The City of West Plains is in the process of mailing out utility bills. The next round of utility bills will include charges from the winter storm event in February. West Plains Public Works Director Jeff Hanshaw says most residents will see an increase on their bill:
Transcript: The majority of customers will see an increase in their bill, just due to the usage during the winter storm event. If they need help with the with their bill, we ask that they reach out to Ozark Action to help with those payments over the bill. And if they do not know how to contact them, call City Hall and we’ll put them in contact with Ozark Action.
Despite the increase in utility bills, the City of West Plains was able to avoid setting a new peak and in turn, no increase to the utility rates will be seen. Hanshaw said a few local business helped the city avoid that new peak:
Transcript: Leonardo DRS, Armstrong, Arlee’s we’re all major contributors to this effort to help stay off a new peak, winter peak, that we would have experienced if they hadn’t of suspended their operation. So, there’s a lot of thank yous that need go out to those community partners. Also, Ozarks Healthcare, they day manage their clinics and their outpatient services to postpone that for a few days and that in effect turned into a relaxation of the grid during the 16th of February. And then the other two partners, I want to make sure that we recognize are West Plain Propane for their tireless efforts to trying to get us diesel fuel to the generators and then Adam’s Construction for supplying heaters to the generation site in order for us just to keep the Fuel from freezing.
