OPD Considers ‘Round-Up’ Plan For Area High Schools

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

The Overton Power District (OPD) Board of Directors last week heard a presentation from local teachers regarding a program that might help raise funds for sports and academic programs at area high schools.

During a board meeting held on Wednesday, November 20, Moapa Valley High School head basketball coach Dallas Larsen presented the idea of the proposal called “Round Up For Education”. It would allow OPD customers to voluntarily round their power bills up to the next whole dollar. Those spare change donations would be gathered by OPD and then be turned over to a special MVHS activities fund, Larsen explained.

“It would be a financial fund to help the school and its athletes because of all the budget cuts that have taken place,” Larsen said.

Larsen envisioned a foundation being established; with a five member board consisting of school administrators, coaches and community members; which would administer the fund.

During the presentation, MVHS Wrestling Coach Shane Hickman added that the program would not only benefit athletics programs. Academic programs would also be included. It was proposed that 70% of the fund be made available for athletics and 30% go to academic programs.

Hickman explained that the school’s various athletics teams would have access to the funds every four years in a rotation. This would allow them to use the funds to purchase uniforms, needed equipment or to pay for travel to out of state tournaments.

Academic programs at the school seeking funding could also approach the board with proposals as needed, Hickman explained. The board could then decide what academic proposals to fund.

Hickman emphasized that the program would be entirely voluntary for the ratepayers. Rounding up a customers bill would only be done if the customer opted into the program.

Board member Jim Pugh asked whether the same opportunity would be extended to Virgin Valley High School. Hickman said that it could. He explained that he had not yet approached VVHS administrators because he wanted to gauge the interest in the program with the OPD board first. But he planned on working with VVHS on establishing the program, he said.

Pugh asked if there was a way to ensure that donations from each specific community would make it to the correct school.

“We have checked into the accounting process and it would be very easy for us to do,” responded OPD General Manager Mendis Cooper. “If you had a grandparent here in Moapa Valley and they wanted to make their donation to Mesquite, they could do that and vice versa. The system is already in place so there would be no cost to the district on this.”

Board members expressed interest in the idea and encouraged the teachers to work with OPD staff to come up with a final proposal and bring it to the Board’s January meeting for approval.

In a separate agenda item, the board approved a raptor protection program designed to protect migratory birds and raptors from injuries or death on district powerlines.

OPD Operations Manager Richard Jones presented the 20-page document to the board. He explained that earlier this year an owl death had been reported on powerlines near Leavitt Lane in Mesquite. This had initiated a meeting with a representative from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who asked OPD staff what the district policy was in dealing with these types of incidents.

“At the time we basically told him that we had no policy and didn’t know we needed one,” Jones said. “He brought an outline of what we needed to be doing as far as reporting incidents, training our people and other policies. He told us it was voluntary. But they do have the ability to fine us and sue us if we cause death to migratory birds.”

In response to this, OPD staff had put together the proposed Avian Protection Plan. Jones explained that the plan formalizes the district’s policy and runs down the details of what happens if there is a migratory bird death on the power lines. It also details the methods that the district will use to retrofit power lines in areas that may be prone to such incidents.

The board approved the document as presented.

The board also reviewed and approved an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) at the meeting. The IRP is a document required by the Western Power Administration, an entity which manages the power resources produced by federal hydropower projects in the west. Since OPD receives portions of this hydropower, the district is required to submit the IRP every five years.

During the public comment period, Mesquite resident Barbara Ellestead pointed out an error made in the document regarding the number of meters serviced by the OPD. In addition she complained that the document had not been released and made available to the public in time to allow written input to be submitted into the plan.

The document had been posted on the OPD website on November 5 and ads had been run in the community inviting the public to submit comments and feedback. Cooper apologized that the document had not been brought before the board in a previous meeting for advance review. However, he admitted that there had been some confusion on when the IRP should be submitted.

“I had been in contact with the representative from the Western Area Power Administration throughout the year,” Cooper said. “In earlier times, he had told me that our IRP was not due until January. Then I received a call in early October, requesting that it be completed by the October meeting. We could not get it noticed in time. So I got permission to present it in November board meeting. They need it from us right away. So I am presenting it to you in hopes that we can get this back to them right away.”

The board approved the IRP document.

The corrected IRP document is still available on the OPD website (homepage under Downloads, Integrated Resource Plan). The public comment period on the document will remain open until 5:00 p.m. on December 16.

Finally, during the meeting, the board approved a year-end bonus of $300 for each OPD employee.

Six of the seven board members voted in favor of giving the bonus.

“I think that the staff has earned it just based on their safety record alone,” said Mesquite board member Doug Waite.

As of last Friday, the district staff had gone a total of 6 years, 1 month and 7 days without an accident which necessitated lost work time for any employees.

Pugh, also from Mesquite, was the lone vote against giving the bonuses.

“Based on input from the ratepayers in Mesquite, it is pretty much unanimous that they are against it,” Pugh said.