Daily Republic, The (Newspaper) - June 5, 2007, Mitchell, South Dakota 2 THE DAILY REPUBLIC JUNE 2007 WHATS GOING ON Today Cross Standard First Aid 6 to 9 Davi County Red Cross Appreciation and benefit dinner by Bethany Christian New Holland Christian Reformed New of Transporta tion public meeting about I 90 Loop River Run Cedar Shores Wednesday Red Cross infant and child 6 to 9 Davi County Red Cross Benefit pork sandwich supper for Mitchell Area Food 5 to 7 free will offering or bag of gro Resurrection Luther an Community Blood Bank blood 1 to 4 Greenwood Community Blood Bank blood 5 to 7 draw EDITORS NOTE To list local or area events of public send infor mation to Whats Going The Daily Box THE DAILY REPUBLICS ROAD TRIP Photo courtesy of Martens Jolene of stands near Machu Picchu in Peru in November The photo was submitted by her Marlene of To include your favorite vacation photo past or present email to or send to The Daily Box The destination should be discernable photos with people are pre Please include a telephone which will not be NW Energy rates highest in the region AP Northwestern which serves customers in Mon has the highest rates of any major utility in the a sur vey by the Lee Newspapers residential customers pay cents per kilo watt a penny higher than the rate and 60 percent more than the lowest cost utilities in neigh boring And the Sioux utili tys rates have climbed steadily over the past few months as Northwestern phased in the cost of a more expensive con tract to buy power from PPL The contract takes effect July We intentionally set it up to be very so that we could transition into a more stable cost structure for North Western spokeswoman Claudia Rapkoch said in a Lee State Bureau story The day the new contract takes Northwestern expects to reduce its rates slightly to cents per kilowatt because the gradual increases over the past few months ended up col more money than the util ity needed to cover its Rap koch Rapkoch said the main reason for high rates is simple It is the only major utility in the region that doesnt own any power which often pro Little Results 9965515 O 800 5295514 DAILY REPUBLIC CUSTOMER SERVICE Classified Local News Fax News Room Hours 7 MF CONTACT US 9965514 Publisher Rosi Ulnch 191 Editor Korne Wenze 261 Manager Kevin Flemmar 181 Circulation Manager Jon Louder 171 Business Manager Annette Kroger 192 Foreman Richard Popejoy 151 Production Manager Mike 145 Systems Manager Jesse Stroud 172 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ge 50 IN lUH MAlli I I Pay Plan 1 1 50 2Monlhs 6Monlhi I Year SAW 5 40 ON MR mas Mauu sun SAUS i 6 Months I Year Muil jre in und lold only daintily not I he lu change mlei liio ul a Swing Our 1179 A Oman of Forum Company Monday epI tear Duy Day Independence Day tubor PO 1 120 S Mitchell SB r pottage puid ul Mitchell bD USPS 145 loO Send u Ihe Daily PC 1288 bD Results of Lee Newspapers survey of regions electrical rates AP The Lee pers surveyed electric rates or residential customers of a dozen major utilities in Mon South Wash Oregon and Here is what they found At cents per kilowatt North Westem has the highest rate of any The is Portland General at cents per NorthWest em rates had been down to about 8 cents per kWh a year but have climbed fairly steadily since The lowest rates in the region are at Seattle City a municipal and Avista Utilities of a private utility serving eastern Washington and north em Both charge customers about cents per For that rate is for its Washington customers For most private utilities in the rates in the past 18 months have increased anywhere from a few percentage points to as much as 25 the larger increases are because of last weeks cance lation of a Bonneville Power Administration credit primarily benefiting utilities in Washington and That change led to immediate increases as high as 13 BPA canceled the credit in response to a court which the utilities say they will For large coops and publicly owned rates have remained the same or decreased in the past These utilities often buy most of their power from which produces hydroelectric Among them is Flathead Electric Cooper ative in northwestern The which serves customers in Columbia Libby and sur rounding reduced its rates earlier this year from cents to cents per kWh and hopes to reduce them more in the spokeswoman Stephanie Wallace vide electricity at costs below the market After utility deregulation in prede Montana Power sold its power plants to PPL Montana in That means NorthWest ern must buy from the market all of the power needed to serve its electric customers and that regional market has been trend ing upward for most of the past several Were the only utility in the region that is completely subject ed to market Rapkoch She also said Northwestern isnt making any money off the rising because it just passes that cost on to the con Northwestern makes its money on the delivery the rates for which havent increased since That is