Bentonville council considers increasing electric rates
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
BENTONVILLE - It may be time for the city to adjust its electric rates once again.
On Monday, Mike Hughes with Transtec, an engineering consulting firm in Conway, presented the Bentonville City Council with a recommendation to increase electric rates by 6. 3 percent for residential customers.
The council, which met Monday night as a Committee of the Whole, will take action on the recommendation at its regular meeting tonight.
Hughes said electric-rate increases are resulting from the increased rates of coal production, which have come from a market shift from natural gas to coal-based electric power.
The last rate increase in Bentonville was in August 2005, when the council approved increasing the rates by 8. 5 percent.
Currently, a home in Bentonville using 1, 000 kilowatt hours each month accrues $ 74. 46 in charges. With this increase, that same home would accrue $ 79. 15 in charges.
Small businesses would see a 6. 2-percent increase, with tax-exempt users seeing a 5. 3-percent increase. Large-power users would also see an increase of 6. 3 percent.
In addition, the firm recommends a power-cost adjustment rider, which would level the power-cost adjustments to a monthly average and offset high electric bills at various times of the year.
The firm also recommends adopting a net metering agreement, which would give customers incentives for using up to 25 kilowatts of solar- or windbased power at their homes.
In other business, the council began discussion of a proposed Community and Wellness center to be located between the Southeast I Street extension and Arkansas Highway 112. Mayor Bob McCaslin has been talking of the proposed center for several months since visiting a three-year-old community center in Paragould in October.
The facility constructed by Paragould, a city of about 23, 000 located 90 miles east of Memphis and 25 miles north of Jonesboro, has been on McCaslin's mind ever since his visit. The facility features plenty of green outdoor space, with the facility itself housing basketball courts; a walking track; an aquatic center with lap and therapeutic pools; banquet and meeting rooms; and additional outdoor pools. And one of the highlights of the large indoor lap pool - which McCaslin said he'd like to reproduce - is a retractable roof and sliding wall, which allows it to become an outdoor amenity during the summer months.
The council will not take any action on the center at tonight's meeting but plans to continue discussion of the topic in coming meetings. McCaslin hopes to see a community center erected within the next three years.
The meeting will be at 6 tonight at the Community Development Building, 305 S. W. A St.
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