Delay in printing of bill puts pressure on election for Neosho Rapids
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
City leaders at Neosho Rapids are hoping for a good turnout in Tuesday’s special election, because a law to eliminate what may be a glitch in the current election law still has not been published to make it official. The bill was enacted earlier this month by the Kansas Legislature and signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius .
At the crux of the issue is the sale of the city-owned natural gas company for $64,664 to Black Hills Energy of South Dakota, which has acted as contractor for many years, doing meter and line installations, repairing equipment, and other maintenance that requires trained and certified workers that the city cannot afford to employ.
Jesse Howard, who currently handles much of the city’s natural gas business, said that the bill was supposed to have been published last week in the state register. The bill will become law on publication.
“That’s why we need these people to get out and vote,” Howard said. “It didn’t get printed and we’re told it will be printed this week, but we’re not for sure.
“Since we’re dealing with probabilities here, everybody will need to get out and do the vote.”
The question has been whether there would be enough Neosho Rapids voters taking part in the special election to gain the majority required for the ordinance to pass.
An interpretation of the present law is that the majority of voters currently registered from Neosho Rapids would have to vote “yes” to gain approval. The problem was, about 30 of the 155 “currently registered” voters either have died or moved from the area. Unless the bill becomes law on publication, the city expects to need almost 80 people to vote “yes,” for the sale to be approved. That would mean that about two-thirds of the voters — an exceptionally high turnout — would need to go to the polls for the special election, and all of them would have to vote yes.
At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, no one from Neosho Rapids had cast an advance-vote ballot, Lyon County Clerk Tammy Vopat said. Advance voting, done at the courthouse, will end at noon on Monday.
Howard said that if the sale to Black Hills goes through, Neosho Rapids customers should see a nice drop in the price they pay for natural gas.
“The pricing structure will be a third less,” Howard said. “An average gas bill, $1,200 (now), will be somewhere around $890 to say, $900, if the price of gas stays where it’s at. They say it’s really cheap right now.”
The cost had been about $8 per cubic food in December, and is predicted to go down more.
The cost of installing a new meter also should drop from the current $2,500 the city must charge.
“When the city did it, it was $2,500 because we had to charge what the contractor charged us,” Howard explained. Under the fee structure Black Hills has worked out with the Kansas Corporation Commission, the company is expected to use its own manpower to set meters and run lines.
“If you’re just tapping right on, you’re not out $2,500 for it,” Howard said. “That’s the big thing. We’ve lost customers to KP&L (Westar) because they’d run an electric pole and set it in your yard and you were all-electric.”
Howard and others anticipate that a change in ownership potentially could add to Neosho Rapids’ population.
“It could bring in some new houses,” he said. “We’ve got people looking. Property’s starting to sell in Neosho Rapids. ...
“We’ve got three to four new houses in the last two or three years. For us, that’s a housing boom.”
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