HARDWICK – The Hardwick Electric Department (HED) Board of Commissioners held two meetings in September. A revised organizational chart presented by General Manager Sarah Braese was adopted by the commissioners after a discussion in open session, followed by a half-hour executive session at a special meeting, September 8.
The draft chart shows staff responsibilities that Braese believes will improve accountability and streamline the utility’s operations.
It proposed the department’s general manager is responsible to the Hardwick Select Board and HED Board of Commissioners, with two direct reports: a business and finance manager and a utility operations manager, a position that will be filled on an interim basis by a current employee.
The operations manager then manages a working foreman and oversees utility workers who handle maintenance and meters-revenue production.
Braese proposed a potential future position as system and asset maintenance supervisor overseeing the utility workers.
Commissioners went into executive session during that meeting to discuss a customer issue that Chair Michael Ambrosino asked to have added to the agenda, but took no action upon exiting.
At the regular September 16 meeting commissioners authorized Braese to create a job description for the Utility Operations Manager position and begin looking for someone to fill the position at a salary they did not share publicly.
Stew Arnold with the Greensboro Association (GA) joined the meeting to request information about the status of the Caspian Lake dam, and asked that the GA be involved in future discussions. He shared recent concerns with lake water levels this summer and conversations he and others have had with HED staff and the State Agency of Natural Resources about them. There was discussion about the possibility of the GA or Town of Greensboro becoming the dam’s owner.
Braese and the commissioners agreed that HED, the Hardwick Select Board the GA and Town of Greensboro will continue to work together regarding Caspian dam.
Other routine business at that meeting concluded uneventfully, with a brief mention that the utility’s tax liability had decreased due to a change in the state’s methodology for determining the value of utility plants and authorizing Braese to search for a legal firm with experience working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The meetings were recorded and can be viewed at hctv.us.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
