Letter to Bill Friend Page 3

1 335 E. Canal Street | P. O. Box 67 Peru, Indiana 46970-0067 Phone: 765-473-6681 Fax: 765-472-0810

March 2, 2016

The Honorable Bill Friend 200 W Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204

Re: Sagamore of the Wabash Nomination

Dear Mr. Friend,

It is my understanding that every year you are authorized to nominate two distinguished individuals from your district for the Sagamore of the Wabash Award. The purpose of this letter is to ask that you support this nomination of Roger Merriman for the Sagamore award. Roger Merriman will be retiring from Peru Utilities in May 2016 after nearly 20 years of outstanding leadership. It would be a suitable honor for him to receive such an award, and especially memorable if he were to receive it from you personally.

The citizens of Peru probably have no idea how much Roger has contributed to our utilities and to our community. They likely have little knowledge of how his astute strategic planning has enriched their quality of life or that his leadership has steered the organization to become a model of efficiency and reliability. And this to the extent that under his leadership Peru Utilities has been recognized by national organizations such as the American Public Power Association. Roger was named to the American Public Power Association’s “Honor Roll”, an award granted only to individuals who have made significant contributions to public power during their careers. On behalf of the Utility, Roger accepted the APPA Scattergood Award for forward thinking in power system improvements, data and communications upgrades and customer information system enhancements. The APPA also bestowed on Peru Utilities the coveted RP3 Award for reliable public power. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded Peru Utilities the Clean Water State Revolving Fund PISCES Award under Roger’s administration.

On a personal note, Roger has the distinction of being one of the original IMPA Commissioners. When Roger was mayor of Rensselaer in 1981, he lead the effort to join IMPA when the joint action agency was just being formed and he has served on the Board of Commissioners and various other IMPA committees watching the agency grow to 60 member communities with over 1,000 Megawatts of owned generation. Roger’s reputation is highly regarded amongst IMPA dignitaries who are some of the top names in electric utilities in Indiana.

To offer a few examples, under Roger’s administration:

 Roger led the effort to construct a first of its kind state-of-the-art wastewater facility in Peru, receiving widespread attention due to its innovative process which was environmentally friendly and economically efficient. Wastewater treatment providers from across the nation and around the world (some from Germany, Australia, Africa and India) have toured Peru’s Wastewater facility and later built similar plants in their countries. Our plant was also received national Letter to Bill Friend – Page 2

attention when it was featured in the Water Environment Association’s magazine with praises on the success of the new design. (Also, see EPA award mentioned above.)

 The Department of Health and Human Services transferred responsibility for the Grissom Water and Wastewater Utilities to Peru Utilities in 2000. It was quickly identified that the aged wastewater facility could not accommodate the needs of the Grissom population and Peru Utilities managed a total upgrade of Grissom’s wastewater plant using a scaled down version of Peru’s process. The Grissom Wastewater facility went from processing a maximum of 2.6 million gallons per day and diverting excess flows to a maximum capacity of 8 million gallons per day and successfully meeting the needs of the local population, complying with environmental standards and providing for the community’s future needs as well.

 Faced with mandates from the EPA, the City of Peru approached Roger in 2006 about Peru Utilities assuming responsibility for stormwater management. Roger was tasked with ensuring that new stormwater infrastructure was installed to expand the stormwater system and divert drainage from the wastewater plant. And knowing that the Utility was well positioned to bill and collect for trash services, the City went to Roger again in 2009 knowing that the Utility was well managed and they could trust that the job would be done well.

 Many major electric infrastructure enhancements, not the least of which was the completion of a fiber loop around Peru, have been accomplished over Roger’s 20 years which provide much needed redundancy to the power supply for the entire City of Peru, ensuring significantly reduced down time for residential as well as industrial concerns. The Utility’s excellent record for maintaining a consistent power supply and quick response to outages that is taken for granted by our customers has become so because of a culture developed by Roger over the years with a focus toward customer service.

 Effective leadership does not ignore hard facts; and Roger has had to make some tough calls during his tenure. When it was evident that the cost to run the aging power plant and keep it in compliance with EPA regulations would become prohibitive, the plant was shut down and several power plant employees had to be let go so that running the power plant would not become a burden to rate payers. It was a difficult decision; the power plant was an icon of self sufficiency and stability for our city; and losing good people is never easy. Confirmation of the prudence of the decision was evident while we watched neighboring utilities continue to run their plants under the same type of conditions, and saw their rates rise and industries leave their communities.

 In any utility, safety is a major concern because the employees function in potentially dangerous conditions. Although Peru Utilities had a safety plan prior to Roger’s arrival, he took the safety effort to a whole new level, improving education, incorporating rewards and resulting in saved lives and exemplary low levels of employee injuries.

 During Roger’s administration, Peru Utilities managed the construction of a 3.0 Megawatt solar power generating facility in Peru. Over 11,000 solar panels were placed on approximately 36 acres of Utility land and are now generating 3.0 Megawatts. IMPA owns the solar park and leases the land from the Utility. Letter to Bill Friend – Page 3

Whether it was keeping up with changing technology, controlling healthcare costs, proactively managing to avoid rate changes, Roger’s list of management accomplishments goes on and on, each item improving the quality of life for the Peru community in one way or another. Rarely in a community our size would one find someone with the degree of expertise in electric utilities and water management utilities, his level of dedication to the ideal of maintaining municipal utilities, and his strong commitment to the rate payer and the community.

Roger has dedicated his career to working on behalf of the rate payers he served, giving his time and efforts to ensure they received reliable service at the best possible cost. He is widely known and respected by his peers at other utilities and has served on the IMPA Board of Directors and the IMPA Political Action Committee for several years.

For these reasons, I believe Roger Merriman is most deserving of the Sagamore of the Wabash Award. I sincerely hope you agree.

If you feel any additional information is necessary to support this request, I would be happy to further expand Roger’s list of accomplishments at Peru Utilities.

Thank you for your consideration. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Leah Starkey Office Manager Email: [email protected] Phone: 765-472-0810 Cell: 765-469-5144