A flurry of absences couldn’t stop Carmi City Council Tuesday. With alderpersons Jack Bradshaw, Mike Knight, Tracy Nelson, and Mayor Bill Stendeback all absent Tuesday night, council had to nominate and appoint a Mayor Pro Tem to conduct business, albeit not much of it. Doug Hays was the sole nomination and unanimously approved to serve the role and presided over the 11-minute gathering with barely a quorum present.
Council did approve a resolution setting the electric cost adjustment for at least the next six months and surprisingly, it’s good news. Residents should see their March electric bills a hair lower when it comes to transmission costs. The rate is going from .0854 to .07. Hays and City Supervisor Brad Attebury added this.
I mean basically what the cost adjustment is, is when it costs more to deliver electricity than what the base rate brings in, the cost adjustment makes up that difference. Our cost was lower; we were able to lower that to .07 cents. We do have a tiered system so the total cost varies, but it was around 20 cents per kWh and now it’s going to be about 18.5 cents per kWh so lowered by a little bit.
Hays: The quick math, the electric part of the bill should go down about 5%.
The council is set to review the electric cost adjustment again at the second meeting in August.
Additionally Tuesday night, alderperson Lacey Bradshaw says a couple hundred households can expect letters asking them to reach out to help square up some discrepancies in their budget billing.
We’ve got some people that are way ahead and some people that are a little bit behind. So certain people that fall into this certain category are going to get a letter in the mail to call the office to set up an appointment with the office manager, Cynthia, Brad, myself, or Greg to come up with a resolution to help people get back on track with their budget billing.
Attebury said crews should be out as early as this week or next. Back in January, it was announced over the next few months, workers with a city contractor would be finishing a multi-year process of replacing all municipal water meters. About 1,500 remain to be replaced. You may notice a white flag near your water meter and you’re asked to leave it in place. Once your meter is changed out, the flag will be removed.
Council adjourned at 5:40pm.