Editor’s note: This is the second part of a two-part story about the Aug. 26 Chanute City Commission meeting. Part one was all about what community members voiced during public comment. This part was published in the Aug. 29 edition of the Chanute Tribune.
During his City Manager’s report, Todd Newman noted that in a recent edition of the Iola Register, they published an article titled, “Utility profits help keep Iola’s budget afloat.”
Newman said that in Iola, the city government chose to increase the mill levy from 54 mills to 58 mills, instead of a utility rate hike. Newman said their current residential electric utility rate is .087 per kilowatt. Chanute’s current residential electric rate is .0805, and after the utility increase goes into effect later this year, that rate will be .09.
City Attorney David Brake said the 6.5% increase Chanute customers are seeing is far less than the 9.6% increase requested by Evergy, which was approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
“Their excess revenue go to the profits that go to pay dividends, to the stockholders, and it goes to Evergy’s executives that make multimillion-dollar salaries,” Brake said. “The excess revenue from the Chanute utilities goes to police, fire, and streets, which I think is better for the community than electric utility profits going to the pockets of wealthy people. That’s the difference of having a town with a for-profit electric utility like Humboldt, like Parsons, who have to have mill levies to pay for police and fire. That’s the big difference.”
Brake also provided the Chanute Tribune with copies of electric utility bills from Chanute, an Overland Park Evergy customer, a Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative customer, and a City of Girard customer. He also noted the total kilowatt cost for each bill, which is comprised of the electric rate and fuel adjustment costs.
“Most utilities pass through the fuel adjustment costs, which are costs of buying wholesale electricity at the grid or the cost to buy fuel for Chanute’s electric generating plant when self-generation is cheaper than the market price, which saves on the pass-through costs to the customer,” Brake said in this correspondence.
According to the ordinance concerning this utility increase, the proposed $0.09 per kilowatt rate would set the total cost for a residential customer after the increase goes into effect at.13.8 cents per kilowatt hour.
A recent Chanute bill shows that current customers are paying 13.4 cents per kilowatt hour. In Overland Park, that cost is 14.3 cents; for Heartland customers, 14.6 cents; and City of Girard’s municipal customers are paying 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour.
“It is very simple to compare different electric utility bills with each other. Take the gross amount of the bill and divide by the kilowatts used. That will tell you what that utility is charging for each kilowatt,” Brake said in an email to the Tribune.
Back in the meeting, Commissioner Larry Taylor pointed out that the City of Chanute has used electric utility funds to fund various projects for over the past 75 years through the general fund.
“This is nothing new,” Taylor said.
“Just like Iola, some years they increase the mill levy, and some years they increase their utility rates, and that’s typical of most Kansas municipal utilities,” Brake said.
Newman said that up until five years ago, the electric utility funded “everything.”
“When I came on board, you guys had gas, pretty much every utility you had was in the red. The only utility that was in the black was electric,” Newman said. “Electric was funding all of your utilities and your general fund.”
Newman said that currently, roughly $5 million of electric utility revenue goes toward the general fund annually. The rest of the funds come from sales tax and other revenue, according to Newman. He also noted that the majority of the electric revenue comes from residential customers.
To provide more information about the communications project that will be funded by the electric utility increase, Fire Chief Jeff Mitchell and Police Chief Chris Pefley gave a presentation alongside Motorola representative, Mike Skalitzky.
The estimated cost of this project is $2,225,962.
Mitchell explained that in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that all nonfederal public safety agencies and private land mobile radio users migrate from wideband radio systems to 12.5 kilohertz or narrower channels by Jan. 1, 2013.
Mitchell said in 2013, the department realized the current radio communication system did not work in large parts of the fire district.
At the time, the only way to switch to a narrowband system was to utilize a radio tower in Buffalo, which did improve radio communications for. However, it was still difficult for radio communications to be maintained while inside of a building. Mobile repeaters in vehicles also improved these conditions.
“I hate to call it a band-aid because it did work, but we’ve had that system in place since 2013,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell recalled the 2021 Playmakers fire and explained a situation that occurred during the fight with that fire.
“We were trying to make an aggressive attack on this fire. We found an outside staircase that we were able to make entry into, I sent three firefighters inside,” Mitchell said. “It got to be to the point where there was no way they could find their way around inside, and so they made the decision to back out.”
Mitchell said two firefighters came out, but one was trapped inside, unable to communicate via radio due to the system not working.
