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The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities is nearing its 500th customer on the utility's new fiberoptic internet network.
service drop installs are rapidly progressing, Sellstrom said, with over 2,400 drops installed now.
"The opt-out rate for the no commitment fiber drop is still under three percent, so we're pretty happy with that," said Kris Sellstrom, BPU general manager. "We've got 497 customers that are currently online, and we're bringing online about 80 per week."
The summer construction season has been going well, Sellstrom said, though they faced a few setbacks on the project on Prendergast Avenue. Some bids came in higher than expected, and while the state got everything done quickly and the road was paved, Sellstrom said they missed the window and the prices came in higher. They are looking at redoing that bid and shifting some more of that work for next spring.
Sellstrom said the BPU is still working on parts for the failed trickling filter at the wastewater treatment plant, briefly discussing the companies that are helping with that, praising the wastewater team for figuring out how to get it manufactured locally.
Sellstrom also quickly talked about some upcoming plans for the pump station project and the wastewater treatment plant, along with two tree-trimming crews that are working in some of the BPU's electric areas that were skipped over due to the fiber project.
Other items Sellstrom updated the board on included that customers can now view their interval meter data online through their customer portals.
"That's an exciting update that we have for the community," Sellstrom said. "People who log on to their portal, there's a tab to go look at their interval data reading, which gives them much more granular, almost real time data. It's about a day delayed on the upload, but it gives them a lot more insight into what's happening on their side of their consumption; they can see what's drawing their load and how they're using energy throughout the day."
Sellstrom said this should hopefully give customers tools to help manage their energy consumption.
Additionally, the gas turbine has been shipped to Canada for its overhaul, expecting to be returned in about six months. Until then, generation is limited to the steam plant and not much generation is expected to be done in the next six months.
"We're using that time to focus on the microgrid project and a bunch of other maintenance that we need to get done at the plant," Sellstrom said.
The final update Sellstrom gave to the board was that the St Susan's campaign wrapped up with $42,386 raised, which Sellstrom noted was about $6,000 more than last year. He thanked Becky Robbins and the BPU team that supported that effort, saying that it is "a great initiative for our community."