News-Star Blogs

I had a blog I was going to do awhile back about the water here in Tecumseh …yes again and I had put it off because there has been so much going on in my life.  I have a young baby and 3 teens who at the moment are very demanding of my attentions, a mom who is in ill health, myself being in somewhat ill health but hopefully the changes I’ve made as far as diet and exercise will help in changing that alot, a nasty computer virus that is a pain in the butt…(if you ever get antivirus soft demo thankfully it seems McAfee and all are now catching it and Malwarebytes and all are good for it too oh the horror stories I have) anyways just alot going on that isn’t  even half of it. I read the countywide all the time and am very grateful for the local paper. The story on the front page caught my attention. Just as I had began to think that hey things have been quiet for awhile….maybe they have things under control welllllll….Not so much I guess.  I will tell you about the water thing first. I have had reactions to our water for a long while. I went in thinking it was maybe an allergic reaction to the chlorine and the dr. didn’t think it was. She told me to take benedryl before showering. I was becoming so ill each and every time I took a shower that it almost required a trip to the ER. I would have dizzy spells, nausea, I’d have stumbling from the dizziness, I started to break out in hives, lots of problems. Usually lasting up to 3 days after. Finally we bucked up and got a vitamin C shower filter and tried that. I’d been wanting to but wasn’t sure how much that would really help. It did more than just help. I can now take showers with only a mild reaction (feverish but nothing else) I can actually ENJOY my showers again. I found out also that one of my girls was having a very severe hives reaction to it (She was wearing alot of long sleeve shirts usually and just happened not to that day and her arms looked like someone had taken sandpaper to them) This stopped when I had her use the vitamin C shower head. I’ve been told by alot of the people around here that they do not drink the water because it makes them sick. We also got a filter for our sink and it seemed to help alot of the stomach problems my family was having. The DEQ says that they can’t really do a yearly review thing because Tecumseh always misses one of their readings. Interesting.  In any case I would highly recommend the water filters for anyone else having trouble with Tecumseh water.

Okay on to the electric. This is the story in the countywide

Ice Storm Debris, High Power Bills Leave Tecumseh With Problems
Gloria Trotter 25.FEB.10

The aftereffects of the December and January snow and ice storms are still haunting Tecumseh residents.

Not only are broken tree branches littering yards, alleys and curbs, but power bills skyrocketed for most Tecumseh Utility Authority customers. And it was a double whammy for those on the average billing plan as the city suddenly decided to play catch up on mounting negative balances.

Colder temperatures hiked electric consumption for many users, City Manager Jim Thompson said, especially those with all-electric homes or those using electric space heaters to augment gas heating systems. To illustrate the point, he said that December usage citywide rose from 2,350,672 kilowatt hours in December 2008 to 2,560,901 in 2009, up about nine percent.

As an example, City Hall electric usage was 6,500 kwh higher this year than last, he said. At one Tecumseh residence — that of Countywide & Sun publishers Wayne and Gloria Trotter — usage was up from 2,416 kwh to 3,562 kwh during for the latest billing period, from Dec. 20-Jan. 20. That alone made the bill considerably higher than usual, but that wasn’t all.

Added to the bill, as it was for all customers on the averaging plan, was 25 percent of the negative balance in the reserve fund. Those customers were warned in a letter dated Jan. 20 of the plan. “We have decided that we need to increase the portion the customer needs to pay to lower the outstanding balance,” the letter said. The only other option was to pay the entire balance.

Thompson said some customers had balances that exceeded $1,000, though most were much smaller. In the Trotters’ case, it came to $434.67.

How did that happen? The concept of average monthly billing is that the city takes 12 months’ history each year and then, of course, comes up with an average. For most customers, there is a deficit in the hot summer months and a surplus in the winter months, which balances out. The annual adjustment keeps it in line.

The problem is that the annual adjustment hadn’t been done for some time, primarily because of the August 2008 computer crash that wiped out all the data and then the billing confusion a few months later when new electronic meters were put in service. The city simply used the same figure for the averaging customers for several months while new data was being entered, and didn’t have a full 12 months of reliable data until late last year.

By then, the deficits had climbed. “It just sort of fell through the cracks,” Thompson said. “This (the 25 percent catch-up payments) seemed to the best way to deal with it.”

As for that cold weather that increased everyone’s bills, data from the Oklahoma Mesonet shows that during the billing period of Dec. 20-Jan. 20, there were indeed some colder days and nights. For the Dec. 08-Jan. 09 billing period, there were two days that the high temperature was 32 degrees or below, while there were seven such days in the latest billing period a year later. Low temperatures of 32 degrees or below were 25 for 08-09 and 23 for 09-10. Average daily temperatures 32 degrees or below were 10 for 08-09 and 14 for 09-10.

In addition to the colder weather, the city council raised all utility rates, including electricity, by five percent last April.

In addition to the colder weather, the city council raised all utility rates, including electricity, by five percent last April.

A more visible reminder of the two big storms are the tree branches piled on the curbs, as well debris still in yards or alleys. Thompson said the city does plan to collect limbs left on the curb, but he can’t say when just yet. The city does not yet know if it will get federal reimbursement for clean-up costs, and doesn’t have the manpower to do it without hiring help.

Thompson has arranged with Tecumseh Schools Superintendent Tom Wilsie to use some school land off Sixth Street to burn the debris, and has obtained a state permit to do that. He will present the problem to the City Council Monday night to determine whether to solicit bids for debris clean-up work, and whether that should be just what’s on the curb or should include a more general cleanup of the alleys.

Whichever the council members decide, he said, there will be only one pickup of curbside debris. That date will be announced, and those who don’t have their limbs stacked at the curb by then will be on their own afterwards.

The cleanup will take time, he said, a sentiment echoed by Pottawatomie County commissioners Tuesday morning. “We’re working on the roads a lot, and using the chipper,” Dist. 2 Commissioner Jerry Richards said at the weekly meeting. “But it’s really slow, sometimes only a mile and a half a day. Bear with us. We’ve got lots of roads to work on — the bottom just fell out.”

“Same here,” said Dist. 3 Commissioner Buck Day. “Just get your limbs to the curb and we’ll get there as quick as we can.” Dist. 1 Commissioner Bob Guinn said tree damage wasn’t as severe in his district, but “problems with roads are still showing up.”

Okay now my comments. 1. Not everyone recieved this letter they are talking about. I’m wondering if anyone even did. We didn’t recieve one. Did they only send it out to the averaging customers? We sure noticed our bill was considerably higher also. Why are they suddenly playing catch up on negative balances when most folks are trying to recover from the storm damage? Why the negative balances in the first place? WHY did they not do their averages since the computer crash in 2008 which is the new favorite excuse for everything and was a HUGE mistake that could have been avoided had Thompson known what the heck he waas doing in the first place with it?? There were several levels in which that could have been avoided. Granted the money needs to come from somewhere but why punish the customers for mistakes that were not made by them?

Alot of that wood lying around would be great for those in the business of firewood. Just saying.  As for the roads has anyone seen what they look like and the patches that are going down? Even with the patches some of them are bad enough to tear your car up. Then with the patches they are sorta tossing it down. I am guessing because there is too much to do? Hubby questioned the fact that they have done some of this when the weather is below freezing. Does that stuff actually set right when it is done that way? (actually not sure on that one) The patches just don’t look right. It seems to me there is a rush job going on which I can understand because there IS so much to do but is that going to wind up costing more in the long run when they have to repair that again shortly? (I.E. is the temporary fix worth it if it isn’t going to last long and it all needs to be redone and alot better here pretty quickly.)

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