Abbeville Mayor reflects on 2013

When it comes to the business of running a city, many things can happen during the course of a calender year.
As far as Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza is concerned, the most important thing that happened in 2013 will have a positive effect on the city for years to come.
“By far the most important event of 2013,” Piazza said, “was the signing of the new electrical contract.”
That contract actually went into effect a few hours ago.
As of midnight, the City of Abbeville became a market participant in the Midcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (MISO).
The MISO market runs from the Gulf Coast all the way into parts of Canada. Exelon is the company that will provide Abbeville its power through the MISO market.
“We are going to see the results of the contract in the very near future,” Piazza said.
The results will be savings for Abbeville’s electrical customers. The new per kilowatt hour rates will be reflected on the February utility bills. According to city electrical engineer Raleigh Cox, the new wholesale cost to the city will be approximately $0.055 per
kilowatt hour, as compared to the current rate which averaged more than $0.07 per kilowatt hour for the 2013 calender year. Assuming the residential and business consumers maintain a constant level of usage, they can expect a noticeable reduction in their monthly bill.
“This significance of the new contract is lower utility bills for homeowners and residents,” Piazza said. “In my opinion, it is the most important decision that the City Council has had to make in the last three years.
“It’s just that significant.”
That is the case in more than simply saving current customers money.
“If you are going to attract businesses to a community you have to have affordable utilities and affordable taxes,” Piazza said. “This (contract) plays a huge part of it.”
If the new contract is the biggest part of ‘13 and will be important well into the future, it has come from the hard work of the past couple of years. That work was done in large part by the City’s Electrical Committee.
“That committee has worked diligently during the past couple of years to negotiate this contract,” Piazza said of the group that included Councilman Francis Plaisance and Councilman Francis Touchet, among others. “They really worked hard to secure a lower rate for the city and the citizens of Abbeville.”