Utility bills arriving at Iola’s homes the past few days drew some double-takes.
“Many were in the $400 to $500 range,” said City Clerk Roxanne Hutton.
One was more, much more, but that was because the homeowner was trying to ensure that water pipes didn’t freeze during a particularly cold spell.
“It was over $1,000 and got our attention,” Hutton said.
Instead of letting a water faucet drip to prevent freezing, the resident turned on the hot water side and let it run full blast, which led to not only higher gas usage, in heating water, but also water usage.
“You just want to let a faucet drip,” City Administrator Carl Slaugh said.
“We had a few water pipes freeze up, but only a few,” Hutton said, recalling nights this week when the mercury dipped into single digits and early in the month when the overnight low tumbled to minus-nine.
Slaugh said the higher than usual bills mainly were because of consumption and not the city bumping up per-unit charges.
“We have had transportation charges double lately, but comparing this month’s gas charge to a year ago there isn’t that much change,” he said. A year ago the charge was 7.95 cents per 1,000 cubic feet (MCF) and this month it was $8.66 per MCF, an increase of 9 percent.
Charges float according to what the city pays for natural gas that it resells. Prices each month are inserted to a formula, which takes into consideration cost of the gas and its distribution, as well as a modest profit.
Slaugh said he was uncertain the reason for an increase in the transportation charge. “It’s kind of like with gasoline,” he said. “The price at the pump doesn’t always follow the price of crude oil.”
Iola buys about 30 percent of the natural gas it resells from N and B (Noland and Burris), which is produced from local wells. The other 70 percent comes from a consortium in Texas, Texas Municipal Supply Gas Corporation.
Over the last three years per-unit cost — paid the same to both suppliers — hasn’t varied a great deal, with lower prices in the summer, when demands drops off appreciably, and higher ones during cold-weather months when demand quickens.
In 2011 the average was $3.60 per MCF, $2.61 in 2012 and last year $3.32. Those bear the relationship between consumption and cost. In 2011, the city purchased 473,809 MCF, 370,233 in 2012 and 477,594 last year.
However, today’s costs seem reasonable in comparison to those of a few years ago, when there were spikes as high as $15 and per-unit costs of $6, $7 and $8 were common.
