Vicksburg’s natural gas customers will be paying more for their gas in February, the result of a petition filed by natural gas carrier Gulf South Pipeline with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to raise the cost of transporting and storing gas through its system.
The request has been given temporary approval, and if given final approval, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said, it would increase the rate the city now pays Gulf South for transporting and storing the city’s gas by an estimated $1.3 million per year.
“The administrative law judge for the commission has ordered the price Gulf South has requested to go into effect May 1 with the condition that if the commission denies the request or a settlement is reached, the city get a refund,” she said. “Beginning May 1, we will have to pay the proposed rate.”
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved a resolution to remove the 35 cents per 1,000 cubic feet credit the city has been applying to gas bills since 2012 starting Feb. 1 in preparation for the increase in transmission fees from Gulf South.

On the agenda:
Meeting Friday, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen:
• Recognized building maintenance employee Oakley Davis on his 15th anniversary with the city.
• Swore in Trenisha Edwards as a deputy municipal court clerk.
• Took under advisement bids by MMC Materials of Vicksburg and Delta Industries (Vicksburg Ready Mix). Both bids were by line item.
• Received an update on activities at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.
• Approved a request from HIV Services for $26,000 in matching funds.
• Declared Jan. 19 a city holiday for Robert E. Lee’s and Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthdays.
• Approved adding TV 23 employees Mahersalahashbaz Banks and Chandayus Cooper to the city employee driving list.
• Authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to send a letter to the Warren County Board of Supervisors to set a meeting to discuss an interlocal agreement for emergency services.
• Declared an emergency to repair the heating and cooling system at the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Depot on Levee Street.
• Authorized Flaggs to sign an amendment between Utility Service Communications Inc. of Georgia and AT&T to install antenna on the city’s water tank on South Frontage Road.
• Approve the claims docket.

Thomas said the credit customers were receiving was given under the city’s purchased gas adjustment policy, which allows the city to raise or lower the rates it charges its customers based on the price the city pays for natural gas.
She said city officials met Thursday with representatives from Utility Management Corp. of Flowood, “and they advised removing the credit to prepare for the increase, which had not been planned for.”
She said the city is participating with 25 other Gulf South customers in an effort to get the regulatory commission to deny the pipeline’s request. She did not know when a final decision on the proposed rate would be made.
“This doesn’t just affect the city of Vicksburg. This affects gas companies from Louisiana to Florida,” she said, adding city officials may know more about the status of the proposed rate in May.
In a related item, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the installation of new gas meters and other improvements to the city’s gas system had reduced the amount of unaccountable units of gas from 24.7 percent in 2013 to 13.32 percent. Unaccountable gas is gas that is being used but not counted by gas meters.
“The state average, I believe, is 14 percent,” he said. “I think that speaks volumes for employees that work in the gas department and the supervisors for getting it down.”