MIAMI COUNTY – Voters in the unincorporated areas of Miami County gave the thumbs up for residents in those areas of Miami County to be able to enter into an electric aggregation and/or a gas aggregation when they went to the polls on Nov. 8.

The uncertified results are in with both aggregation issues being approved. The electric aggregation had 13,751 voters with 8,648 yes votes (62.89%) and 5,103 no votes (37.11%). The gas aggregation had 13,688 voters with 8,618 yes votes (62.96%) and 5,070 no votes (37.04%). These results will be officially certified on Nov. 22.

According to Miami County Administrator Charlotte Colley, there will be a few next steps before residents and small businesses could see savings.

“The commissioners will need to hold two public hearings and give a two-weeks’ notice in the paper prior to these meetings. We will work with CCAO – Service Corp. to help guide our office through this process. Once that is done my understanding is that bids can be put out for energy pricing. This is compared to the current market rate being provided by AES and CenterPoint. If savings are not projected from the results of the bid the commissioners would wait until the market is more favorable,” she said.

The commissioners said, “[we] were excited to give Miami County residents a choice to vote on these programs that can help save money on their electric and natural gas bills, especially in these times of rising costs and high inflation.”