June 7 – With the only notice to members appearing in a magazine a week earlier, Joe Wheeler EMC increased its electric rate by 6.2% effective June 1.
The latest increase comes less than a year after a 4.3% increase that took effect on August 1.
Joe Wheeler spokesman Michael Cornelison said the cost of everything for the utility has increased, making this increase necessary.
“It’s not just the materials, it’s the interest rates and things like that. That all comes back in the form of costs,” he said. “Just the inflation costs in general, higher interest rates, inflation causing material costs to go up. Whether it’s poles or transformers or wire or nuts and bolts. Overall they’re up over 6%; some things are going even as high as 40%.”
Joe Wheeler customer Alicia Carpenter is disturbed by both the increase and the lack of notice.
“All my kids are at Joe Wheeler, and they all have kids in daycare and responsibilities — 6.2% is going to be a lot for them,” Carpenter said. “It’s going to hit my kids hard because they’re raising families and trying to feed them while groceries are four times the price. … They have to cool the house for a lot more people.
“I hate that they are getting into financial trouble again.”
Carpenter, 54, has been a client of Joe Wheeler since she moved to unincorporated Lawrence County between Danville and Moulton 19 years ago. She lives with her husband, Rob Carpenter, and has four children and twelve grandchildren who have Joe Wheeler power.
Cornelison said Joe Wheeler EMC should be able to pay for whatever it takes to power homes and businesses.
“It costs us significantly more to just do our day-to-day business than it did three or four years ago,” he said. “We know that everyone is kind of in the same place, but just the cost of basic materials and fuel has gone up, and the daily cost of doing business has gone up so much that we’re now in a position where we have to increase rates to keep up with that and to ensure that we can still provide the electricity and service quality that our members have come to expect.”
Labor costs have also increased, Cornelison said.
“In the position we are in now, this is what we have to do,” he said. “We have to be able to pay for everything.”
Joe Wheeler has 25,573 yards in Morgan County and 17,445 yards in Lawrence County.
Cornelison said the Tennessee Valley Authority, Joe Wheeler’s regulatory authority, approved the amount of the increase.
“They’re looking at what we’re looking at for our next budget year,” Cornelison said. “They decide on the amount we can increase, or if possible, on our rates. This has been approved by TVA.”
Ray Long, chairman of the Joe Wheeler EMC Board of Trustees and chairman of the Morgan County Commission, said the board voted in favor of the increase.
“All of our costs have increased dramatically, just like everyone else’s at home,” he said. “The board had no choice but to increase rates and generate some revenue to offset some of the costs we incur.”
Long said he realizes there are customers who are already struggling to pay their bills, but the board hasn’t raised rates very often in the years he’s been at it.
“We have certainly taken into account the needs and the problems that our citizens are already experiencing,” he said. “But I know they want to make sure the power stays on, and the only way we can do that is by having the money to be able to operate. … Times are just tough for everyone right now.”
According to Long, the board did not increase rates more than necessary. – Notice
The only announcement about the 6.2% electricity rate increase was in the monthly magazine ‘Alabama Living’, which was published on May 24.
“At Joe Wheeler EMC, we prioritize transparency and accountability in all our decisions,” the magazine announcement said.
There was no other notice on customer accounts, social media platforms or Joe Wheeler’s website, which includes a section titled “news releases.”
“We put it in our magazine. That’s our main form of communication with our members,” Cornelison said. “It only goes to our members, so I think this is a very transparent way. We’re not hiding it; we’re not trying to hide it by putting it in our magazine.”
Cornelison said the magazine is how they always communicate information to their customers.
“I don’t know that we’ve ever posted this kind of information on social media,” he said. “We have a pretty good readership for the magazine. In fact, we just received a number of surveys showing that the number one way our members want to get information is through the magazine.”
An announcement of the 4.3% increase in August was posted on their website.
Carpenter, who said she was not aware of the most recent rate increase, said Joe Wheeler should have been more transparent in informing customers that it was happening.
“They have no problem sending our bill every month; they should have put it in a letter letting us know,” she said. “It should have been at the bottom of the bill, or somewhere else. You have no choice in reading your bill; you certainly have a choice in reading that magazine.”
Carpenter said she reads the magazine occasionally.
“I may or may not have time to even open the magazine in a few months,” she said. “…I’ve always thought that the magazine to come would be a waste of membership fees.”
Long said the increase was announced at a board meeting when it was voted on.
“All of our meetings are open. Anyone can come and attend the meetings and know what’s going on,” he said. “We’re definitely not trying to hide anything. I think the general population knows that prices have gone up everywhere. The last three years have just been horrible, especially post-COVID; things have gone up.”
Carpenter said Joe Wheeler claims it has members, not customers.
“Like we’re all in this together,” she said. “But it doesn’t seem that way anymore.”
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—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.
