Today's Feature
To
Be Continued.
A hearing yesterday on the
request for a temporary restraining order to stop
the City from enforcing it’s current
ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor by the
drink on Sundays did not settle the question. The
hearing was continued until February 13 at 11
a.m. in Joplin. Papers were served on the City
last Monday indicating a suit had been filed
against the City by Honey’s.
The City Council Public Safety
Committee is scheduled to discuss a proposed
ordinance to align City ordinances with State
statutes concerning liquor control at its regular
meeting set for February 20. According to
Committee Chair H.J. Johnson, a representative
for the Missouri Division of Liquor Control has
been invited to answer questions about the state
regulations.
The Committee requested copies
of the State regulations during its last meeting
so they could better understand the differences
between the weekday and Sunday licenses issued by
the State.
The Committee has been advised
by legal counsel that the City can not prohibit
sales but can license and regulate to some
extent.
President of
Missouri Gas
Energy Explains.
The following is a
Statement by Steve Cattron, President and COO of
Missouri Gas Energy, Submitted at a Hearing in
Kansas City on Natural Gas Prices. Chaired by
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon:
"The unprecedented
national problem of high gas prices is affecting
gas customers across the country. My customers
are also affected by this problem.
I think before we begin, I need
to briefly explain some things about Missouri Gas
Energy and the gas industry in general.
First of all, Missouri Gas
Energy is a natural gas distribution company. We
do not produce gas. That means we go to the
unregulated marketplace and buy gas for delivery
to our customers. We do not benefit from a high
cost of gas. MGE only makes money on the delivery
of gas. Those delivery revenues are fully
regulated by the Missouri Public Service
Commission and have not increased since 1998.
The costs MGE incurs to buy gas
are passed on to consumer dollar for dollar. This
is done through the "cost of gas" rate
on customers’ bills. This "cost of
gas" rate is adjusted typically in April and
November, with a third adjustment in the winter
if needed. Last week, in order to ensure the
continued reliability of the gas system, we made
the difficult decision to increase our "cost
of gas" rate. During the previous three
winters, we were able to lower it. As soon as the
market and economic conditions permit, we will
file to decrease our cost of gas adjustment.
One item that I’m sure is
confusing to our customers is why MGE has been
granted a cost of gas increase while Kansas Gas
Service on the other side of the state line has
been able to lower their rate. The answer is
quite simple and is related to how utilities in
each state adjust prices. Like I mentioned
earlier, in Missouri utilities adjust cost of gas
rates two to three times a year. That helps to
stabilize prices, yet it also tends to make any
increases or decreases more dramatic. In Kansas,
utilities can adjust rates monthly, allowing them
to more quickly react to market prices. The
bottom line is that for most of January, MGE
customers paid $6.80 per 1,000 cubic feet and
customers in Kansas paid nearly $8.70. That
almost $2 difference resulted in millions under
collected for MGE. Once that under collection is
settled, rates will be reduced.
It’s important to
understand that all distribution companies have
been negatively affected by these high prices.
MGE buys gas a variety of ways. We have a gas
supply portfolio that includes long and
short-term contracts with suppliers and
marketers.
This winter, because of the
unprecedented high prices, the confusing topic of
hedging has surfaced. Hedging is a way to
moderate the price of gas and can be done using
several techniques. It is most often described as
an insurance policy and, like all insurance,
there are costs and risks involved. Contrary to
most reports, MGE has been aggressively pursuing
and implementing ways to moderate the price of
gas.
MGE was the first company in
Missouri to use a hedging program. MGE’s
cost of gas rates are in line with other
utilities across the nation. In fact, customers
in some states are paying in excess of $10 and
have paid up to $14 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas.
MGE has continually attempted
to be a leader in trying to stabilize the price
of gas. Since late 1998, MGE has been working
with the staff of the Public Service Commission
and the Office of Public Counsel on an innovative
plan to fix the price of gas for a two-year
period. We would have preferred that that plan be
in effect for this winter.
Just like our customers are
hurt by high gas prices, so is my company. During
periods of high prices, customers use less gas,
plus more and more customers default on their
payments. We pay for our gas up front, regardless
of whether customers pay us. Higher prices also
cause operational problems as thousands of
frustrated and confused customers call the
company. The bottom line is higher prices hurt
our profits, our image and our ability to sell
our services in the future. No one knew prices
would escalate as high as they did. Still, we
started taking steps early last summer to educate
customers about the higher prices. We have
continually advised customers to contact us if
they encounter difficulties paying their bills.
Since last July, nearly 60,000 customers have
signed up for our level payment program.
With the onset of frigid
temperatures in December, we went to
extraordinary efforts to reach customers that
were without heat. In many cases, service was
restored, in some cases for little more than a
good faith promise by customers to pay their
bills.
On January 18, we filed a plan
with the Public Service Commission to distribute
over $1 million to the Mid America Assistance
Coalition to create an energy assistance fund.
The purpose of this fund is to provide assistance
to those customers who otherwise may not qualify
for traditional federal and state assistance
programs.
In coordination with the Mid
America Assistance Coalition, MGE has
successfully brought together numerous social
service agencies, community members, religious
and business leaders and policy makers to
communicate about the issue of high prices, and
identify common goals and solutions. Those
meeting began in October and will continue.
There’s no doubt that this
is a challenging time for everyone involved. My
top priority right now is to develop solutions to
provide immediate relief for customers and to
stabilize prices for the future."
Winter Hours
Through February.
by Robin Putnam, artCentral
We want to be sure everyone
knows we have a different set of hours and days
we are open through the month of February. We
call it our winter hours. We are open Wed.,
Thurs., and Friday from 9am to 3pm. And as usual
we will open at any other time by appoint-ment.
It is always a good idea to
call just to make sure nothing out of the
ordinary has come up and we had to close for a
while. We are usually open through the lunch hour
but sometimes have an unavoid-able errand or
appointment.
Since there is only one person
manning the daily operations it’s hard to be
here and attend a function where we have been
asked to give a program on art-Central. So just
bear with us and hopefully we will find another
helper or two and the hours will expand and
we’ll be back to a set schedule !! Hopefully
we can go back to being open five days a week !
If you know of someone who might be interested in
helping out around here tell them to give us a
call !!
February 7th (a Wednes-day) we
will be closed all day. There is a program for
Carthage High seniors and we will be
participating in the day long session on ethical
decision making in business. We will be working
with any seniors planning a career in the art
field. Should be a very interesting day!
The Bill Perry photo-graphy
exhibit will be over February 17th. Still plenty
of time to drop in and check it out !!
The next exhibit was to be two
Joplin artists but has now expanded to include an
artist from Florida !! Debbie Reed and Sam Lewis
will now be joined by Jaff Seijas ! We are
thrilled to have this great group of artists as
we know from past exhibits they are very talented
and creative and their combined works will be a
wonderful and unique exhibit !! Debbie focuses on
watercolor and collage and the guys are into
ceramics !! This show will begin with an opening
reception on March 2nd and will run through April
6th.
More.........next week.
358-4404. 1110 E 13th &
www.ozarkartistscolony.com, W-TH-F 9am - 3pm.
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