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VINELAND -- Roughly a dozen city residents attended the first of two Vineland Municipal Electric Utility public forums held Wednesday evening in City Council chambers. On Nov. 4, voters will be asked to approve a measure allowing the city to build a new generating unit. If that measure is OK'd, City Council would then issue a bond ordinance to purchase a $60 million generator, which would run on natural gas and fuel oil. VMEU officials scheduled two public hearings to explain their energy plan to city residents ahead of Election Day. The second public hearing is scheduled Oct. 23. The small crowd Wednesday allowed VMEU Director Joseph Isabella and other utility officials to answer personally every question they heard, which varied from how Atlantic City Electric rates differ from the VMEU's to how the unit would be paid for. "To provide you with reliable energy at the lowest possible cost -- that's our goal," Isabella said of the plan. Wednesday's public hearing started with a presentation by Isabella about the City of Vineland Energy Independence Plan. During the presentation, Isabella explained the background on why the utility wants to purchase the new unit and what it will eventually do for the city. The generating unit could save the utility and its customers $8 million annually, stabilize customer bills and ensure a future in the city's electric utility, he explained. Rejecting the measure could leave the utility and its customers facing reliability problems and higher rates, he said. If voters shoot down the proposal, "we will be subject to these market forces for at least another year," he said. The new generator would run on natural gas as an alternative fuel, allowing the electric utility to transition away from older, inefficient systems, Isabella said. It would provide the VMEU long-range economic advantages, strengthen its environmental compliance and, serve as a first step toward longer-range goals of the utility, he said. Most of the questions asked of Isabella related to money. Isabella said the money will not come from taxpayers, but rather be financed through tax-free municipal bonds. Large investment firms typically buy the bonds, he said, adding it's very rare for individuals to have a chance at purchasing them. The answer disappointed Dave Mazur, who said he "would like to see, when they sell the bonds, they sell them to the banks so the money stays in Vineland." Isabella said he understands $60 million is a lot of money and couldn't guarantee a decrease on bills, but did say the generator would provide ratepayers about $8 million in returns. "We will always be $8 million less by doing this versus not doing this," he said. That $8 million promise stuck with Vineland resident Steven Errickson and will help him when he goes to the ballot box. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions," he said following the forum, "but my first impression is that we need to do this and we need to do this right away." |
