Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Electricity situation settled

Prescotts City Council got both good and not so good news concerning the electricity situation.

Henry Thomas, the citys representative in the negotiations between Entergy and the Arkansas Electric Commission Council (AECC), said an agreement has been reached and will take effect as of April 1.

Entergy, he said, filed two transmission dockets which will allow Prescott to use Entergys lines. The other was a network operating agreement, spelling out in detail what the parties in question are to do. According to Thompson, it was a standard deal, but Entergy wanted more time to file its paperwork than the other parties involved wanted.

Prescott, he continued, has a contract with AECC to purchase electricity. This contract must be filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). When this is done, he said, Prescott can get electricity under its contract with AECC.

According to Thompson, Entergy didnt have an option on the transmission services, but Prescott will have to pay a pro-rata share based on what Entergy owes on its system. Historically, he said, this is about 1.15 per kilowatt month.

Other issues, Thompson said, could come up, such as ancillary services (reserves on the system). In addition, Prescott may have to establish a control area for the load balance. This, the Council was told, would mean the city takes a signal and feeds it to the AECC. This would be fairly easy to do as the city already has a communication system in place.

On the down side, though, Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said the fuel adjustment will be remaining on the bills. The fuel adjustment is done by the FERC, and remain until FERC removes it.

Taylor said the fuel adjustment is not just a problem within the city, but is being felt by those in other areas as well.

Thompson said the city could be getting two bills for electricity: one from AECC for the electricity itself and another from Entergy for transmission services.

The Council approved a resolution to close Myrtle Street, a street platted but never built. Myrtle Street is in the Longwood Addition, and if built according to plan, would run through the middle of Prescott Manor Nursing Home. A public hearing to close the street will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 20, prior to the regular Council meeting.

Bids to pave the street at Travel America (TA) were approved, with the low bid submitted by Smith Concrete of Stamps for $197,286. The other bid was $220,000 from a Magnolia company.

Mike Marlar, project engineer, said Smith is a good, reliable company and can handle concrete. R.D. Plant, the initial contractor that did the citys streets, asked to be released from the contract as his company doesnt do concrete work.

Smith will be pouring 4,000 psi concrete on the street to handle the load from the trucks. The contract calls for eight inches of concrete on eight inches of crushed stone. It should hold up well, Marlar said.

Taylor said more than $200,000 has been deducted from Plants contract. The initial idea, he continued, was to buy street equipment with the money, but this cant be done under the terms of the bond agreement. Instead, the city is looking at improving the drainage around McRae Middle School out to Highway 24.

Councilman Howard Austin questioned why a part of Seventh Street isnt being done. He said the area is on the maps as a street but is more like a trail, and one person lives there.

Taylor said there are five areas Plant will be coming back to redo, and this could be one of them. But, he added, Plant may not come back until May, when the weather warms up.

Donnie Crain, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said transition problems prevented the EDO to do more last year, but this should change for 2006.

Crain is looking for a grant to help build a multi-purpose center. The idea, he said, is to build a facility for young people, so they would have somewhere to go and something to do after school and during the summer. He is working with an architect on the design.

But, he said, if a grant requiring no matching funds cant be found, the city could use an existing building for the center. Crain suggested the possibility of the old armory, which is large enough to house a meeting room as well as a variety of activities.

In addition, Crain said now is the time to get bids for air conditioning repairs at Southern Standard Molds. Bids should be in by the March Council meeting, he added, with the work being done before summer.

On the walking trail, Crain said the area has been staked out and a ribbon cutting was held in January.

A public hearing for the overpass project will be held March 9 from 4-7 p.m. The meeting will be at the Collom and Carney meeting room, Taylor said, to discuss possible sites for the proposed overpass.