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Doug Bechtel
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After several months of efforts by many OPALCO members, Project PAL is now a reality. If you remember, Project PAL is a volun-tary program to round your electric bill up to the next highest dollar. The funds generated through this program will be used to help OPALCO members who are having difficulties paying their winter electric bills. If you participate in the program your electric bill will increase an average of 50¢ per month.
After a lengthy series of meetings by many OPALCO members representing the diversity of our membership, the final guidelines for the program have been adopted. Half of the money raised by this program will be reserved for low income senior citizens. Funds will be available from December through April and will only be available to OPALCO members. The eligibility requirements for the program include income level and payment history (what efforts have you made to pay your bill?). 100% of the funds collected under this program will be made available as grants to our members. No ad-ministrative or other fees will be paid by OPALCO. Three volunteer OPALCO members from three different islands have agreed to review the applications and make the awards.
Several weeks ago we mailed a letter to everyone who had originally voted in favor of the program, telling them that they were automatically signed up for the program unless we heard to the contrary. If you did not get one of these letters and want to participate in the program, just call OPALCO or put a note on the bottom of your bill stub, telling us to sign you up to be a PAL.
The bill you receive at the end of June will be the first one with the new amount on it. For those that participate in the program we will send you a financial report on a regular basis showing the amount of money taken in by the program and the number and amount of grants made.
Remember, all it takes to start or stop your project PAL contribution is a phone call to 376-3500. We will take care of it from there.
Several of our members have indicated that they might want to contribute more than 50¢ a month. Until we have our billing forms reprinted, just write on the bottom of the bill stub "extra amount is for PAL" and we will see that the money gets in the right place.
If you would like more information about the program, just stop by any OPALCO office and we will be glad to provide you with whatever information you need.
I think it is really neat that the members of OPALCO are suppor-ting this program. As the federal budget continues to shrink, it is going to be more important for us to help our neighbors and this is one way that we can do it. Our thanks go out to the 1,566 members who have already signed up for the program. I hope the rest of you will sign up also.
Doug Bechtel
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