by MATT HUGHES
J-E News Editor
Sebree City Council met in a very breif session on Monday night with only one item on the agenda.
That item is the pending experation of the city’s twenty year franchise agreement with Kentucky Utilities (KU). This is the agreement which allows KU to sell electric power within the city and allows the city to collect tax revenue from that sale.
Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 96.010 requires that eighteen months prior to the expiration of a utility franchise contract that the legislative body of the city must provide for the sale of a new franchise to the highest and best bidder on terms that are fair and reasonable to the city, to the purchaser of the franchise and to the patrons of the utility. The city’s current contract will expire on February 6, 2016.
Sebree’s existing contract was a twenty year deal with the city collecting a three percent tax. Although cities have the right to request either a higher or lower tax rate, according to a KU representative at the meeting, three percent is the most common.
Council members unanamously agreed to the first reading of an Ordinance to Renew the Franchise with Kentucky Utilities for twenty years at the three percent tax rate.
The council will hear a second reading of the ordinance at their January meeting.
Mayor Ozzie O’Nan notified the council of a special called meeting to be held at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 to discuss the city’s ongoing water project. The $1.2 million project, which began in late May, was designed to replace 35,000 feet of outdated and often leaky water lines within the city, some of which dates all the way back to 1936.
The project was scheduled to be completed within six months, but is still ongoing.
O’Nan said that the project engineer and other people aware of the exact facts and figures of the project will be on hand at that meeting.
Monday’s meeting was the final scheduled meeting for three council members. According to O’Nan, Mark Moser and Brenda Margelot have both served on the council for 16 years. Jim Allen Williams was appointed to his seat 19 months ago to fill the seat vacated by O’Nan when he was appointed to replace former Mayor Ron Todd following his resignation.
Newcomers Jana Forker, Deb Stull and Billy Smith will join the council for their January 5, 2015 meeting.
Reach MATT HUGHES
at 270-667-2068 or
matt@journalenterprise.com
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