SIDNEY — Sidney City Council chose to make a change from its current electrical aggregation consultant Miami Valley Communications Council (MVCC) to join the Sidney/Shelby Buying Group organized by the city’s residential aggregation consultant Affordable Gas & Electric (AGE) for its municipally owned buildings. Council made the decision during Monday night’s meeting.
Currently the city pays the rate of $0.05005 cents/kWh through MVCC. However, if the city becomes apart of the Sidney/Shelby Buying group, and thus acquires AGE for aggregation, with the cooperative purchasing program for large energy users in those communities who are part of the Residential Aggregation Program, the city’s energy bills should be much lower than it is paying now.
So after a discussion on the topic at the previous meeting, council had directed City Manager Mark Cundiff to explore pertinent information to questions from both MVCC and AGE for decision making. He presented council with his findings Monday night, including the fact that regardless as to whether they choose to switch providers, or not, the city would still be obligated to fulfill its contract with MVCC until Dec. 31, 2016. Also, although at the time of Cundiff’s inquiry, exact contractual numbers were not given due to market fluctuation, but AGE expected the larger user group bid to be in the $0.046—$0.047 cents/kWh range; while MVCC estimated conservatively in the range of $0.046—$0.048 cents/kWh.
Representatives for AGE were present Monday evening to help clarify Cundiff’s investigation and answer council’s questions further. AGE reps explained that if the contract was locked at that time (hypothetically), the six largest city accounts would have a rate of $.049 k/Wh and the 89 smaller accounts would have a rate of $0.05441, which would save the city approximately $7,000/year each year during a 36-month-term.
During the end of this discussion, Mayor Michael Barhorst said, “if AGE good for our residents, its aught to to be good for us.”
Council member, Steve Wagner agreed saying,”I prefer to stay with the people who we feel comfortable with and that have proven that to us.So after a somewhat lengthy discussion on the details, council decided to let the current contract with MVCC expire and then enter into a new contract with AGE starting January 1.
In other business Monday night was the adoption of several ordinances and one resolution. Council:
• Adopted an ordinance dealing with the city’s right-of-ways.
• Approved a request from Advanced Composites for vacation of a portion of the Fourth Avenue, as it shows there is more right of way than necessary to provide a level area for city equipment.
• Approved a request for approval of the re-plat of eight parcels to create one new lot at 1062 Fourth Ave.
Other ordinances adopted dealt with:
• Renaming the A Diamond field as “Veteran’s Memorial Field” at Custenborder Field.
• Amending Sidney rules of the City Council to begin each meeting with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance so that includes the workshop sessions.
• Approved supplemental appropriations for year 2016 to pay for state-of-the-art training center for local first responders in the amount of $72,500 for IT upgrades, physical room upgrades and furniture/equipment upgrades, plus an additional $4,852 for the fire loss security fund.
Discussion was held about two businesses seeking to obtain liquor licences. There was no objections for the licenses for Al’s Pizza, 1315 Wapakoneta Ave., and Neill’s Pit Stop, 122 Old Vandemark Road.
Staff offered a few community reminders about Friday and Saturday. Police Chief William Balling gave the reminder about the city’s plans to conduct their annual exercise for area responders training for their local response to a simulated chemical spill. Also, on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Shelby County Fairgrounds will be Super Saturday Recycling Day where the public can recycle or discard several items, including old computers and hardware; old over-the-counter or prescribed medications; books; and even perform on site document shredding.
