LaHarpe Council OKs fee hike

LAHARPE — Electric customers will spend $15 more monthly for their electric service, starting immediately.
LaHarpe City Council members, gathered in a special meeting Wednesday, approved the $15 hike in monthly meter fees, an essential step, they said, to fund needed upgrades.
The new fees for residential customers goes from $12 a month to $27. Businesses will see their meter fees go from $15 a month to $30 a month, while larger industrial customers will go from $30 a month to $45.
The added revenue will be necessary if the city issues about $400,000 worth of bonds in the near future.
Paying off those bonds over a 30-year period will require annual payments of about $23,000.
Council members studied a number of meter fee scenarios before agreeing the $15 hike would help recoup a hemorrhaging electric fund, plus give enough buffer to cover most of the $23,000 payment.
In addition to the higher fees, the city has applied for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant, and should find out sometime early in 2017 whether the application was successful.
Engineers in 2015 estimated a citywide electric upgrade project would cost about $790,000.
Council members agreed that even if the grant application is unsuccessful, the city needs to act.
“Our customers deserve safe, reliable service,” Mayor Mae Crowell said.
The $15 hike seems unpalatable, Councilman David Lee said, but is necessary because the city had been resistant to higher rates in years past.
“We thought we were doing our customers a favor,” Lee said, when in reality, keeping rates that low was doing a disservice to the community because LaHarpe had little funding to pay for maintenance or improvements.
A separate $5 fee that has been a part of electric bills for years — money dedicated for upgrades — will remain.
That added $5 fee brings in about $17,000 annually, Crowell noted, “and we’re spending that money for repairs.”
Councilman Ron Knavel Sr. was a bit more reluctant to throw his support behind the $15 hike, noting many customers already are struggling to make ends meet.
He relented, however, and voted in favor of the hike — it was unanimous — after the city learned LaHarpe’s rates remain among the lowest in the region.
“We’re still low, low, low,” Lee said.
In addition to bringing in added revenue, the city is hopeful the higher meter fee will better LaHarpe’s chances in receiving the CDBG grant because it illustrates the city’s desire and ability to maintain its electric infrastructure.