City to Sell of Portions of Defunct Power Plant

By Gordon HopkinsThe City of Fairbury no longer has an operational local municipal power plant. The city’s power supplier is the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN), a member of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which oversees the power grid of an area stretching from Oklahoma to the Canadian border.The power plant’s cooling tower was dismantled at the end of 2021. According to City Administrator Jacob Matthews, the remaining municipal power plant assets no longer serve a practical purpose, but may constitute future liability and maintenance expense. Therefore, the City Council voted unanimously to sell or dispose of the remaining components of the power plant at meeting of the Council on Tuesday, August 16.According to a memorandum from Matthews, “It is believed these assets could potentially generate at least $120,000 dollars.”One of the assets listed, a storage tank, was used by the municipal power plant and is located in an area that creates additional difficulty for a current Line Department project. Matthews indicated its removal would greatly assist the Line Department.On January 25, 2022 the Line Department received a quote of $129,651 to move, clean, and demolish the Storage Tank. Matthew wrote in his memo, “Selling this non-performing asset with other non-performing assets would create significant value for the City of Fairbury.”If the City of Fairbury receives funds from the sale of these non-performing assets, Matthews proposed the funds be immediately diverted to facilitate the procurement of newer equipment and vehicles and the disposal of aged equipment and vehicles.Matthews instructed department heads to create a list of items that are in need of replacement. He noted, “Better equipment and vehicles means less repair time, less repair cost, and more time for employees to be engaged in value adding activities that directly benefit the citizens of Fairbury.”Councilmember Bradley Kuzelka has in the past been critical of the decision to close down the power plant. He said, “I just find it interesting that someone can buy our turbine parts or whatever. We can't use it, but they can buy it and they can use it.”“We can't insure it, so we have to shut it down,” said Kuzelka. “But we can sell it and someone else can use it?”Councilperson Brian Schmidt said, “I think there's a pretty good chance that It’ll get used in another country where there's a lot less regulation.”Mayor Spencer Brown said he believed the turbine was destined for India.

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