one of the hardest things to communicate to cus tomers Even though their bills have increased due to ty supply that money doesnt end up in Rapkoch Northwestern does plan to ask for a rate increase later this year on its delivery potentially increasing total rates When Montana passed its utili ty deregulation law in Mon tana Power residential rates were about 6 cents per kilo watt which was somewhere in the middle of the pack for the Northwestern bought Montana Powers utility opera tions in Since a rate freeze for North Westerns Montana customers ended in 2002 and the company had to buy its power on the open those rates have since climbed nearly 60 mak ing them the highest in the At the same utility deregulation law exempt ed the states other major elec tric utility Utili which has about cus tomers in eastern In MDU rates in Montana were about 7 cunts 10 years they are but MDU officials said theyll ask for a rate increase this It will be their first electric request in Montana in 20 years This the Montana Legis lature passed a law allowing Northwestern to build or own its own regulated power and dedicate that power to Montana The company was the driving force behind the saying ownership of power plants could partly undo deregulation by giv ing customers a reli able source of electricity at a sta ble Your Key to Local Buyers Sellers Fresh Ready Tasty Tuesday 58 carryout only Any Medium 1 Topping Pizza Dominos Pizza Locally 4 5th ft Sanbom Mitchell State will be out million if lab leaves RAPID CITY AP As the National Science Foundation prepares to announce its site for a deep underground science and engineering figures show South Dakota would be out at least million if the lab goes somewhere other than the old gold South Dakota has spent or has commitments to spend about but the state also has earned million in inter est on money set aside for the said Jason state Bureau of Finance and Management The million investment is the Dilges told the Rapid City The NSF selection could be announced this Sites in Minnesota and Wash ington state also are being con A national underground labo could operate for hosting experiments costing billions of attracting thousands of visitors and providing hundreds of biolo gists and even experts in nation al security would be A lab would be feet making it the deepest in the The Homes take mine has been slowly filling with South Dakotas plan depends on keeping the water below the which means pumping must begin by this The South Dakota Science and Technology Authority has signed a million contract with to begin reenter ing the mine even though the final selection has not yet been This was a calculated risk that weighed heavily on every board said Dave Bozied of Sioux Science and Technology Authority chair Bozied said he thinks the benefits are worth the I feel we were very conserva tive with the money weve and I feel very strongly that we made the right he South Dakota has made it this far by proposing a package of incentives that could be worth but most of it awaits the NSF Most of that million from Sioux Falls banker and phi Denny Sanford depends on being selected and on commitments for specific The Legislature has commit ted about million from the states general but most of it will not be spent if the NSF doesnt choose a million Community Devel Block Grant was Dilges said the science author ity has about million in cash The percent annual interest will help reduce the states loss if the NSF rejects But even if a lab is theres no guarantee the Nation al Science the White House or Congress will approve money to build a deep under ground If is the state will have million to develop an interim lab at the where science could begin working well before a decision is made on the deeper More than 80 proposals already have been Service club information needed By The Dally Republic The Daily Republic is seeking historical information about local service The information will be used in an upcoming special due out in Clubs that would like to partici pate should submit a historical summary of the clubs beginnings in Mitchell Submit ted stories must be limited to 350 Deadline for submissions is June Photos also are and will be Please send information to Edi The Daily Box Send us your weather photos Locally Yesterday Yearly total Yearly average Today Record high 1933 Record tow 1907 FULL LAST NEW FIRST Tomorrow Sunrise Sunset Mitchell Forecast highs in the mid north winds 510 mph becoming south in the partly cloudy in evening then becoming mostly 20 percent chance of lows in mid southeast winds 515 partly highs in lower YESTERDAYS STATE WBAI State Forecast mostly sunny partly cloudy chance of thunder highs in 70s to near partly cloudy with slight chance of lows in Extended Forecast partly to mostly cloudy and windy with chance of Thunderstorms becoming likely east at night highs in upper 80s south chance of showers and lows around 60 highs In 70s The forecast for June 5 40e
