Monday, April 9, 2007

Snow, Breaux and your utility bill.

Our weekend in central Louisiana took an unexpected turn Saturday night with snow, yes real snow, falling in areas around the state. What made it even more interesting was how residents reached out through the Internet to confirm what they were seeing and were looking to share what they had sitting in their yards. Trent Hughes of KALB made a quick observation about it not accumulating and the residents looking at white yards took exception with that. Now what we really need to do is get our web presence up to par and let those same residents send pictures to post immediately. That would prove the white yard full of snow. It's not too late, if you have pictures send them to Nick or Tom at kalb.com.

Senator Breaux could get a decision at anytime from Attorney General Foti on his status. One democrat told us this puts Foti on the hook one way or the other. The real question is if he succeeds in running for governor what will the voters think? Does anyone else remember some residents looking for an Edwin Edwards type character during the post Katrina/Rita mess? Could Breaux be the answer?

Finally, the City of Alexandria wants you to listen and try to understand the important information presented Tuesday during the council meetings. Much of what was discussed in the media last week centered around residents paying more in Alexandria than other areas for their utilities. That led to charges that some local media were "reckless" with the facts and stirring up the population needlessly. There were clearly errors made, but the population became stirred up when they received the bill in the mail and very little of what the local media does has to do with that initial response. We'll follow the presentations closely this week and look for solutions our city managers are putting forth. Then we all need to hold the council accountable for the way they vote.
Suggestions? Anons are allowed but it would be silly to waste time insulting, focus on questions for us to contemplate and solutions.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know about stirring things up or being wreckless. Intelligent people can take the total dollar amount charged for the usage and the total amount charged for the fuel cost, then divide by the kwh provided under the consumption information COA is providing to determine what we are paying towards each line item. What floored me is the fact you all had a CLECO bill for the same time period showing a fuel cost adjustment of 0.64444. Let's just say, based on the math and my bill, COA was almost $.03 higher. If fuel costs are truly passed onto the customer as CLECO has stated and the COA has stated, then is CLECO purchasing different natural gas to generate electricity and place it on the grid to serve COA customers than it does for its own? Somehow I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

The New Llano, Leesville area was definetly the exception not the rule as far as snow accumulation. Many rain gauges across Central Louisiana had no measurable precipitation, and some folks did not see anything. In downtown Alexandria and Pineville, all we saw was a few sleet pellets and no snow flakes; however, many residents especially south and west of Alexandria did see some snow. But the only place I heard of yards turning white was across parts of Vernon Parish, but we would consider that a dusting. Sunday night on the 10:00 news I did show two different pictures of the snow out in Vernon Parish that a couple emailed to me. And I also left Nick a note so he was able to use them on Monday's Jambalaya.

blogger said...

If you are the anon who wrote to complain about the use of this blog as a way to communicate to kalb employees, and are checking to see if your post was approved, your comment was rejected. The employees of kalb are a hearty bunch with exceptional skills and are not threatened by a blog, any blog. And by the way, how do you know I have a pimple, I thought the make-up worked!?! Isn't one-way communication fun?