The City of Madison provides for a joint Public Works & Utilities department for the purposes of sharing resources and assets. The city operates the utilities under the umbrella of Madison Public Utilities.
Service responsibilities include: streets/roads; parks, recreation/ball fields, swimming pool, skating rink; culture/recreation of the Grand Movie Theatre, Prairie Arts Center; city buildings and city facilities; utilities of water, sanitary sewer, sanitation/recycling, electric distribution system, and storm drainage for the community and surrounding areas.
The department:
- Is involved with various community based functions beyond the regular city responsibilities for special events and activities related to tourism.
- Works closely with the city consulting engineers for municipal utilities and electric distribution.
- Serves as a voting member of the Western Area Power Authority along with membership in the Missouri River Energy Services organization.
Madison is working closely with the organizations to maintain a cost competitive edge in power production, transmission and distribution. Madison Public Utilities is active in providing a mix of energy from hydro-electric, coal and of late, wind generation in keeping with green power.
The Madison City Council is been working closely with the Madison Public Utilities and consulting engineers to plan for the next ten years in infrastructure improvements. The services of Ehler’s and Associates of St. Paul, MN financial consultants have been included to ensure a total financial perspective.
Today, the services of the City Engineer Dean Helstrom from the Bolton & Menk Inc. of the Willmar, MN office along with those of Electrical Engineer Doug Joens from Power Systems Engineering of Blaine, MN are partners to the long-range planning/programming for the city’s infrastructure upgrades.