LaHarpe electric rates stay unchanged

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January 15, 2015 - 12:00 AM

LAHARPE — Electric rates will not have to rise, LaHarpe City Council members declared Wednesday, although bills still are likely to go up for most.
The council discussed a software error that under-charged electric customers since 2011 before the flaw was noticed recently.
At issue was the base charge, $12 for residential customers, $15 for commercial businesses and $30 a month for large-scale customers, Mayor Cindy Carr explained.
The software program failed to bill for the first 120 kilowatts of electricity consumed each month, Carr said, thinking the usage was part of the base charge.
The city spends about $3,500 to $4,000 monthly to maintain its electric service.
Now that the base charges are properly being assessed, revenue should meet those expenses.
In addition, a recent rate analysis greatly exaggerated the city’s projected expenses, Carr said.
“I’ve worked on this, and I’ve worked on this” to find the flaws, Carr said. “I’ll be glad to not have to crunch numbers for a couple of days.”
Because LaHarpe has a fuel cost adjustment in place to ensure the city earns the same amount of revenue regardless of how much electricity costs per month, “we should be able to meet our expenses,” Carr said. “But we have to monitor it, we have to stay on top of it, and make sure we calculate it correctly.”
As an aside, the city is suspending its level utility payment plan because of billing issues, Council member Savannah Heard said in an interview this morning.
“We’re going to see if we can get back to square one, before deciding whether to resume it,” Heard said.
The plan takes a household’s 12-month average from the previous year and allows households to pay that average each month.

COUNCIL MEMBERS agreed to extend the city’s tax abatement program for another two years.
Through the abatement, property owners are refunded added property taxes assessed if they increase the appraised values of their homes by at least $5,000. The increase is fully refunded over the first five years, then gradually eliminated through the 10th year.

CITY Superintendent Carol Buzbee has submitted his notice and intentions to resign.
The notice was given to the city Jan. 7. His last day is scheduled for next Wednesday.
In an attempt to get Buzbee to reconsider, Councilman Clayton Carr said at the end of last night’s meeting he would resign his seat. The two had had a fractious relationship over city matters.
Attempts to reach Buzbee for comment this morning were unavailable.
In other personnel actions, council members terminated the employment of part-time office worker Pat Spencer, while granting a $1 per-hour raise for maintenance worker James Alan Jones. Other employees will receive a $3.50 per-hour raise, plus a 1.7 percent cost of living raise. The council also said the city would fund health insurance premium hikes for all qualifying employees.

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