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January 2023
KMPUD Annual Report 2022
To Our Kirkwood Community
The Kirkwood Meadows Public Utility District (District) is pleased to present this 2021-2022 Annual Report, a synopsis of the year just passed and important issues the District will be focusing on moving forward. The District operates on a fiscal year basis, and the financial data in this report covers the period of July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022. Our non-financial information cover activities through 2022. The District’s priorities are to safely provide reliable utilities and control costs in our challenging environment all while considering our environmental impact.
Financial Results July 2021 - June 2022
The District had a strong financial year in all respects. The District’s audited financial results are available on www.kmpud.com and can be found here . Total operating revenues were $9.3 million, an increase of $500,000 over the previous year. Property taxes and investment income was $937,000. District net income for 2022 was $371,000.
Revenues were better than the previous year in part due to better snow. The 2021-2022 season had 311 inches versus 222 in the previous year. In addition, Vail stayed open through the end of April. We understand the longer ski season is something they intend to continue.
Operating expenses were well managed - providing a small, positive net income. Interest on our debt from construction of our utilities is a large expense. In 2022 the total interest payments were $1.7M. We continue to pay down our long-term debt. Long-term debt declined $3.2M in 2022 to $53.5M.
Some non-cash expenses related to our participation in retirement and benefits systems are beyond our control and cause large fluctuations from year to year. This year we received a credit of $136K as compared to a debit of $864K for the previous year.
Staffing
The District budgets for 18 full-time staff and 5 seasonal staff for snow removal. We want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts performed by staff during the almost three years of Covid. Working on critical infrastructure with larger than normal staff shortages due to Covid put extra burden on our employees. The District provides a broad range of utilities and services including electricity, propane, water, wastewater treatment, solid waste, snow removal, fire department and parks and recreation. We maintained full, continuous operations for all utilities throughout the entire year and thank our staff for making that happen.
We also welcomed many new full-time staff members to KMPUD as we also said goodbye to staff that moved out of the area or chose new opportunities. We welcome the following staff who joined since July 1, 2021:
Amanda Fowler: Administrative Assistant
Brittnie Morris: Accounting Specialist 2 and Clerk of the Board
Chris Williams: Technology Specialist
Jon Campbell: Electric/Propane Project Manager
We also promoted from within and congratulate Tommy Baggett in his new position as Administrative Manager. We encourage staff to advance through education and certification and several new licenses and certifications were received this year.
Fire Safety
The Caldor fire of 2021 is still fresh in our minds as efforts this year were focused on assisting the community in fire fuel reduction and supporting the community led and operated Kirkwood Firewise USA . The District provided green waste bins during the summer season and purchased a new woodchipper which performed chipping operations for residents and HOAs. We want to acknowledge the generous donations from the community that provided the funding. Our main fund-raising event is the annual summer festival. It raises funds for our volunteer fire department. We thank our many volunteers for making this event so successful every year. Please save the date - July 1, 2023 for the next festival.
In our long term plans we are evaluating options for expanding fire safety operations, replacing our main fire engine and potentially increasing the full-time fire and emergency services staffing. We anticipate public hearing on this topic in Spring of 2023.
The District has almost completed the propane enclosure safety project. The project is a challenging project for the District and customers, but essential to prevent potential propane-related property damage and personal injury. The project also protects the District staff from potentially dangerous situations. The District would like to thank all of the customers working with us to make our valley a safer place.
Wastewater Treatment
The District has hired an engineering firm to develop construction plans to renovate the Wastewater Treatment Plant. We anticipate soliciting construction bids this Spring with some projects starting this Summer. We secured $7.4 million of long-term, low interest financing with the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) which will replace bridge financing once the Treatment Plant project is completed. The project will replace or renovate a significant amount the Plant’s key components. The construction will occur over a 3-year period.
Snow Removal
Annual snowfall continues to lag behind historic averages but seems to come in bigger events. From October through December 29 2022 we received 15 feet of snow with almost 4 feet falling on a single day on December 10. KMPUD publishes snow fall data at kmpud.com . To better cope with the large snow days, we were able to institute repairs, so we now have three operational loaders to handle the streets. We also ordered a new trackless for the driveways but unfortunately, we have yet to see the machine due to supply chain issues.
Long Term Planning
The District is developing multi-year, long term plans for each of our utilities. The plans include both maintenance of existing facilities as well as being prepared for new residential construction activities in the valley. Each of the utility plans will be presented in turn at one of our monthly Board meetings. Board meetings occur on the second Friday of each month at 2PM and can be attended in person and on zoom. Our tentative schedule is:
Electric Master Plan - February 2023
Water Master Plan - June 2023
Wastewater Master Plan - September 2023
Propane Master Plan - December 2023
The plans focus on repair and replacement of aging infrastructure, capacity, reliability, and where possible, reductions in operating costs. For Propane our plans are to service existing commitments and to encourage all-electric buildings for future neighborhoods. During 2022, several home remodels and new homes installed electric heat pumps rather than propane heating. A portion of the District’s building was recently converted from propane to a heat pump (see December newsletter ).
In Conclusion
The complete 2021-2022 Annual Report, including specific updates regarding each utility service can be found at kmpud.com under the Financials menu. On behalf of the Staff and Board of the Kirkwood Meadows Public Utility District, we thank you for being part of the Kirkwood community. As a small, remote utility we depend on working together to make Kirkwood a great community. Your comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome.
Bob Epstein, President
bepstein@kmpud.com
P.S. Since this report was written, we have had major issues getting propane delivered to Kirkwood. For the latest on propane status, please check the home page at kmpud.com under "Latest News".
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