Electric Service Charge Set To Increase In WV
North Central Planning and Development District Community Resource Coordinator Tim Climer conducts a hearing at the meeting. It will be Climer’s last meeting representing North Central as he has taken a job with the University of Mississippi.
Mayor Larry Hart described the new TVA electric rate to Aldermen.
By Jack Gurner
Reporter
WATER VALLEY – Electric bills are going up $1.50 to help defray the cost of installing new smart meters.
The additional cost will be added to the $12.25 customer service charge already being assessed to each electric customer, Mayor Larry Hart told Aldermen during their regular first Tuesday meeting May 3.
“April has arrived and TVA has gone to a new rate structure,” Hart said. “It has to do with seasonal demand right now.”
The Mayor added in October, 2012 the rate will be based on peak demand and the city will need to monitor consumer consumption hourly. That requires the “smart meter” technology and the additional $1.50 is to help with the installation expense.
The new charge only affects residential customers as the rate has yet to be determined for commercial and industrial users.
Among other actions at the May 3 meeting, Aldermen:
• Heard from Water Valley Main Street Director Mickey Howley who thanked the Board for the help provided by the City for the World’s Largest Crappie Festival.
Howley reported that the WVMSA Board had hired Mississippi Heritage Trust to survey the downtown area as part of the effort to get a portion designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
He added that the organization had been in touch with Mary Beth Wilkerson, Director of the Tourism Division of the Mississippi Development Authority, to discuss the possibility of Water Valley getting a Blues Marker and being on the Blues Trail. “She seemed very positive about that,” he said.
As Howley finished his report, Mayor Hart recognized Kagan Coughlin who asked that additional crosswalks be put on Main Street. Coughlin cited the recent business openings and the children crossing the street at the dance studio as examples of why the crosswalks are needed.
Coughlin said that traffic headed north often parks on the east side of main and pedestrians have to cross the street. “Getting across at certain times is tough.”
Amos Harvey followed Coughlin and added his support for crosswalks.
Mayor Hart said that he and Howley had talked quite a bit about Main Street development. “We realize that we are going to need crosswalks.”
The Mayor added that the City would “do something temporary” until the permanent crosswalks that are part of the downtown streetscape plan are installed. According to the plan, the crosswalks will make downtown feel like a pedestrian environment that cars are able to move through instead of the other way around.
• Reappointed Daliah McLeod to the Water Valley Housing Authority Board for another five-year term.
McLeod was first appointed to the Board in 1999 and has been “a faithful and dedicated Commissioner,” according to a letter to Aldermen requesting her reappointment from Barron Caulfield, Executive Director.
• Held a public hearing on the City’s application for a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant from Mississippi Develop-ment Authority.
Mayor Hart explained that public hearing was a formality in the application process for the grant, which would help pay for improvements to a main sewer trunk line that has become dilapidated.
Tim Climer of the North Central Planning and Development District conducted the hearing. He said that the money would match $250,000 already granted from the Appalachian Regional Council and $50,000 from the City, for a total project cost of $600,000.
• Renewed the City’s medical insurance policy with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
“Somebody failed to get the memo at Blue Cross’s headquarters that insurance wasn’t going up under this new care we have in the United States,” Mayor Hart commented on the rate increase imposed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The City will go to the company’s premium saver plan that will increase the employee’s deductible from $750 to $1000, Hart said. The pharmacy deductible will now be $250.
The new plan will cost the City $18.77 more per employee each month for an additional $10,361. Medical care will cost this city between $225,000 and $230,000 for the coming year. “We’ll be studying that real hard over the next year to see what we need to do,” Hart said.
• Entered executive session at 7:01 p.m. after meeting for 26 minutes in regular session to discuss personnel matters and an industrial prospect.
• Exited executive session at 7:16 p.m. after 15 minutes.
Hart said that during the session the Board promoted Officer A. J. Hernandez to Sergeant to replace Lt. Rick McCuan who has retired. Hernandez will take on increased responsibilities and “a ton of paperwork.”
Also, the Board hired Cameron Cummings as a 911 dispatcher and brought Betty Buford back temporarily to the Electric Department as well as retained Trina Finley as a consultant in the absence of Crystal Floyd who will be on maternity leave.
The Mayor said that he and the Aldermen discussed an industrial prospect, but no action was taken.
• Adjourned at 7:18 p.m. after meeting for 43 minutes.
Several aldermen thought the session might be the longest of the administration. However, the Monday, July 12, special called meeting still holds the record at just under one hour. That meeting included an exhausting 40-minute reading by Hart of the city’s flood plain ordinance.