“Luckily, we sent a team in right away, and he was able to move the wall that had fallen over the stairway and get out,” Mitchell said. “That is a lucky situation. I just don’t want to ever be in that situation again, where I don’t have communication with firefighters on scene.”
Mitchell noted another issue is unlicensed user interference, which occurred in 2022 and impacted the Chanute Police Department.
“We’ve had unlicensed personnel that had somehow gained access to their frequency that allowed them to talk over actual emergency traffic,” Mitchell said.
In December of 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Systems implemented new security policies requiring law enforcement communications to be encrypted.
The presentation also explained that the Chanute Fire Department has applied for various communication-related grants in 2020, 2023, and 2024. The status of the 2024 grant is unknown due to federal funding freezes.
The only successful funding received was the $140,000 awarded to the Chanute Police Department through congressional spending designated by Sen. Jerry Moran, which Pefley said went toward purchasing refurbished, discounted, portable and mobile radio units.
“I think that $140,000 has covered everything but two portable radios,” Pefley said.
Mitchell said that grants will not cover dispatch consoles or tower upgrades, which are also part of this project.
Newman said this is one of two projects left on the capital improvement plan, and noted that the longer any project is put off, the more the costs will increase.
For the project, the city will purchase equipment for the departments, and for the radio tower. The necessary departments will connect to the Kansas Department of Transportation radio tower in town.
Mitchell said that the city would pay a maintenance fee for the first five years on the installed equipment for their channels. Mitchell said after five years, KDOT will take over the maintenance fee. KDOT will be responsible for maintaining that equipment.
Dispatch consoles will be maintained by the city for the duration of the system, which Skalitzky said could be decades.
“One of the main benefits of this system is you’re now wire-lined into the state system, so now you have seamless interoperability with over 30 state agencies,” Skalitzky said.
Mayor Jacob LaRue said the system seemed forward-thinking and more advanced than what is currently in place.
“It is necessary. It is needed. It is worth it,” LaRue said.
Commissioners voted to approve a 10-year payment plan for this communications project, costing $283.992.52 per year, beginning one year after the contract with Motorola is executed.
In other business, attendees heard a public hearing for a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District proposed, which allows 32 rental units to be built in a new housing division, and a development agreement was approved. A Federal-Aid Fund Exchange Master Agreement was approved to exchange $123,135.36 in federal funds for $110,821.83, which will go toward new roadway construction in the Osa Martin division.
In closing remarks, commissioners encouraged citizens to keep showing up and participating in their meetings.
Commissioner Larry Taylor said he believed the rate increase was fair and noted that only one person had approached him personally to discuss the rate increase. He also noted that as a citizen, his monthly utility bills are still less expensive than the property tax he was paying prior to 2023.
“I’m just glad to see people getting involved,” Commissioner Tim Egner said. “I hope that they continue because public input has been valuable to us, but it is something we don’t get.”
Commissioner Kevin Berthot said he agreed with both Taylor and Egner.
“I appreciate the community’s involvement, the feedback, the comments that have come forth tonight and over the past few weeks, and we encourage everyone to continue being involved in this process,” Berthot said.
Vice Mayor Tim Fairchild proposed possibly reviving Coffee with Commissioners, where individuals could ask questions and have civil conversations.
“We can disagree and still maintain a utilitarian friendship,” Fairchild said. “Civil disagreement is helpful.”
LaRue said the community involvement has spurred something new for him.
“I think people wanting to have the information, wanting to have the information, wanting to ask the questions of why, wanting to hold us accountable to what we’re discussing, what we’re doing — I think that’s the huge thing of why we’re up here,” LaRue said.
Some citizens were not completely satisfied with the response.
“While the commissioners seemed to welcome citizen involvement, many residents left the meeting feeling their concerns weren’t truly heard,” Ashley Shreve said. “Chanute residents need to get more involved — reach out to commissioners, voice concerns, and push for solutions. The recent meeting showed that families on low incomes, single incomes, and fixed incomes need relief. Many are already struggling, yet the burden keeps falling on citizens. Working together, we can encourage our commissioners to find fair solutions that ease the strain on our community.”
The next Chanute City Commission meeting will be held on Monday. Sept. 8, at 6:30 p.m., at the Memorial Building. Meetings are also livestreamed on the city’s Facebook page and available to view on chanute.org.
