Electric, water rate hearing
set for May 10

Michigan

on parade

Lansing’s 15th annual Michigan parade steps off at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 14th, and what an event it will be.

This year’s parade includes several highlights, including the Lansing State Journal’s 150th birthday, Rotary International’s 100th anniversary, a salute to Michigan agriculture, and Cinco DeMayo, among others. All that, plus marching bands, military and veterans’ units, clowns, horses, festival floats, and lots more.

The parade begins at the corner of South Washington and South Street, moving north on Washington to Michigan Avenue. It then turns left on Michigan continuing to Capitol Avenue, then left on Capitol, ending at St. Joseph Street.

Lansing Board of Water & Light Commissioners have set a public hearing date for Tuesday, May 10 on proposed electric and water rate increases. The hearing will be held at the BWL’s Customer Service Center, 1232 Haco Drive, Lansing, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Staff has recommended the following rate adjustments:

A 3% increase in electric rates, effective July 1, 2005. A residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month would see   an increase of $1.08 in monthly bills.

The increase would partially offset the 6% increase in inflation since rates were last raised in January 2003.

Staff has recommended a 6.5 percent increase effective July 1, 2005 and a second 6.5 percent increase effective July 1, 2006. A residential customer using 4,500 gallons of water per month would see an increase in monthly bills of $1 in 2005 and $1.03 in 2006.

The water increase would also help offset inflation increases in the past two years. In addition, the water rate increase reflects adjustments to our internal cost allocations to ensure each of our utility services is self-supporting.

All BWL utility services also face increasing operating costs in flat or declining markets. While we expect our expenses over the next five years to increase at the rate of inflation or less, sales revenue is actually projected to decrease by about $5 million. As a publicly-owned utility, we don’t make a profit, but we do need to generate revenue to make improvements to our system so our quality and reliability continue to meet your expectations. If approved, we expect the rate increases to keep revenue just above our expenses for the next two years.

Even with the rate increases, we believe BWL electricity and water continue to be a tremendous value for our customers. Residential electric rates will range from 10 percent to 18 percent below rates charged by the two large investor-owned utilities serving in the mid-Michigan area. Water will still be one of the last products where a penny actually buys you something of value. In fact, for a penny you get about three gallons of drinking water delivered straight to your tap, and we think that’s a pretty good deal.

A decade of Lugnuts!

Ten years ago, the Lansing community welcomed the Lugnuts and Big Lug and began flooding through the turnstiles of a beautiful downtown ballpark.

As the Lugnuts celebrate their 10th season as the Capital City’s hometown team, fans will experience some great new things, including:

• A new LED scoreboard with state-of-the-art capabilities

• New team uniforms and a new Lugnuts logo

• A new affiliation with the Toronto Blue Jays.

One thing that won’t change is the fun and excitement of rooting for Lansing’s hometown baseball team. See you at the ball park.

We’re keenly aware of our responsibility to be cost-conscious so our rates are kept as low as possible. Here are some of the things we’re doing in that area:

· We’ve held the line on staff size since a major downsizing a decade ago when staffing was reduced from 950 employees to less than 750 through an early retirement program. Currently our utility work is performed by about 720 full-time employees.

· A new strategic plan at the BWL focuses on doing our jobs better, comparing our performance with leaders in our industry and constantly searching for ways to improve productivity and efficiency.

· We’ve made major investments that allow our power plants to burn more environmentally-friendly and cheaper coal, and we pass the savings on to our customers. As a result, the average residential customer pays 90 cents a month less today than in January 2003 for the same amount of electricity.

· We’re helping our customers get the most value from our utility products. A new program called EnergyWise helps residential and small commercial customers reduce their bills by making the most efficient use of water and electricity. Major Account representatives help our largest customers manage water and energy use.

We welcome your comments about the proposed rate increases, in writing or in person. Copies of the proposed rates are on file with the Lansing City Clerk’s office and at the BWL’s Customer Service Center, 1232 Haco Drive in Lansing. Customers are also invited to express their opinions at the May 10th public hearing at BWL offices, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

BLOW THE WHISTLE ON ASTHMA

The American Lung Association holds its second annual “Blow the Whistle on Asthma!” walk Saturday, May 14 at the Breslin Student Events Center at MSU.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the walk starts at 9 a.m. Activities for the entire family will take place throughout the morning.

The event supports the American Lung Association’s asthma research programs. For more information, or to form a team, call Rosalie Petrouske at 484-7266 or e-mail rpetrouske@alam.org. Click here to register your teams online.