WILLMAR -- Customers of Willmar Municipal Utilities could voluntarily contribute to the arts or other community causes by rounding up their monthly bill to the nearest dollar amount under an idea presented to the Utilities Commission on Monday.
Utilities customer Richard Falk asked the commissioners to consider adopting the billing procedure similar to the one used by Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, in which funds voluntarily raised by the rounding-up procedure are distributed to various organizations and causes.
Falk said he learned about the program from a letter sent by the cooperative to his hunting club a number of years ago. The letter said the cooperative would round up the club's account unless the club objected to it. He said the club willingly participated.
"All of a sudden I thought this would be a good thing for the arts in our community, among other things,'' according to Falk. "One thing to get people to come to town is the arts.''
Utilities Commission members asked staff to determine the cost and time needed to set up the billing procedure and to report at the next commission meeting on April 24.
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In an interview, Falk -- who is a member of the Kandiyohi County Board -- said he was not representing any particular group, but he said he had talked to some arts groups "and they are very short of money: the band, the orchestras, the choirs, arts in the schools and the Arts Council.''
In a separate interview, Diane Maurice, manager of marketing and customer service for Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, said all members/customers are involved in Operation Round-up unless they tell the cooperative otherwise.
"We've been in it for years and years,'' she said. The program raises an average of $6 per year for each member or about $42,000 annually. The money goes into a separate fund and is managed by a trust board. The funds are awarded through an application process, she explained.
Examples of programs and organizations receiving funds are rescue squads, fire departments, 4-H clubs, public entities, fire victims, families in need and Arc, said Maurice.
"One of the things that we feel very good about is that all money stays local. It goes back into our service territory,'' said Maurice.
In other business Monday, the Municipal Utilities Commission received a report from Energy Services representative Dave Opsahl on energy conservation programs being promoted by his department. The department was created in 2002 in response to the Minnesota Energy Security and Reliability Act of 2001.
The act requires all municipal utilities to spend 1.5 percent of their gross operating revenue on conservation improvement programs, but the utilities has been offering energy conservation programs since 1991, beginning with off-peak rates.
Among the more recent programs are interruptible load credits, off-peak water heating rates, wind energy rates, commercial and industrial lighting retrofits, and appliance and air conditioning energy rebates.
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Between 2002 and 2005, the number of participants in the load-sharing program increased from 400 to 1,700, said Opsahl.
He said the commercial and industrial lighting retrofit program saved 362,000 kilowatt-hours during the last two years and removed more than 100 kilowatts from the city's peak electric demand.
"It's one of our most popular programs,'' he said.
