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This week, we've got some good news and some good news. First, and most importantly, our electric rates for bills mailed at the end of March will be going down 3.2% as a result of completion of collections under our Storm Abatement Program. For those who may not remember, we began adding ? cent per kilowatt hour in March of 1991 to all electric bills to fund a program to significantly reduce the number and severity of outages as a result of the terrible wind storms that the San Juan Islands experienced in 1989 and 1990. The program identified $2.5 million of projects that needed to be done and proposed to pay for them with this surcharge for a period of five years. The five years will be up at the end of this month. When our collections end, we will have about $750,000 in the bank to pay for jobs that we have not completed yet. This is the first of the two rate decreases that we expect our members to see during 1996. The second rate decrease is scheduled to go into effect on October 1 when BPA changes their rates to us. We won't know the amount of the second rate decrease for a couple of months yet, but we expect it to be around 6%. With a little bit of luck, by the end of 1996, your electric rates could be nearly 10% below what they are today. The other issue I need to talk about this week relates to our ten day payment schedule. As you know, we mail our bills around the 27th of the month and they are due and payable on the 10th of the following month or a 5% late payment penalty is assessed. We know that many of our members object to this short time frame and we have been examining alternatives. We have proposed to our board of directors a plan to extend the payment period from the 10th of the month to the 15th to partially address the concerns of our members. The board has agreed to examine extending the penalty date at an upcoming board meeting. I need your thoughts on this change. If you feel that you are unreasonably inconvenienced by having to pay your electric bill by the 10th of the month, drop us a note or give us a phone call and explain your situation. On the other hand, if you feel the 10th of the month is a reasonable time for people to pay their electric bills, let us know that also. It is important for you to participate in this dialog with us so that we can understand the needs and problems our members are facing. We intend to summarize your comments and present them to the board of directors so that a decision can be made on whether or not to change our collection policy. Maybe next time I can get back to our Strategic Goals for 1996. In the meantime, when you pay the electric bill that we are going to mail you this week, remember the cold weather and think about the rate decreases to come.
Doug Bechtel
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