Charlestown Township Trustee Tim Patrick told the Portage County Board of Commissioners on Aug. 26, 2025, that residents in his township have paid substantially more under NOPEC's opt-out aggregation and asked the county to accept a formal township resolution and transmit a letter to NOPEC initiating an opt-out.

Patrick said county and township comparisons show households in NOPEC-paid areas averaged $1,111 more per household over a seven-year period than households in nearby Ravenna, and he said Charlestown residents in total paid about $880,000 more than they would have under Ravenna's aggregation. He said townships must opt out each year and that NOPEC's default opt-back-in practice means many residents get re-enrolled if they miss notices.

"It puts everybody at a disadvantage," Patrick said. "The whole county should be getting out of it. And NOPEC should earn the business like everybody else. If they're the best one, we'll opt in to them." He provided the board a copy of a Charlestown resolution and a letter, which he said the county prosecutor had prepared, requesting the county transmit the opt-out to NOPEC.

Commissioner Sabrina said she had attempted in 2021'22 to seek a different supplier but the effort stalled after some townships and officials declined to pursue changes because they relied on NOPEC grant funding. Patrick said the county receives roughly $100,000 a year from NOPEC while some small townships receive $3,000 to $5,000; he argued that township grant dollars did not justify higher household energy costs.

The trustee asked the commissioners to file the township's paperwork with NOPEC this month; county staff said they would make the Charlestown materials available to the prosecutor's office and distribute Patrick's materials to the commissioners. No formal board vote to opt the county out of NOPEC occurred at the meeting.

Patrick named NOPEC and a person he referenced as Kuiper in his remarks; the board did not take action beyond agreeing to receive Patrick's minutes and materials and to provide them to the prosecutor for filing.