations, reviewed the long-term study. The DNR has restricted new Jordan aquifer wells and requires evaluation of alternatives (Mount Simon sandstone, intermediate aquifers, surface water from Zumbro River or Mississippi). A groundwater model covering 1,500 square miles is being built; water quality issues (radium, PFAS, iron/manganese) are driving the need for potential treatment. Modeling results are expected by late October 2026, with capital cost estimates in Q4 2026/Q1 2027. Short-term needs (e.g., water main expansion, AMI replacement) are pushing the utility toward short-term debt.
- 2025 Water Division Engineering and Operations Report (Item 4.C) – Todd Blomstrom presented 28 KPIs across five service levels. Positives: 100% compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act primary standards, 1,200 coliform tests all negative, system pressure maintained. Concerns: water main breaks hit 11.7 per 100 miles (one of the highest in 35 years); iron/manganese complaints (4.5 per 1,000 accounts) are above national average; preventive maintenance on hydrants fell short due to staff resource constraints (AMI project, lead service line replacement, high construction workload). Staff propose contracting water utility locates to a third party to free up crew for maintenance.
- Short-Term Water Utility Revenue Bonds (Item 5.A) – Peter Hogan, Assistant GM of Administration, requested approval of a resolution authorizing up to $10 million in short-term borrowing (private placement, similar to a line of credit) to fund expansion projects (Calmar booster station, 18th Avenue SW water improvements, AMI replacement) while the master plan is finalized. The bonds will likely be rolled into long-term financing in 2028-2029. The resolution also establishes a Pricing Committee and recommends Common Council approval.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda approved unanimously (items 3.A–3.C).
- Resolution for Short-Term Water Utility Revenue Bonds (up to $10 million) approved unanimously.
- Executive Session convened at 5:33 p.m. closed per Minn. Stat. §13D.05 subd. 3(a) for General Manager Timothy McCollough's performance review; ended at 6:11 p.m.
- General Manager Performance Evaluation – After closed session, the board unanimously approved the performance evaluation and a 3% lump sum merit adjustment for Timothy McCollough.
- Meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. It's four o'clock, and this meeting of the Rochester Public Utilities Board is now called to order. As a reminder, this meeting is recorded and recording will be available on the city's website. The first item on the agenda tonight or this afternoon is approval of the agenda. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented. I'll move approval. I'll second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Um discussion. Otherwise, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed. The agenda is approved. Next, we have our safety moment. And our safety moment today is brought to us by Siobhan Eastley, manager of purchasing and warehouse. And Siobhan, when I saw your name on the agenda tonight, I called up my old colleague in banking, Shauna, and I asked Shauna, how many Eastlees are there in running around southeastern Minnesota? And she said she knew you and uh um just absolutely enjoyed working with Shauna for years. Wonderful person and uh nice to meet you, and thanks for presenting tonight. So nice to meet you too. Thank you. My uh that's my sister-in-law. So we've been sister-in-laws for 31 years tomorrow. So yes. Well, thank you for having me. Um, so I am the manager of purchasing a warehouse. And so what we're gonna talk about today is a little bit of warehouse safety. Oops, sorry, I guess maybe I don't have uh keep moving. Okay, keep going. This stuff we don't even need to talk about, right? All right. I'm guessing most of you have never been in our warehouse. So this is just a really quick picture to show you kind of what our what a normal aisle looks like within the warehouse. Internally, we store electric and water materials. Um we recently had an LED light upgrade, so you can see it's super bright in there. The goal every day for for the staff, and we have five people in the warehouse, four to five, five right now in the busy season, is to make sure that there are no injuries to them. They go home safe every day and that we limit any damage to materials and equipment. So this is a one warehouse aisle. You can see on the bottom there, there's some yellow guards that we put on the racking just to make sure that that gives some extra protection, just in case you'd have a forklift incident. So there it's organized and clean, wide aisles where we can. We've got some narrow ones. Everything is organized by bin location. And oops, um this is another picture of where we store our wire and cable. Inside storage when possible of cable is really important because it keeps the cable dry and it's must much easier to pull off the roll and distribute. Um, if you've got cable outside, it gets cold and wet, it makes it very difficult to pull off and also take the cable um coating off. So the cable is accessible 365 days a year, and it's easy for them to grab off the roll and then distribute what they need to. So again, you can see it's nice and bright in there for the LED lights and much easier for our people to get to. And this is just one picture of a little bit of our stockyard. And the stockyard, obviously, outside.
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