$1,600 cost will be divided between city and water budgets
City trying to avoid 18% sewer increase
Press Release From Mayor Harold Slone
LOUISA,KY — Tuesday night at the regular council meeting the City of Louisa voted unanimously to join with neighboring cites to hire legal counsel to represent their case to the PSC concerning rate increases proposed by AEP.
According to an email generated by Mrs. Morgain Sprague, Managing counsel of members of Kentucky League of Cities, AEP is has proposed and additional 11.25% rate increase on outdoor lighting 8% on city street lights.
What may be even more concerning, is that Kentucky Power is not only proposing to increase the cost of lighting but also proposes to change the way it bills cities for lighting.
“Currently, each light has a set monthly cost, so the annual cost of lighting is fairly static. Now, Kentucky Power would like to include a “Base Fuel Rate” into the monthly cost for each light. The base fuel rate will be an additional charge per light for the electricity needed to run the light. The charge will be calculated based on the cost of fuel to generate that electricity. The cost of fuel is determined through the company’s fuel adjustment clause. In short, each city’s cost of lighting will now change from month to month and will vary significantly from one season to the next.” according to counsel that will represent the cities.
These increases to outdoor and street lighting are especially troubling when you consider that the two single most profitable classes to Kentucky Power are the outdoor and street lighting classes.
The third most profitable class of customer for Kentucky Power is the Municipal Waterworks. That means the three most profitable rate classes for Kentucky Power are paid nearly 100% by KLC members according to the legal counsel secured by KLC.
Secondly AEP proposes a 15% increase to municipal waterworks. Mayor Harold Slone stated at the meeting this could translate to ‘as much as’ $53,000.00 annual increase to the Louisa water and sewer accounts. These increases could be detrimental to our city where we are already hitting over $400,000 dollars per year in electric cost.” The mayor explained the rate increase will eventually hit the customers paying water and sewer and they may be strapped with an 18% increase on residential cost already.
The contribution to be part of the action is based on the size of the city, Louisa will be sixteen hundred dollars split between general fund and water and sewer.
