City residents balk at prices; officials cite market charges|[1/10/06]
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Jrbreda Davis’ January natural gas bill is as much as her house note.
“This does not make any sense,” she said at a impromptu neighborhood meeting where residents gathered Monday to express anger and frustration.
Davis, a single mother of five, was billed $521.70 by the City of Vicksburg’s natural gas utility to heat her home on South Street. The amount was up $333 from her December bill.
The city has increased the rates residents pay for natural gas four times since August, with Mayor Laurence Leyens insisting the city has no option other than to pass on costs from suppliers. And even with the spikes, Leyens says, Vicksburg’s rates are less than others because the municipal utility operates on a strict cost basis with no profit.
Vicksburg is one of the few municipalities in the state still selling utilities. Most cities like Tupelo, Meridian and Clinton license private firms to sell services in their areas.
Still, tension reigned as the neighbors talked.
“It hasn’t been cold enough for the bills to be this high,” said Willie Sanders, another South Street resident.
In December, the temperatures in Vicksburg averaged 58 degrees for highs and 32 degrees for lows, according to the National Weather Service. There were 18 nights where the temperature dipped to or below the freezing mark.
South Street residents showed bills ranging from $400 to $700 for the month of January.
The cost of natural gas in Vicksburg is about $1.92 per unit. A fuel adjustment charge of $9.74 per hundred cubic feet has been added to the January bills.
Davis’ bill was priced according to her use of 236 hundred cubic feet.
Paul Rogers, strategic planner for the city, said household usages vary across the city, but the average is around 120 ccf.
Rogers also said many residents living in large homes are seeing huge increases in their January bills.
“We’ve already seen some bills that are $400, $500 and $600, and they’re usually larger houses,” he said.
Rogers said having an older home affects the natural gas bill as well.
“They usually have 10- to 12-foot ceilings, and they’re usually not insulated,” Rogers said. “Some of them are two stories. Those type houses use an outrageous amount of gas because you have a lot of square cubic feet.”
Rogers said space heaters can also be costly.
“If you have one in every room it costs a lot more than an efficient centralized system,” Rogers said.
Leyens has been affected by the high gas rates as well.
“My bill doubled from what it was a year ago,” Leyens said. “I’m having a family meeting tonight, and I’m handing out blankets.”
The city raised the prices, Leyens said, to recoup what it lost in purchasing the gas.
“There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “We don’t set those rates.”
Many residents said they’re not sure how they are going to come up with several hundred extra dollars in a matter of weeks.
While some utilities, including Entergy, offer level billing plans that base bills on the average of the current bill and the 11 previous months, Vicksburg’s gas utility does not have a partial payment plan.
“Everybody’s gas is going to be shut off because nobody can pay their bill,” said Martha Bomer, another South Street resident.
Residents said they were gathering a petition to have city officials reduce the rates, but Leyens said he would direct them to social service agencies.
People were also considering alternatives, such as switching to a private supplier, but those rates have been soaring, too.
Craig Watkins, general manager of Neill Gas Propane, said he has heard local residents were pondering whether to switch.
“I’ve heard some talk, but we haven’t gotten any calls on swapping over,” Watkins said.
Watkins said it would be difficult to change from natural gas to propane because appliances like heaters and stoves are made for one fuel or the other. If the appliances are fit for natural gas, they will probably not be able to use propane.
At Neill Gas, the cost for propane, which is liquefied petroleum or LP gas, is $1.95 per gallon. It is difficult to compare the prices because propane is measured in gallons and natural gas is measured in cubic feet.