“Make it pay to save” was the phrase of the night Thursday when more than 50 people came to a public hearing with the Berea City Council on proposed electricity and water rate changes. Under a recent proposal, the base-rate, which is paid by all customers regardless of how much they use, for electricity would increase by 70 percent. The base-rate for water would increase 34 percent. Also under this proposal is a declining per unit rate for water used by commercial and industrial customers, which means that unit rate would decrease after they use more than 1,800 cubic feet of water.

The proposed changes stem from a consultant group report released this May, examining Berea Municipal Utilities. KFTC members in Berea have taken the position that the proposed changes not only harm fixed-income households, but they also discourage conservation by rewarding people who use more.

 
Bill Stolte has led the charge for the Madison County KFTC chapter in learning more about the proposal and sharing his research. Giving a presentation at the hearing, Stolte displayed a chart showing that residential customers who use the least amount of water and electricity will have the steepest rate increase with the largest users experiencing a declining rate.

Thirty-six percent of all water users pay only the minimum. These are the people who will take the biggest hit,” said Stolte. “Base rates should be kept to a minimum. Unit rates should be adjusted to promote conservation. It should pay to save for commercial and industrial users just as it should for residential users.

Among the many concerns addressed by citizens at the hearing was the impact that our dependence on coal-fired power has on the environment.

I feel it is important that we as a community do everything to conserve because we are blowing up our homeland and destroying communities that are paying the real price for our so-called cheap energy. -Teri Blanton

 
The hearing went on for more than two hours, and by its end, more than a dozen community members had addressed the Council. Mayor Steve Connelly said that a vote on the proposal is not expected before June 17^th.

 
Citizens have another chance to voice their concerns with the proposal at a follow-up public hearing, scheduled for this upcoming Monday, June 2^nd, at 6 p.m. in the Berea Municipal Building.

For more information about the hearing, check out this article in today’s Richmond Register.