Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities Rate Change topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council continues Summit Utilities rate-increase hearing as residents question past pipe replacement
Summary
Summit Utilities presented a rate proposal that would raise local revenues to cover infrastructure investments; the council left the public hearing open and scheduled further consideration in July after residents and council members pressed the company for proof that earlier pipe replacement work occurred.
Summit Utilities representatives presented a proposed natural-gas rate increase for the Texarkana system and answered questions during a public hearing that the council continued to its July meeting.
Brooke Parsons, a Summit spokesperson, told the council the company filed a statement of intent to increase Texarkana-area rates by about $2 million and said the proposal would recover roughly $2.4 million from local customers, which Parsons characterized as about $800,000 less than an estimate based solely on Texas-specific data. “This proposal that is before you is much less. It has the company recovering $2,400,000. This proposal... is a savings of approximately $800,000 for your constituents,” Parsons said.
Greg Strickland, Summit’s director of operations for Texarkana, described planned main-and-service replacement work for 2025, saying crews would replace roughly three miles of piping in areas west of the high school around Kennedy Lane, Shady Lane and Lambeth over the next three to four months.
Councilmember Matlock and residents pushed back on Summit’s assertion that many lines were previously replaced in 2012–2014. “How can you prove to me that these lines were replaced? A picture’s better than a thousand words,” Matlock said during the hearing. Several residents from the Newtown neighborhood, including Pastor James Hawkins, said they had not seen line-replacement work. “I’ve never seen any infrastructure work done as far as replacing gas lines,” Hawkins said, noting his family has owned property in Newtown for decades.
Summit said replacements in that area were done under the former owner and that company records show main replacement occurred in 2012–2014; Summit offered to research and provide additional documentation and said some records predate the company’s ownership. Summit also explained that the proposed rate change is separate from the company’s twice‑yearly pass-through gas-supply adjustments. The company said the Arkansas rate proceeding informed the filing and that the current proposal reflects investments and operating costs.
The council left the public hearing open and tentatively scheduled council consideration of Summit’s rate request and the city staff recommendations for the July 14 regular meeting. City staff also confirmed hyperlinks to Summit’s May 30 filing were included in the meeting packet for council review.
