City residents will get to vote on measure that could lower natural-gas utility rates

Athens residents will have the opportunity to vote this November on whether to grant officials the authority to negotiate group gas rates that could potentially lower costs.

City Council voted Monday night 6-1 to approve the ordinance that will put the issue to voters this fall. The sole dissenting vote came from Second Ward member Sherry Coon.

Aggregation is a tool local governments can use to negotiate better natural-gas prices for city residents by joining together into one large buying group. Advocates say the buying group would then have increased "buying power" and stable prices for members. If a ballot measure is passed, a city is then free to negotiate rates and choose a supplier. All eligible residents are automatically included in the approved program unless they choose to opt out.

"The hope is that we would be able to save money as a city," At-large council member Elahu Gosney told other council members. "Not all communities are able to achieve that. But, accordantly, any plan that's put together would come before council before it would be put in place."

Coon explained her dissenting vote, saying that aggregation seems good on the surface but she still has some concerns.

"There is no guarantee that the residents will save money," Coon said. "Apparently, there are some cities in Ohio now who are locked into contracts and are paying more than if they just purchased the gas through Columbia Gas. I just feel that we should not "“ and I'm not saying that we are misleading the public "“ but I think we need to be careful about that. My concern is that residents might interpret this vote as approval of something that we think they should do."

Fourth Ward council member Christine Fahl said that while she also has some questions, she believes the process of putting the issue on the ballot is one of the most educational processes afforded to citizens.

"Seeing how we're not really setting it in stone tonight, but we're giving the opportunity for the citizens to be educated, and to go ahead with the vote, I think it's something we should look into," Fahl said.

At-large council member Christine Knisely agreed that Council doesn't have all of the answers on aggregation, but that the ordinance will allow citizens to education themselves as it moves through the ballot process.

Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said the ordinance just opens the door for the city to look at aggregation, and opens it up to voters.

"We have a series of public times for public input," Wiehl said. "If we don't like the agreement that we're being offered we can always say no. And again, it just gives us an option to participate in this gas aggregation one way or the other."

In this region, Pomeroy, Albany, Marietta and Gallipolis have all recently passed a natural gas aggregation program.