(HOLDREGE, Neb.) -- The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District's board of directors accepted a bid at Monday's monthly board meeting from A.C. Technologies of Grand Island to upgrade the District's telephone system.

The $56,775 bid includes equipment and phone system programming for Central's offices in Holdrege, Gothenburg, and Bertrand and at Kingsley Dam. Central personnel will install the system.

Engineering Services Manager Eric Hixson said it is the first complete upgrade to Central's phone system in more than 20 years. The system will integrate phone lines with the District's internal microwave communications system.

The upgrade will be performed during evenings and weekends to minimize interruptions to communications during business hours, Hixson said.

Also at the February board meeting:

• The board approved change orders totaling $89,572 for maintenance and repair work to the Kingsley Hydroplant being done by Voith Hydro, Inc. Hixson said it was expected that testing of the components at Voith's plant in Pennsylvania would reveal the need for additional work.

He said the project is on schedule to begin reassembly of the hydroplant in late February. Electrical generation is expected to resume in mid-April if work proceeds as expected.

• Gothenburg Division Manager Kevin Boyd reported that an area of seepage discovered below the dam at Johnson Lake is being monitored to determine the source of the water.

On the morning of Jan. 30, a Central patrolman discovered trickling water at the base of the dam in an area where it had not been previously noticed. Boyd and Supply Canal Superintendent Doug Viter went to the site to inspect the situation and noted a slow trickle of clear water. The trickle had stopped by early afternoon, Boyd said. The process repeated itself Saturday and Sunday, with trickling water in the morning followed by a cessation of flow in the early afternoon.

"At this point, we don't know where the water is coming from," Boyd said. "The fact that it's clear water -- and not muddy water which could be indicative of piping within the dam -- might mean that the water is simply from melting snow and ice from the dam, which is covered with more snow than we've seen for quite some time. We'll continue to monitor the situation to determine the source of the water and will take whatever actions are appropriate."

Boyd said a report was made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's dam safety office in Chicago as required, and Central was advised to continue monitoring the situation. As a precaution, Central lowered the lake's level by about two feet over the weekend.

• Real Estate Manager Frank Vetter reported on another situation at Johnson Lake that is known to be weather-related. The thick ice cover on the lake has caused heaving and buckling of the shoreline in some places, particularly in the East Shore area.

As the ice cover builds, thaws, re-freezes and cracks, large sections of ice have pushed into the shoreline, Vetter said. He said the ice has caused damage to riprap shoreline protection and buckling of some lawns and sidewalks adjacent to the shoreline.

• Legal counsel Mike Klein reported on Central's pursuit of contested case hearings regarding an integrated management plan for the Platte River basin adopted by several Natural Resources Districts and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

Central filed in December for contested case hearings involving the integrated management plan before district courts in Lincoln, Scottsbluff, Cheyenne, Hall and Phelps counties. The Phelps County District Court transferred its case to Lincoln County and a motion for dismissal by the Twin Platte Natural Resources District was overruled by the Lincoln County District Court. In addition, Klein said, the Lincoln County District Court has expressed a willingness to act as a venue for the other cases.

"This is significant because, if the cases are combined in one district court, it eliminates the risk of different results from different courts," Klein said. "That saves time, money, and judicial resources."

Klein said the cases share the same procedural and substantive issues, and comprise an issue which has not previously been decided by Nebraska's courts.

"Ultimately, I believe it is likely that the issue of how someone goes about appealing a decision by an NRD will likely be resolved by the Nebraska Court of Appeals or the Nebraska Supreme Court," he said.

• Lincoln County Director Robert Petersen was congratulated by the board upon receiving the Four States Irrigation Council's Nebraska Headgate Award. The council recognizes one person from Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas each year for outstanding service to irrigators.

Petersen, a member of Central's board since 1997 and currently vice president, has been devoted to water issues since beginning his career in water resources in 1965.

• Civil Engineer Cory Steinke reported that Lake McConaughy is at elevation 3,240.1 feet above mean sea level, which is 15 feet higher and 309,000 acre-feet more water in the reservoir than at this time last year. Inflows were running at about 1,000 cubic feet per second, which is approximately 80 percent of normal for this time of year.

Steinke said mountain snowpack in the North Platte and South Platte basins varies from 76 to 85 percent of normal, but the the time of year when heavy snowfall is more likely still lies ahead.