Public Power - September 2008 - (Page 49)

ting money into the system.” As the cost of electricity rose, and as the utility began to experience failing infrastructure, city officials decided to sell, he said. When Dinkel was there, the city also used some of the electric fund to build a swimming pool. “In my mind, that was okay,” said Dinkel, ”Since the public is a stockholder in the utility, there is nothing wrong with giving them a dividend once in awhile.” But Dinkel disagreed with the City Council’s decision to give customers free electricity one year in December. “They did the same thing the next December,” he said. “At the time, the utility was making some money. My thinking is that it made sense to pay for a swimming pool, but not to give away free electricity. People remember a swimming pool, so it becomes a legacy. However, they don’t remember a free month of electricity.” Given the benefits of public power in Kansas, it is difficult for some to see why the utility folded. “If you look at the electric rates in Kansas, it is easy to see that municipal power has been an advantage for residents and businesses,” said Armstrong. “For example, Colby’s average cost for purchased power in 2007 was 3.967 cents.” Municipal electric utilities in Kansas provide several ancillary services. “There are a lot of things you are going to lose if you sell your system,” said Armstrong. “For example, we provide free service for all of the city facilities, the streetlights, and the sewer plant. The electric fund also shares in the cost of our administrative staff and expenses.” The city uses the electric department equipment to put up streetlights and banwww.APPAnet.org ners. Armstrong estimates that, in 2007, the contributions of the Colby Electric Department to the community and other departments amounted to more than $850,000. “I think Oakley will start missing some things,” Dinkel said. “It is nice to have a bucket truck to put up Christmas lights. Of course, this isn’t the primary purpose of the trucks, but it is nice to be able to use them for that.” In addition, he said, if you metered all the cost of electricity going through the streetlights and made the taxpayers pay for it, rather than coming from the electric fund, those costs add up. “How much more grass roots is it to be able to control your own utility?” Dinkel asked. “A citizen can run for City Council or utility board and make decisions about that utility.” “I have talked to some people in Oakley since they sold the utility,” said Dinkel. “They tell me that the cost of service isn’t much cheaper, if it is cheaper at all. In addition, they have lost a lot of control and service.” The community no longer has a dedicated line crew and while Midwest Energy is a good company, it has a lot more territory to cover than just Oakley, so it can’t always fix an outage in Oakley right away, said Dinkel. “One person from Oakley told me that a lot of people who supported the sale in the first place are now not as happy, because they realize they aren’t as important as they once were when it comes to getting an outage resolved.” While a number of city officials and citizens of Oakley were convinced that selling the city’s utility to the cooperative was a good idea in the first place, Charles Beamer, a member of the City Council, was not among them. “I don’t think it was a good idea,” he said. However, Beamer understands why some people felt it was a good decision: the cost of maintenance was increasing and there was a need to make upgrades and other additions to the infrastructure. “Everything takes more electricity these days,” he said. “We had already made a decision to run a bigger line north of town to meet growing demands.” Prior to the sale, Midwest Electric promised to reduce electric rates. “They have already asked for a rate increase,” said Beamer. “It hasn’t been approved yet, but they have their application in. However, if the city continued to own the utility, we might have had to ask for a rate increase, too. I still think the city needs its own control,” he said. For cities that are thinking about selling their utility, Dinkel said, it is important to remember why they created their own utility in the first place. “It’s all about customer service, reliability, and providing for your community.” ❚ Maintenance Program FIXTURE ANALYZER KIT Test kit with special base adapter quickly identiﬁes system issue. EYE Ignitron™ LAMP Long life EYE Ignitron™ lamp with internal ignitor eliminates the HPS ﬁxture ignitor. REDUCED LIGHTING MAINTENANCE Identify and replace ﬁxtures nearing end-of-life that can cause costly return trips to the pole. SEPTEMBER 2008 49 http://www.eyelighting.com http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - September 2008

Public Power - September 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions What’s Good About RTOs? Capturing Coal’s Carbon Carbon Safety Valves Greater Glass, Greater Savings Getting Customers to Embrace Compact Fluorescent Lights LEEDing Green Kansas City Shows How to Build Green For Governing Boards Safety Community Broadband Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - September 2008

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