| Today's Feature CW&EP Budget Review
The Budget/Ways and Means
Committee reviewed the proposed Budget of
CW&EP Wednesday evening as part of the
City’s budget hearing process. The meeting
ended with a 2-2 vote on accepting the
recommendations of the Board of Public works. The
proposed budget will be reviewed by the full
Council.
The proposed $14 million
utility budget did not include any
recommendations for rate increases. Public Works
Board member Bill Putnam, Jr. told the Committee
that CW&EP rates had not been increased for
the last nine years.
Projected revenue from electric
power sales was slightly less than last
year’s sales to allow for the anticipated
closing of the Schreiber bacon plant on Fairview
and the relocation of the Flex-O-Lators facility
to the north part of town which is served by
Empire Electric.
There was little discussion
concerning the actual budget, but a proposal by
CW&EP to reduce the amount of transfer from
the utility to the City by $50,000 dominated most
of the meeting.
The utility has transferred a
total of $1,108,000 to the City each year for the
last four years under an agreement reached when
the FP tax was removed from individual billings.
The amount was calculated in conjunction with an
elaborate reshuffling of Payment In Lieu Of Tax
(PILOT) charges, a 30% discount on City
department electrical charges and other
considerations. The total package was designed to
essentially "keep the City whole" when
the 9% FP tax was eliminated.
The budget statement from
CW&EP estimates that the discounted electric
rate saves the City almost $93,000 in annual
charges. CW&EP also contributes up to $50,000
toward the expense of the City Economic
Development Director.
The PILOT charge, which is
added to billings, is estimated to be
approximately $245,000. This would mean that
CW&EP would transfer a balance of
approximately $813,000 under this year’s
proposal. The transfer and PILOT revenue accounts
for just under 20% of the City’s total
projected revenue of $5.5 million.
The City’s dependence on
the transfer from CW&EP was apparent during
the Committee’s discussion.
The Public Works recommendation
was to reduce the transfer by $50,000 this year
and by another $58,000 next year. The resulting
$1 million, which would include the PILOT
charges, would then remain as the set dollar
amount transfer until anticipated increases in
CW&EP revenues resulted in the $1 million
being equal to 6% of sales. At that time the
transfer would continue to be calculated at the
6% level as revenues increased. The proposal
estimated that the 6% level would be reached in
fiscal year 2003. There was no provision in the
proposal to deal with the unlikely occurrence of
CW&EP revenues falling.
Budget Committee Chair Jackie
Boyer took the position that the 6% was
acceptable but it should not include the PILOT
charges. Excluding the PILOT charges would result
in the current level of transfer being equal to
6.2% of total applicable revenue.
Putnam told the Committee that
a 2% increase in residential rates would still
keep CW&EP rates below Empire residential
rates.
"That would give us
$65,000 more total revenue in the system,"
Putnam said. "My comment was going to be, if
you won’t give us the $50,000, then lets
raise residential rates 2% and do it that
way."
The option of raising revenue
by putting some type of franchise fee on
customers within the City limits that do not use
CW&EP for power was approached by Committee
Chair Jackie Boyer. Boyer has long questioned the
lack of such a fee and points to the annexation
of Precious Moments and Carmar as prime examples
of the situation.
Budget Committee member Mike
Harris moved to accept the reduction, but did not
want to commit for more than one year. Member Art
Dunaway voted for, and Boyer and Donna Harlan
against.
Belle Starr Outlaw Daze
Release from
Main Street Carthage
The Second Annual Belle Starr
Outlaw Daze is scheduled for June 6 and 7 on the
Beautiful Historic Carthage Square, Saturday 9:00
a.m to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5:00 p.m. The
event features some of the finest arts and crafts
in the Midwest - ceramics, woodcrafts, candles,
hand-painted crafts and more. There will also be
a large assortment of food items ranging from
pitas and gyros to kettle corn, BBQ Brisket,
steakburgers, onion blossoms, cotton candy, and
roasted ears of corn.
Barrel train rides, pony rides,
and fun cycles will be available for the kids.
Visit with Belle Starr and friends. Spend the
entire day in Downtown Carthage at the Farmers
Market, seeing demonstrations, and more!
From 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Kenton
Sullivan will call a Free Square Dance featuring
dancers from clubs throughout Southwest Missouri.
Donald Jones, The Yodeling
Professor, leads off the Country/Bluegrass
concert beginning at 7:00 p.m. Also scheduled to
appear are: The Joe Clayton Band, The Nobles, and
Brightwater Junction.
Belle Starr Outlaw Daze is
sponsored by Main Street Carthage, Inc. For
additional information, call 358-4974.
artCentral Plans Fund-raiser
Release from
artCentral
This week the Tuck and Kleindl
show was taken down. We want to thank Kit and
Brad for their support. Another great event has
passed. If you didn't get to see their work or
get to the reception, you really missed out. Not
only do we have fabulous and interesting artists,
we serve up some pretty tasty stuff in the
kitchen.
Last opening we served Grilled
Lemon-Pepper Salmon (thanks to Craig) with Chive
Cream, homemade French Bread (thanks to Mary),
Tomato and Avocado Salsa and Kentucky Beer
Cheese. How's that for eats?
Since we do sell a cookbook as
a fund-raiser, guess what we're going to try next
time? Right! Actually serve some of the
appetizers out of our very own cookbook.
After careful consideration
three dishes from the appetizer section of
Palettes and Palates have been chosen to be
served at the opening reception for the Annual
Membership Show, June 12. Texas Caviar, submitted
by Sally Willis, Bellaire, TX; Ham Rolls,
submitted by Sue August, Joplin; and Savory
Wedgies, submitted by Betsy Pauly, Carthage. We
think this will be another grand evening at the
Geranium House. You won't want to miss seeing all
of our talented member's artwork, as well as
sample from our cookbook.
The Membership Show promises to
be very interesting. We have about 25 members
participating, and the variety of mediums is
great, including bronze, pottery, watercolor,
jewelry, photography, oil, pastel, colored
pencil, and sculptures in stone, clay and metal.
There are a lot of Carthage
artists participating in this show; Sally
Armstrong, Betsy Pauly, Helen Kunze, Caryl
MacMorran, Mary Baumann-Williams, Tom Jones,
Jerry Ellis, Andy Thomas and Bill Snow, as well
as artists from Tulsa and Bixby, OK, Joplin,
Lamar and Neosho. We are looking forward to a
great exhibit! Hope to see you there.
We are planning a fund-raising
luncheon for sometime in July (maybe August) with
Andy Thomas being the program. We will let Andy
decide what type of presentation he wants to do,
and one our members, Shellie Stiles-Markham, will
be doing the catering. We want to do this on a
Sunday afternoon.
As it is still in the early
planning stage we don't have all the details yet.
We do know there will be advanced ticket sales
due to extremely limited seating. We already have
four reservations. Cost will be $15 per person.
We will keep you posted as the details are
available. Shellie's a great cook.
Hope to see you there.
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