Star-Journbal Editor
Mayor Delores Dalke tried to warn Hillsboro residents this past summer not to use so much electricity during peak operating hours.
But did they listen?
Nooo.
Instead, too many turned on air-conditioners as soon as they got home from work.
They did laundry, washed dishes, and fixed supper on electric stoves.
And now
We've all got to pay.
Because it was hotter than blue blazes in Hillsboro this past summer and the demand for electricity got so high, Westar energy increased the price of power to the city.
In turn, the Hillsboro City Council this past Tuesday passed an ordinance raising electric rates to its customers, starting with the January bill.
The increase is fractional, however, unlikely to cause residents much of a shock when opening their bills.
Residents will pay $.0915 per kilowatt-hour, up from $.0900, plus a $5 base charge.
Residential rates outside the city limits will increase to $.0965, up from $.0950.
City administrator Steve Garrett explained the rates to the council this way:
"I hope your electric bill isn't $200 a month, but let's say it is $200 a month," Garrett said. "The increase would change it to $203.20. It's not a significant increase."
While the council was able to get by with a slight increase this time, the council has been forewarned that Westar plans to charge the city a lot more for electricity after its present contract expires in October 2007.
Garrett and the city's energy consultant, Scott Shreve, EMG, Inc., Topeka, were informed of the energy giant's decision when they met with Westar officials earlier this month.
Shreve applied Westar's proposed new rate calculation to energy purchased by the city in 2004, 2005, and 2006 (to date), and determined costs would have been $350,000 higher under the proposed plan.
In addition to a new, higher calculation, Westar informed the city it wants a 20-year contract, with no limits to future rate increases.
Westar is demanding an "open checkbook," Dalke said. The council asked Shreve to find other sources for the purchase of electricity, and to present their proposals before the end of the year.
Mayor Dalke was absent from the council meeting.
"I don't miss very many," Dalke said, "but this was one I needed to miss."
Dalke, the 2005 Kansas real estate agent of the year, was in Wichita at the state real estate convention to present the award to this year's winner. In the absence of the mayor, council president Shelby Dirks led the meeting.
In other business,
— Garrett introduced to the council Doug Sisk, Hillsboro's new recreation director. Sisk, a graduate of Kansas State University, was the recreation director in Alva, Okla.
— At the suggestion of Council member Byron McCarty, the council voted to make the city insurer the final arbiter of denied insurance claims. The city adopted a policy, which reads, "It will be the policy of the Hillsboro City Council to accept the final determination of the insurer of all claims."
The policy was needed, McCarty said, to provide guidelines for the council if and when city employees who've had insurance claims denied by the city insurer plead for the city council to make an exception.
After discussing the legal and practical ramifications, the council said the policy was needed; but agreed to revisit it if it doesn't work out.
— Garrett reported the letter sent to property owners within 200 feet of Emprise Bank regarding the bank's request to tear down "the old barber shop" north of the bank to build a drive through had elicited only one written comment and a telephone call.
The planning commission meets at 7 p.m. Thursday to discuss the project and vote on its recommendation to the city council.
Voicing concerns over pedestrian safety and traffic flow, the mayor requested a traffic engineer be consulted before bulldozers moved in to the city's main downtown intersection.
The drive-through project would be the first since Main Street was remodeled in 2002.
"It's significant," Dalke said.
The mayor added that the engineer who redesigned the downtown has determined that seven parking places would be lost. A report from the traffic engineer is due Wednesday, in time for Thursday's planning meeting, she said.
— Proving it's no Scrooge, the company which sold flimsy Christmas wreath brackets to the city has agreed to replace them for free. The original brackets, mounted to light poles along Main Street, weren't strong enough to hold the heavy wreaths in the winter wind.
"They're going to replace those with a steel bracket at no cost to us," Garrett said. "They're not under warranty, but they guaranteed they'd be able to hold the amount of weight. So, they're standing behind their product."
— The airport improvement project is mostly completed, and Garrett said airplane owners had been notified they could bring their planes back to the facility.
— Calling it "a big plus for the city," Garrett told the council former water treatment plant employee Chad Stutzman has been rehired by the city.
— The mystery of the city's leaking garbage truck has apparently been solved.
Calling it "My pet peeve until I die," council member Len Coryea had asked Garrett to find out why the truck had left piles of broken glass near dumpsters, and leaked trails of putrid liquid on the streets.
Garrett said a bad tailgate seal was replaced on the truck last week; and workers discovered a hole in the floorboard, which will be repaired.
— Calling the city's potholes his pet peeve until he dies, Council member Matt Hiebert said he'd seen street crews "[applying] the rock around ball fields and the county fairgrounds when there was more important things to do in the street department."
Hiebert asked Garrett how many potholes had been filled since the last council meeting. Garrett said he didn't know but would get back to him.
"The days are getting shorter and the number of days we're able to [fix the potholes] is getting fewer," Hiebert said.
— On Oct. 3, Mayor Dalke appointed Sharon Ressler to the Hillsboro Housing Authority, and Alvin Hett to the Tree Board. In addition, Dalke re-appointed Bruce Heyen, Sharon Boese, and Pete Koslowsky to the Tree Board.
— Also on Oct. 3, the council approved a request by Don Vinduska, for a city liquor license for his new R&D Liquor Store, located east of Vogt's Hometown Market in the Hillsboro Heights business park along U.S.-56.
