By Kathleen Leese
For Miami Valley Today
PLEASANT HILL — Pleasant Hill residents will be deciding if the village should have the authority to aggregate electric and gas services for the village when they head to the polls on Election Day on Nov. 5.
Pleasant Hill Mayor Brenda Carroll said she believes the aggregation, which will appear as two separate issues on the ballot with one for gas and the other for electric, will be a good move for the village for more than one reason.
“What it does is allows Pleasant Hill to join (with other municipalities in) Miami County to get lower prices.” She added that, “aggregation brings everyone together.”
Carroll said if approved, local residents can opt-in or out “when they want to,” adding there are “major differences” in the prices. Currently, Pleasant Hill residents are served by CenterPoint Energy for gas and AES for electricity. Through aggregation, Carroll said, there are a lot more companies vying for the right to provide services to the village and according to the ballot language, the aggregation would “occur automatically,” which means the resident would be automatically enrolled in the aggregation unless they opt-out.
Those who are currently using other service providers would have to wait until their current contract expires. There would be no fee to opt-out of the aggregation program any time. All CenterPoint and AES customers are eligible to participate in the program.
Savings to residents in the aggregation program would typically be around $100 for services per year. There are currently 29 Ohio counties participating in the aggregation program.
Those wanting to have questions answered about the aggregation program are invited to the next Pleasant Hill Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. at the Field House behind Newton Local Schools.
Carroll noted there will be additional meetings if the resolutions pass on Nov. 5, which will address specifics of the program. She noted that the aggregation would likely take several months to put in place.
Carroll hopes local residents vote for the two resolutions.
“I just can’t see anything negative about it. I hope they (residents) vote yes on it.” She added they can “certainly come Monday” and learn more.
She said residents can also talk to council members at other times and can also call Bob Snavely of Palmer Energy who is working with the program at 419-491-1004 or email him at [email protected].
