Petition should be rejected

Published 1:30 pm Saturday, March 24, 2018

As we see it, the petition demanding that all Franklin Power customers get a minimum 10 percent credit is likely to be rejected by the City Council on Monday night. That would be the proper action of a governing body, which must be concerned with all residents as well as the financial health of the City.

You’ll recall that many people came before council in February understandably wailing about their higher-than-usual power bills. Periods of snow and bone-chilling winds and air temperatures earlier in the season did a number on everyone’s heating systems, which naturally affected wallets and purses.

Understandably, several residents asked for economic relief. Councilman Greg McLemore even suggested the City use a reserve of money to cover the reported extra-high bills. The majority of council said “Sorry, no,” and pointed out that doing so could put Franklin in a worse situation if those funds were more urgently needed later.

Instead, the City first offered not to immediately cut off anyone’s electricity. Then after much discussion, crafted an extended payment plan for those who applied. The details of which were outlined in this newspaper.

That’s evidently not enough for some. While we can sympathize with the petitioners to a degree, as we stated earlier, we think that request will and should be rejected.