Pikeville electricity upgrade underway - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

19 July 2007 — After receiving a green light from the Local Government Commission on a bond proposal, the town of Pikeville can start moving on the electrical system upgrade.

One of Pikeville’s goals for this fiscal year is to update the town’s electrical system. The current system experiences line loss that impacts electric rates for citizens of the town. The outdated system is also becoming more difficult and expensive to repair, because many parts are not easy to find and replace. The upgrade will, essentially, save taxpayers money and save repair teams time when the system is down.

On Thursday night, the town board held a special session to formally adopt a bond order for funding of the project. The order allows the town to issue a revenue bond for up to $750,000 to fund the repairs for the project. This means that all repayment will be from revenues generated by the electrical system through user fees.

Commissioner Johnny Weaver had a question about a stipulation in the order that requires the town to generate 120 percent of the debt service requirement from electrical rates for the first two years.

“Does that mean that we’ve got to charge the customers 120 percent?” he asked.

Mayor Herb Sieger said that it simply meant that the account must total 120 percent. He said that the town’s revenues in the account for 2006 were about $30,000 short of what was needed, and that with reduced line loss from the upgrade, the town would save about $30,000.

“I’ve been assured that this should be no problem for us,” he said.
In June, the town accepted a bid from Lee Construction to complete the project for an estimated $654,145.68, pending the approval of the Local Government Commission.

With the funding for the project now in place, the town is one step closer to beginning the project and making the system more efficient for its customers and operators.

Back to this week's News Leader