The Harlan Municipal Utilities (HMU) approved a capacity agreement with the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). In a regular meeting Tuesday, the HMU board agreed to the contract to help with peak electricity emergencies and as a back up in case an outage was to occur. Chief Executive Officer Darrell Wenzel explained to the board the contract costs $700 per month and is mainly for peak times during summer months. HMU would incur a fine in the sum of $93,000 if they did not have the agreement. The contract with WAPA will run from now until December 31st, 2015.

In other business, HMU agreed to a new nepotism policy. The policy is for conflicts of interest that could arise including when circumstances exist which would place relatives in a situation of actual or reasonably foreseeable conflict between HMU’s interest and their own. Wenzel stated HMU needed the policy in case two individuals such as family members or domestic partners, outside the work setting that could make it difficult for the individual with the decision-making responsibility to be objective or that for a reasonable person would create the appearance that such an individual may not be objective.

During the director’s report, recently hired office manager Krista Allen told the board a financial change has been made in the office. Previously, HMU had hired an outside identity to work on financials. However, Allen is taking on the responsibilities for all the financials to make things easier and get the financial information out quicker to the board members and officials with HMU.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)