Minutes 03/27/1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I~" , ~'ii: I TUESDAY MARCH 27, 1979 A special and duly-called meeting of the Council of the City of Martinsville, Virginia, was held Tuesday, March 27, 1979, in the Council Chamber, City Hall, beginning at 3:00 P.M., for the purpose of receiving and considering reports from individual members of Council assigned to the study of specific facets and/or aspects of data recently developed by the City's consulting engineers, R. W. Beck & Associates, and by the Select Citizens Committee on the City's proposed hydro-electric ("Ridgeway") project. All members of Council were ,- present, viz., Mayor William D. Hobson (presiding); William C. Cole, Vice Mayor; Barry A. Greene; L. D. Oakes; and Francis T. West. Also present were a number of citizens, including several members of the Select Citizens Committee. Following the invocation, Council unanimously adopted the following "Policy Statement", prepared by City Manager Noland, citing objectives the City hopes to attain, should the "Ridgeway" project be undertaken: The City has been involved in a long range and far reaching study of the City's Electric Department with the following objectives: - 1. To continue to maximize profits in order to hold down citizens' taxes and/or electric rates. The City has traditionally used Electric Department profits to hold down taxes. For example, during the past four years Electric Department profit used to hold down taxes was about $2.8 million. Had these profits not been available, our citizens' real and personal property taxes would have been 27% higher, and the citizens would have had to pay the same electric rates as they paid. 2. To maintain the traditionally high level of City services at the lowest possible cost to the citizens. The Electric Department should continue to be a completely self-supporting utility. Any improvements or additions to the system should not result in any increased taxes, any disruption to or sacrifice of City services and/or higher retail electric rates than those charged by APCo. 3. To provide a dependable source of power to business, industry and citizens. The City should explore alternate sources of power, in light of possible problems APCo might have in providing for future needs because of world-wide energy problems, vacillating national policy problems, as well as problems with regulatory agencies and inadequate rate relief.